Tact and the Pedagogical Relation

Acknowledgements

For his advice and for the time and effort of his students, I would first like to thank Dr. Prof. Malte Brinkmann of the Institute of Educational Studies of the Humboldt University of Berlin. During my visits to Berlin, he and I were able to discuss various options and strategies for selecting and organizing the texts included in this collection. Also, in the demanding task translating some of the texts included here, Malte Brinkmann made available the time and skills of his graduate students. In this regard, I would especially like to thank Johannes Türstig for his invaluable assistance with Chapter Seven, The Questionableness of the Modern Educator. I would also like to thank Sophia Zedlitz for her initial translation of both texts by Herman Nohl included here (Chapters Four and Five). Although this collection benefitted greatly from this assistance and the advice of Malte Brinkmann, the final decisions, both in editing and translating this collection, remain my own.

I would also like to thank Dr. Prof. Wilfried Lippitz and Jörg Zirfas for their generosity in granting permission for their work to be translated and republished, and for responding to my questions as translator. I would like to thank Wilfried Lippitz in particular for his guidance and support particularly in my initial explorations in questions of phenomenology and pedagogy as they are understood in the German context. Similarly, I would like to thank Dr. Karsten Kenklies for his assistance not only in co-translating the excerpt from Schleiermacher’s lecture ←xi | xii→(Chapter Three), but also for his patient support with my work and my developing understandings in continental pedagogy.

Illustrations

Figure 6.1: The Didactic Triangle. (Footnote 40, p. 129; Diagram created by Editor.).

Figure 9.1: A Feast (Convivium) from Comenius’ 1658 Orbis Sensualium Pictus Image (Courtesy of Archive.org).

Editor’s Introduction

“To speak of pedagogy is to speak of everything at once.”

- Jean Paul¹

In an age of ever-increasing specialization and professionalization, this book makes the case that pedagogy is not just about teaching techniques but is instead a deeply personal and interpersonal endeavor. Pedagogy is regarded in this text both as a mode of thought and of action, relevant to the classroom, but also beyond its walls.

This collection provides readers with a series of original and in some cases canonical texts that engage with two key themes in pedagogy: “pedagogical tact” and the “pedagogical relation.” The first refers to educators’ attunement to the children or young people in their care, and the second to the educator’s professional and personal relationship with a young person, for the sake of that person. Although both of these notions were originally articulated and developed in German-speaking Europe, they are receiving increasing attention in English-language articles and books by scholars such as Gert Biesta, Andrea English, Rebecca Horlacher, Max van Manen, and others.²

It is consequently surprising that both canonical and more recent German texts that discuss the themes of the pedagogical relation and pedagogical tact have long been unavailable or difficult to access in English: For some of the earliest ←1 | 2→texts that prefigure these two themes, this is largely due to dated and inaccurate translations that have long been out of print. The absence of more recent texts can be ascribed to a general lack of translation or “bilingual” work over the past 100 years in the field of education in general (Biesta, 2011). Thinking alone of the influence of Vygotsky or Freire (both in translation) one can only conclude that there are dozens if not hundreds more sources and oeuvres with compatible potential that remain inaccessible and unknown to the English-speaking world.

Given that the origin of the texts brought together here spans over 200 years, their nature and characteristics are quite varied. The first is a passionate letter to a friend; the ones immediately following are lectures to students or practitioners. Still later texts are excerpted from books or handbooks,³ while the most recent are all taken from journal articles or chapters in German-language books. This introduction provides a brief overview of these varied texts and their interrelationship. Following the organization of this book’s table of contents, this overview begins with texts that prefigure the pedagogical relation and pedagogical tact, moving through ones that give these terms fuller definition, and ending with their contemporary reconfiguration. This initial overview is then followed by further discussion of the meaning of pedagogy as it appears both in this introduction and in the texts brought together in this volume. It concludes with a consideration of the implications of this meaning for other terms and references in this collection.