Hesitating With the Pedagogical Relation: Origins and Interpretations

• In Event: 32.082 - Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: 32.082-6 - Listening, Hesitation, Space: Reconstructing Educational Relations

Abstract

The pedagogical relation, the idea of a special, relationship between educator and educand, has long been a central theme in interpretive and philosophical studies of education. Broader 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 in his wake, with Max van Manen introducing the concept into English some 65 years later, and Gert Biesta drawing attention to it more recently. Despite ongoing interest, Nohl’s original characterizations have yet to be translated and their subsequent development reviewed. This paper inaugurates this task, while also taking time to hesitate—to point out its problematic moments and challenges.

Author

• Norm Friesen, Boise State University