The Pedagogical Relation (1927–2015): The History of a Traveling Concept

• In Event: 34.032 - Post-Structural Approaches to Educational History

Abstract

The pedagogical relation, the idea of a special, emotionally-charged relationship between teacher and child has long been a central theme in interpretive studies of education. Speaking more broadly, concern with “student-teacher relations” and “pedagogies of relation” is also common across educational discourses. German educationist Herman Nohl was the first to define the phrase “pedagogical relation” in 1926. Others have followed, with Max van Manen introducing the concept into English some 65 years later. However, the travel and evolution of this notion has not been systematically examined. This paper inaugurates this task by viewing the pedagogical relation as a “travelling concept,” one that originated in the European human sciences and has proven particularly adaptable to today’s focus on otherness and discontinuity.

Author

• Norm Friesen, Boise State University