Nel Noddings

This wonderful, highly readable book breaks new ground in revealing commonalities between Deleuze's nomadic method of inquiry and the pragmatic method of John Dewey. It should be of great interest to both philosophers and educators. NEL NODDINGS, Stanford University, author of Happiness And Education. .

Few have placed the thinking of Dewey into effective dialogue with other forms of philosophy. This is particularly the case regarding contemporary European philosophy. Inna Semetsky's exciting new book bridges this gap for the first time by putting the brilliant poststructuralist work of Gilles Deleuze into critical and creative dialogue with that of Dewey. . The publication of this work announces the appearance of a remarkable line of thinking that scholars around the world will soon come to appreciate. JIM GARRISON, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, author of Dewey and Eros.

In this subtle and graceful study, Inna Semetsky brings together cultural and philosophical traditions long in need of connection. This is a significant and powerful work that is sure to invigorate discussions of educational theory for years to come. RONALD BOGUE, University of Georgia, author of Deleuze's Wake: Tribute and Tributaries.

""

"Semetsky's new book offers a bracing account of Tarot semiotics in view of its deep significance for educational experience. Analyzing the symbolic language of Tarot images that express the intimations of the unconscious, she invites readers to explore novel ways of learning about the nature of ourselves and the world we are situated in. Combining thorough research with an accessible style, this groundbreaking book is essential reading for present and future generations of practitioners, academics and students across disciplines". Pia Brînzeu, Professor of English Literature and Vice-Rector of the Universityof Timis¸oara, Romania; author of Corridors of Mirrors.
"A sequel to the author's Re-Symbolization of the Self: Human Development and Tarot Hermeneutic and Semiotics Education Experience, Semetsky's new book presents the Tarot sign-system as a school of ethical living. Bringing the philosophies of Peirce, Deleuze, Dewey, Whitehead and Gebser in a dialogue with the cutting-edge science of coordination dynamics, she grounds the art of Tarot in the logic of signs acting across nature, culture and human mind. Building on Noddings' "maternal factor", Semetsky demonstrates how the lessons embodied in Tarot symbolism recover the feminine value of relations and contribute to Self~Other integration. Such is the message of Tarot images. The Image is the Message". Igor Klyukanov, Professor of Communication, Eastern Washington University, USA; editor, Russian Journal of Communication; author of A Communication Universe: Manifestations of Meaning, Stagings of Significance. "Semetsky's amalgamation of the techniques of visual communication with the emerging field of edusemiotics is an absolute masterpiece in transdisciplinarity. By forging diverse strands of inquiry into an overall model of how images enhance learning, Semetsky's new book provokes us to take a fresh look at iconic information and is a required reading for everyone who is engaged with the art and science of visual semiotics at the intersection of nature and culture". Marcel Danesi, Professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada; editor-in-chief, Semiotica; author of The Quest for Meaning: A Guide to Semiotic Theory and Practice.
"Finally. An in-depth look at Tarot from within the field of semiotics, a perspective that had been inexplicably overlooked until now. As a language of exile from language, Tarot cards are silent words that became images. Here is a book that turns our thirst for symbols into a learning tool. The sign sings in Inna Semetsky's work."

This paper is threefold. It is grounded in the philosophical work of two educational theorists: John Dewey and our contemporary Nel Noddings. It also brings into the conversation the ancient system of Tarot, arguing that its pictorial symbolism embodies intellectual, moral, and spiritual ‘lessons’ derived from collective human experiences across times, places, and cultures. For Dewey, to call somebody spiritual never meant to invoke some mysterious and non-natural entity outside of the real world. As a system of communication and interpretation, Tarot is oriented toward the discovery of meanings in the real experience and performs two functions, existential and educational, focusing on the ethical and spiritual dimension of experience. The pictorial images create an adventure story of the journey through the school of life, each new life experience contributing to self-understanding
and, ultimately, spiritual rebirth. Tarot not only speaks in a different
voice, therefore bringing forth the subtleties of Gilligan and Noddings’ relational ethics, but also enables a process of critical self-reflection analogous to the ancient Socratic ‘Know thyself’ principle that makes life examined and thus meaningful.
As a techne, it can and should become a valuable tool to complement an existing set of educational aids in the area of moral and spiritual education.

This paper addresses the continuity of experience posited by John Dewey that extends experience from the boundaries of the individual mind to the whole of culture and connects it with the natural world. The collective experiences are posited as inscribed in what Carl Jung called the objective psyche represented by the archetypal images of the collective unconscious. The paper revisits John Dewey’s views on experience coupled with Nel Noddings’ great book “Educating for Intelligent Belief or Unbelief”. But not only. The paper also brings into the conversation the ancient cross-cultural system of Tarot as but one variety of/for holistic education. Holistic education encompasses the variety of the ways of knowing among which inner knowledge represented by the Delphic “Know Thyself” motto is but one. Indeed, Noddings in her book "Critical lessons: What our schools should teach" is adamant that “when we claim to educate, we must take Socrates seri­ously. Unexamined lives may well be valuable and worth living, but an education that does not invite such examination may not be worthy of the label education”

In my thesis, I look to theorize a way in which we might grieve for strangers, whose deaths cannot touch us personally and whose losses we cannot claim to be our own: mourning without loss. 

