Brady, Alison; (2022) Towards an Existentialist Account of Teaching. In: Being a Teacher: From Technicist to Existential Accounts, in conversation with Jean-Paul Sartre. (pp. 181-185). Springer Nature

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Abstract

I begin the final chapter with an account from my own experiences of teaching. The purpose of this account is not to provide an ‘accurate’ depiction of teaching, nor to generalise the experiences of all teachers. Rather, it should serve as a point of resonance that demonstrates how and in what way Sartre’s ideas make sense in the classroom. Following this, I explore two ways in which this – and indeed any – account of teaching might be understood. Firstly, I discuss ‘technicist’ forms of account-giving that, with the aim of cultivating evaluative dispositions perpetuate an underlying assumption that connects accountability with accuracy. In contrast to this, I introduce what might be termed as ‘existential’ forms of account-giving, garnered from an engagement with Sartre. Ultimately, this can be thought of as an ongoing project of engagement with one’s responses in the classroom, and with the commitments made manifest in these responses and with one’s responsibility in light of this. Notwithstanding the complexity that this latter form of account-giving involves, new understandings of accountability and account-giving in teaching are invited, not as an imposed requirement or a skill, but as a way of being in the classroom.

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