A phenomenology of practice – a practice of phenomenology

Geert Bors

Gijs Verbeek

Luc Stevens

pp. 241-256

in: Malte Brinkmann, Marc F. Bück, Sévérin S. Rödel (eds), Pädagogik - Phänomenologie, Berlin, Springer, 2017

Abstract

While phenomenology may provide us with a philosophical gateway into a fundamental experiencing and rethinking of our everyday pedagogical praxis, what – reversely – happens to phenomenology and especially the phenomenological notion of "pedagogical tact" (Van Manen) when it is being tutored in a pedagogical context? This question is raised against the backdrop of our experiences in the personal development trajectory that our organisation, NIVOZ (the Netherlands Institute of Educational Matters), offers to teachers and school leaders. What colours and shapes does pedagogical tact take, in the minds of participants? And to what extent can it remain a phenomenological notion for our tutors, when teaching always is simultaneously pedagogical and didactic, and carries with it inherently ethical-political dimensions in its everyday decision-making practice?