This sequel to Professor Hansen’s The Call to Teach, which was published by Teachers College Press in 1995, provides a reimagined notion of teaching as a calling in light of educational developments since that book's publication.  Professor Hansen elucidates how the vocation to teach is bound up with what he calls “being with” students and subject matter in an aesthetic, ethical, and intellectual manner.  At the same time, this new book incorporates a full-blown treatment of the idea of bearing witness to teachers and teaching, an idea that Professor Hansen has been examining in recent years.  He shows how bearing witness constitutes an ethical orientation that can serve teachers, teacher educators, and others well in approaching thoughtfully the ethical practice of teaching itself.  Bearing witness spotlights the dignity of teachers and of the students who they aspire to educate.  It draws out that much more vividly the meaning of the call to teach, and why this spirit of vocation continues to animate dedicated teachers today.  The book also highlights in a fresh manner a range of time-honored philosophical questions about the very meaning of teaching, of inquiry into teaching, and more.
 

 

Programs: Philosophy and Education

Departments: Arts & Humanities

Published Friday, Feb 26, 2021