In this article, David Hansen works with two conceptions of "being with." The first is Jean-Luc Nancy's ontological version as found in his "Being Singular Plural" (1999). The second is Hansen's ontic formulation as expressed in his recent book, "Reimagining the Call to Teach: A Witness to Teachers and Teaching"…

In this article Karl Hostetler portrays teachers as tragic ironists whose existence is prone to "playful disruptions of the soul," when the meaning and value of ideas pertinent to teaching--including "teaching" itself--become puzzling, prompting a reassessment and reinvigoration of those ideas. In developing his concept of…

From Socrates to Jean Brodie, we have become accustomed to teachers serving as placeholders for transgressive and powerful desires in our cultural imaginary. Evidenced by recent scholarship on teachers in film, however, as well as by the 2006 film "Notes on a Scandal", the way we ought to feel about teachers acting on their transgressive…

In this essay, Elizabeth Campbell reviews three recent books that address the ethical nature of professional practice: "Knowledge and Virtue in Teaching and Learning: The Primacy of Dispositions," by Hugh Sockett; "The Good Life of Teaching: An Ethics of Professional Practice," by Chris Higgins; and "Towards Professional…

There exists a vast literature on evidence-based practice (EBP) in education. The debate branches out in several directions, for example, what EBP entails for the nature of educational practice, what it entails for the teaching profession, what counts as use and abuse of evidence, and what educational research could or should contribute to a what…

In this essay, Benjamin Endres examines how teaching is caught between the ideals of formal, systemic institutions, on the one hand, and the ideals of more intimate or personal relations, on the other. Endres uses Anthony Giddens's account of "abstract systems" and "pure" relations to suggest that the tension that teachers face is not only the…

This paper examines the merits of contrary assumptions about the prospects for providing a strict definition of"teaching." The author contends there is reason to believe that the concept of teaching is polymorphous. (JMK)

Contends that the teacher's place is extremely personal, with mutable boundaries not given to verbal description. This autobiographical article employs metaphorical reverberations to cope with practice and impediments to verbal formulation, discussing: the act of teaching, knowledge construction as a surprising event, doubt (between epistemology…

An examination of the "Theaetetus" offers Plato's educational philosophy regarding teachers, the occupation of teaching, and the teacher student relationship. (CB)

An emerging orthodoxy in recent discussions about the goals of education is that education, properly understood, aims at the development of reason. However, it is difficult to define rationality or "good thinking" and to specify criteria by which reasons and thinking are judged to be "good." (CJB)

The "erotetic" theory of teaching, which is defined by the statement "To teach someone something is to answer that person's question about some subject matter," is clarified and defended in this article. (CJB)

In discussing the work of teachers, this paper highlights two books, William Ayers's "To Become a Teacher" and David Hansen's "The Call to Teach," examining the philosophical roots of their analyses; how they define and characterize teaching and its place in public and private spheres; and what metaphors shape and define their…

In this article, I elucidate the idea of a poetics of teaching and outline its value to scholars and teachers who seek a deeper understanding of the practice. A poetics of teaching draws together aesthetic, intellectual, and moral dimensions of the work that are often treated separately, if treated at all, in both research and in the classroom. In…

The essay discusses Nathaniel Gage's research on teaching and looks at Gage and Needels' (1989) response to critics of process-product research on teaching. A review of three related issues examines the inability of process-product research to deal with intentionality, the atheoretical posture of process-product research, and normative issues. (SM)

A general theory of value is outlined to show that moral agency is necessary to human dignity and that liberty, equality, and fraternity are necessary to moral agency. These ideals can be implemented in schools and human dignity can be at the core of the professional ethics of teaching. (MT)