To address this question, I perform two analytical gestures that inform one another throughout. The first gesture is a close reading of Sophie Calle’s 2007 installation Pas Pu Saisir La Mort (“Couldn’t Capture Death”). In this work, Calle invites the viewer to mourn for her mother Monique, who died after a treatment of palliative care. However, as I demonstrate, the viewer is to mourn for her in the absence of death and in the absence of an encounter with her. How might we envision such a work of mourning?

The second gesture is a theoretical interrogation of Judith Butler’s theory of mourning and grievability. Butler thinks the experience of loss points us to a fundamental tie to others around us. She proposes to ‘tarry with grief’ in order to sustain this recognition of our mutual dependency and vulnerability. Mourning becomes a collective endeavour geared at fostering a caring political community. Yet if Butler pleads for what she calls grievability, I wonder about grieve-ability, our ability to mourn at all for strangers whose lives (or deaths) never impinged upon ours. To what extent can all life be grievable as such, by me?

At stake in my thesis is thus a mode of mourning otherwise: departing from psychoanalytic models of mourning that treat grief as a private, interior work, I conceptualize grief as affect to delineate a communal mode of mourning that requires no prior attachment to those who are now lost. Moreover, I suggest reading this mode of mourning as a way of caring for the other, exposing a mesh of care relations in which the one who died was but a single node. In this sense grief is palliative: it softens the pains of loss because it helps us grasp the ties to others around us, even to others whom we have never met. Mourning without loss means gaining you.

As a profession, teaching is commonly understood under the umbrella of "care work," a term used to refer to work directly involved with those in need of "care." "Care work" stretches from those working in healthcare, to childcare, elderly care and of course, teaching. Those who perform the labor of "care" are often pushed aside in conversations on the ethics of this work, leaving the conception of these ethics to those outside caring professions. Work by philosopher of education Nel Noddings, however, has been a major influence on the perception and understanding of teaching as "care work." By grounding her work within relationality and affect, Noddings's framework has appealed to many educators seeking an ethics that reflects the relation-centered environment of the classroom. I turn to examine Noddings's "caring relation" more closely in order to understand how teaching, as a profession, is actively becoming transformed by economic thinking, and how our work as philosophers of education might work to resist this transformation.

This paper argues for a pragmatic resolution of the conflict between justice and forgiveness.  Authors such as Derrida, who see a paradox or aporia in the conflict between justice and forgiveness, often conceive each value in absolute terms.  A pragmatic approach deemphasizes absolutism and focuses instead on pluralism and sensitivity to context.  One useful example of a pragmatic approach is found in care ethics, as described by Noddings.  Care ethics emphasizes the concrete specificity of relationships and the needs and interests of individuals, while downplaying abstract and absolute moral principles.  This approach is described in opposition to more traditional religious and moral theories that hold justice or forgiveness as abstract and mutually opposed values.

Key Words: Justice, Forgiveness, Pragmatism, Care Ethics, Noddings, Derrida

Sometimes, the most valuable thing we can offer our students is genuine care for them, their well-being, their happiness. Not just their grades. Not just their learning. But their whole selves. This article is inspired by a discussion with a friend who suggested that medical ethics should not be about “do no harm” but rather about caring. As one who comes from a family of doctors, I often hear about how medical people sometimes focus on the body and forget to look at the whole person. The same reductionism can be found in education. bell hooks critiques this, calling for educators to engage with students’ whole selves, with their souls. Inspired by her, Jesse Stommel and I recently wrote that in seeking to empower students, “teachers must…show the kind of care for the work that only comes when we make ourselves at least somewhat vulnerable.” It is one thing to do this in small classes, but a totally different thing to do it in larger classes, or even online on a massive scale in MOOCs.

Teacher educators who seek to advance social justice perspectives
and promote equity-oriented dispositions often engage with challenging
and controversial issues relevant to schooling, the lives of
students, and the work of teachers. Addressing equity issues and
controversial topics can be challenging and fraught with tensions
for both students and teacher educators. The purpose of this selfstudy
was to gain insight from a critical incident about a class
discussion on an issue (i.e., gender normativity in curriculum and
classrooms) that occurred in a graduate course for in-service teachers.
The critical incident represented a challenging pedagogical
moment given diverse perspectives on the issue. The qualitative
inquiry was anchored in LaBoskey’s framing elements for self-study.
Conceptual frameworks employed in analysis were Berry’s tensions
in teacher education and Noddings’s ethic of care. Findings suggest
that classroom discussions in moments of tension can be facilitated
productively by (a) teacher educators acknowledging that the content
under discussion may be of both political and personal relevance;
(b) disclosing that the intent of discussions on controversial
issues is to share and learn, not indoctrination; and (c) recognizing
when continuing a discussion on a controversial issue is pedagogically
unproductive. Implications for teaching practice and research
are provided.

