KIERKEGAARD'S EXISTENTIAL EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF SEDUCTION AMID EDUCATIONAL THEORIES

Abstract

Education in its technical sense, with all its tools and techniques is the means to achieve some objectives. It is the process of facilitating, or the acquisition of  ,  , ,  , and  . With regard to existential issues about attitudes to life, freedom, responsibility, meaning, choice, and values, this paper raises some existential issues of education like how can the teacher meet the pupils? How should the teacher meet the pupils who, for example, have created a connection and understanding for their own way of living through engaging meeting with certain ideas? In such a situation, it would be clearly thoughtless for the teacher to suggest that the pupils base their life upon an illusion and that they ought to choose another direction in life. Inevitably this would perhaps be understood as a provocation and the pupils would most likely put up a strong defence. This consequently would result in two opposing attitudes creating a distance between the pupils and the teacher. The teacher's direct thrust may even have strengthened the pupils' present attitude. Adopting a philosophical approach therefore, this paper aims at making a case for the role of seduction in existential education, that is, education that focuses on the pupil's life choices. First, the paper shows that the relationship between the teacher and the pupil can be understood as a form of seduction. Secondly it examines how such a relationship functions in practice and warns against dangerous aspects related to seduction, and lastly, the article offers ways and modes in which seduction can be used in a justifiable manner in existential education.