Speaking and Listening in Education: Receiving Subjectivity and Alterity

• In Event: Constructing the Subject: Youth, Listening, Schools

Abstract

Drawing on Lévinas’ distinction between “saying” and “said,” and extending the recent development in the philosophy of listening, I propose that the speaking and listening activity in a communicative act, rather than the focus on the logos or taking the perspective of the other, is where subjectivity signifies and can be recognized. Such understanding provides educational possibilities for cultivating ethical human relationships at school.

Author

• Guoping Zhao, Oklahoma State University