Being in School: Bringing the Ontological Difference Into Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: War, Vulnerability, Suffering, and Being: Human Existence and Education

Abstract

At the heart of Heidegger’s ontology lies the “ontological difference”: the distinction between beings and Being. In this paper I outline educational implications for this notion through a metaphorical analysis. I review and criticize interpretations and metaphors for the ontological difference, and show that the implication is education that is not about the acquisition of more pieces of knowledge, not about content at all, but about a dramatic change in one’s life. Through discussing the notion of “world” I suggest the metaphor of exiting Earth and looking at it from space. Consequently, I suggest to perceive schooling as a world, and discuss the implicit danger in light of “the they” governing its everydayness.

Author

• Doron Yosef-Hassidim, University of Toronto - OISE