Edusemiotics, existential semiotics, and existential pedagogy
pp. 121-135
in: Inna Semetsky (ed), Edusemiotics, Berlin, Springer, 2017Abstract
This chapter examines how the edusemiotic understanding of education can be developed by utilizing certain notions arising from existential pedagogy and existential semiotics. The chapter begins by the authors' interpretation of Martin Heidegger's semiotically useful concept of unconcealment in terms of a pedagogical theory compatible with the concept of Bildung. The chapter proceeds to demonstrate how it has been implemented in philosophy of education so as to articulate an existentially discontinuous form of education. Education viewed as the most important task of/for humanity entails a fundamental disruption of continuity: we do not know what kind of humanity we want or need as a way of life before a life itself unfolds and reveals itself as something particularly educational. However, discontinuous forms of education do not yet elucidate the transformative potential of existential education to the fullest extent. Thus, the chapter intends to compare those aspects with Eero Tarasti's theory of existential semiotics and his models of the transcendental journey, especially the Z-model, which is built on Greimas' theory of modalities. The chapter identifies three levels of learning as pragmatic, social and existential; and suggests a model of modal learning.