In this chapter of Pedagogies of Kindness and Respect: On the Lives and Education of Children, edited by P.L. Thomas, Paul R. Carr, Julie A. Gorlewski, and Brad J. Porfilio, Cammie Kim Lin draws on queer theory and critical multiculturalism to illustrate what she calls queer literacy pedagogy.

Sometimes, the most valuable thing we can offer our students is genuine care for them, their well-being, their happiness. Not just their grades. Not just their learning. But their whole selves.

This article is inspired by a discussion with a friend who suggested that medical ethics should not be about “do no harm” but rather about caring. As one who comes from a family of doctors, I often hear about how medical people sometimes focus on the body and forget to look at the whole person. The same reductionism can be found in education. bell hooks critiques this, calling for educators to engage with students’ whole selves, with their souls. Inspired by her, Jesse Stommel and I recently wrote that in seeking to empower students, “teachers must…show the kind of care for the work that only comes when we make ourselves at least somewhat vulnerable.”

It is one thing to do this in small classes, but a totally different thing to do it in larger classes, or even online on a massive scale in MOOCs.

The present research aims to make known the relationship that exists between the Pedagogy of Care of Nel Noddings and the construction of identity since the proposal of the competition 1 of the National Curriculum 2016, in the students of the third year of high school of an educational public institution from the district of La Victoria, taking as a base a sample of 44 adolescents. To carry out the objective, the analysis of the characteristics of the pedagogy of care and the characteristics of identity construction promoted by teachers in their students was considered. This research is qualitative, exploratory and descriptive level. In order to obtain the data of the investigation, instruments of class observations, and interviews with teachers and students were applied. The results revealed that some teachers develop affective and close relationships with their students and are interested in promoting caring relationships. Regarding identity, it was found that the assessment of on...

The small school movement originated in the democratic ideology of Deborah Meier, who sought to create schools that gave students, parents, teachers, and all stakeholders in the communities they served a voice in education. In New York City, Meier's vision was implemented haphazardly by a group of business and political elites able to pour millions of dollars into an initiative without carefully considering the complex interests involved in creating new small schools. According to this author, this lack of forethought placed students and parents at an even greater disadvantage than had existed previously. It was thought that the creation of small schools of choice would provide students, parents, and families the most appropriate education for their children, and that free market practices would create an environment of increased accountability and transparency, which would improve educational outcomes for all students. The author argues that these measures failed to improve educational equity and opportunities for students, and that they also placed students most in-need at an even greater disadvantage, thus hurting the very children these laws were created to help. She supports this argument using a critique of neoliberalism in the context of education as defined by Michael Apple, John Rawls's original position, and the application of Rawls's position in an educational context by Barry Bull.

This paper raises the question if art education holds the potential to teach beyond making and creating, i.e. paintings, sculptures et cetera. Many respected education theorists continue to bring up the idea of teaching students to care. This paper will look closer at care theory, the tools it needs and if it can support artist teachers. In another view, how can artist teachers support creating communities of caring people who value relationships? Where do aesthetics, independent thought and reflectivity fit in? The paper will also seek to make connections between theory and practice by reflecting on the author’s current working environment and her use of Choice Based Art.

Action research approaches have evolved out of a criticism of previous
research traditions, where teachers have been seen as research objects,
at risk of being marginalized. Such approaches have also arisen out of
the view that teaching, learning, and educational research are interrelated. In action research, teachers are seen as professionals, raising
their status to subjects, conducting own research. The research is
carried out with or by people rather than on someone, which changes
the roles and relationships. Ethical dilemmas can arise, especially
evident in action research, where the distinctions between researcher
and researched are blurred or removed altogether. This paper aims to
explore the changing roles and relationships between researchers and
teachers in action research through a philosophical analysis based on
the writings of Nel Noddings, especially the concept of ethics of care.
The analysis creates an opportunity for a rethinking of researcher–
teacher roles, focusing on responsibility and knowledge as well as
reciprocity and communication. Based on the author’s own action
research experiences, various dilemmas are discussed. Obstacles to
and opportunities for developing caring relationships between
researchers and teachers will also be highlighted. The implications of
the study include valuing both researcher and teacher expertise and
learning to understand each other’s perspectives as well as giving
tailored care. It is also vital to find strategies to contextualize and
enact these views and beliefs within the researcher–teacher relationship. Neither researchers nor teachers will have total control over the
process, as they stay open to each other’s perspectives and needs
based on a caring relationship.

Abstract Postmodern theory is often seen as a realm either of totally, free play–where anything goes and there are no rules at all–or of despair where all visions of equality, and democracy are equated with totalitarianism. Coherent ways of talking about “actors” or “responsibility” can appear to be entirely'repudiated.