Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2001
Kierkegaard as an Educational Thinker: Communication Through and Across Ways of Being1 IAN MCPHERSON Attempts to build bridges between Kierkegaard and current educational debates or dilemmas are in danger of appearing facile to friends of Kierkegaard, and opportunistic or irrelevant to each opposing side in educational controversies. In hope of reducing such extravagant risks, this essay explores some aspects of Kierkegaard on communication and on ways of being, i.e. his spheres or stages of existence. Communication through ways of being seems relatively straightforward. Communication across ways of being can seem either absurdly complicated or (if aiming at unravelling such complications) wonderfully illuminating. This Kierkegaard could become a creatively awkward, Socratic partner in educational attempts to critique and deepen current accounts of language and communication, narrative and accountability, reason and justification, personal and social development, emotional intelligence and (of course) moral and religious education (with or without `spiritual' development) as well as political or citizenship education. Wittgenstein found in Kierkegaard one lifelong Socratic conversation partner. If other educators can do this in their own ways, Kierkegaard can still breathe more lively passion into the cold embers of educational discourses.
INTRODUCTION
Through many areas of contemporary education, there is an apparent `passion' for spelling out everything, for figuring everything into an omnivorous accountability. Admirable aspirations for clarity, openness, access and responsibility somehow turn, all too easily, into grotesque parodies of these educational virtues. We are surrounded by wellintentioned ambitions for us to learn and teach how to mind our minds, to develop meta-cognitive management or ownership of our own learning of skills, language, abilities, interpretations, attitudes, beliefs, & The Journal of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain 2001. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.