Schooling Heidegger: on being in teaching

The article looks at the practice of teaching in the light of the Part One of Martin Heidegger's major work Being and time. After discussing the main themes of this work, and particularly Heidegger's argument that our fundamental way of being is not cognitive, it examines their implications for such issues as the place of theory and reflection in education. The article then considers generalised approaches to professional work, notably those of Donald Schon and Andrew Abbott. It concludes that teaching has unique characteristics which are illuminated by Heidegger's writing. It suggests that teachers' practice exhibits a tension between instrumentality and a concernful being-with children, but is fundamentally grounded in the latter. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.