Mystery: Poetizing by Way of Gelassenheit Toward a Pedagogy of Awe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1916-4467.40840Keywords:
mystery, Gelassenheit, physis, Heidegger, education, knowing, teaching, learning, curiosity, awe, poetizing, meditative thinking, calculative thinking, poetic knowledge, technology, non-objectificationAbstract
Common ways of thinking in education revolve around the purposes of science, curiosity and calculative modes of thought, resulting in instrumental methods and ends in education and teacher education. Mystery, defined as physis from ancient Greek metaphysics, which highlights both presence and absence, is typically left out of knowing, teaching and learning. Today’s education can benefit from unique approaches emphasizing mystery as presence and absence through “poetizing” or poetic engagement. Poetic knowledge, meditative thinking and awe provide new ways of experiencing curriculum and pedagogy. Borrowing from Martin Heidegger’s Gelassenheit, or “letting be”, and poetizing after this manner, provides a particular posture for encountering things differently in non-objectified ways. Curiosity and awe in curriculum, emotional responses related to mystery, give insight for showcasing the importance of non-objectification, a re-situated stance toward things in an increasingly technological era. For mystery to take its place in education, it will require a move from calculative thinking to meditative thinking, from curiosity to awe, by way of poetizing (qua Gelassenheit).
References
Anderson, J. (1966). Introduction. In M. Heidegger, Discourse on thinking (J. M. Anderson & E. H. Freund, Trans.). Harper & Row.
Aoki, T. T. (2005). Curriculum in a new key: The collected works of Ted T. Aoki (W. F. Pinar & R. L. Irwin, Eds.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410611390
Ball, P. (2012). Curiosity: How science became interested in everything. Chicago University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226045825.001.0001
Boyer, S. D. (2007). The logic of mystery. Religious Studies, 43(1), 89-102. https://doi.org/10.1017/s003441250600878x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S003441250600878X
Caputo, J. D. (1986). The mystical element in Heidegger’s thought. Fordham University Press.
Chiarotto, L. (2011). Natural curiosity: Building children’s understanding of the world through environmental inquiry. The Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study.
Davis, B. (2004). Inventions of teaching: A genealogy. Erlbaum. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410610096 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410610096
Davis, B. W. (2007). Heidegger and the will: On the way to Gelassenheit. Northwestern University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv47w2wg
Dreyfus, H. L. (1991). Being-in-the-world: A commentary on Heidegger’s Being and Time, Division I. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
Egan, K., Cant, A., & Judson, G. (Eds.). (2014). Wonder-full education: The centrality of wonder in teaching and learning across the curriculum. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203498507
Foltz, B. V. (1995). Inhabiting the earth: Heidegger, environmental ethics and the metaphysics of nature. Humanities Press.
Gade, D. W. (2011). Curiosity, inquiry, and the geographical imagination. Peter Lang. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-0789-4
Harvey, S. R. (2009a). Environmental problem-solving and Heidegger’s phenomenology: Addressing our technical relation to nature. Environmental Philosophy, 6(2), 59-71. https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil20096214 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil20096214
Harvey, S. R. (2009b). Heidegger and eco-phenomenology: Gelassenheit as practice. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.
Heidegger, M. (1959). An introduction to metaphysics (R. Manheim, Trans.). Yale University Press. (Original work presented 1935)
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper San Francisco. (Original work published in 1927)
Heidegger, M. (1966). Discourse on thinking (J. M. Anderson & E. H. Freund, Trans.). Harper & Row. (Original work published in 1959)
Heidegger, M. (1972). On time and being (J. Stambaugh, Trans.). Harper & Row. (Original work published in 1969)
Heidegger, M. (1977). The question concerning technology. In W. Lovitt (Ed.), The question concerning technology and other essays (pp. 3-35). Harper & Row. (Original work published 1954)
Heidegger, M. (1977). Basic writings from Being and time to The task of thinking (D. F. Krell, Ed; 1st ed.). Harper & Row. (Original works published 1927 to 1964)
Karrow, D. D., Harvey, S. R., & Yu, J. (2020). Critical theory’s nod to Heidegger: Contributions of phenomenological ontology to teacher education research. In K. Nolan & J. Tupper (Eds.), Beyond the technical-rational: Drawing on social theory for teacher education research (pp. 243-262). Bloomsbury Academic. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350086425.ch-014
Magrini, J. M. (2012). Worlds apart in the curriculum: Heidegger, technology, and the poietic attunement of literature. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(5), 500-521. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00718.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2010.00718.x
Magrini, J. M. (2014). Social efficiency and instrumentalism in education: Critical essays in ontology, phenomenology, and philosophical hermeneutics. Routledge.
Nietzsche, F. (1966). Beyond good and evil; Prelude to a philosophy of the future (W. Kaufmann, Trans.). Vintage Books. (Original work published 1886)
O’Neill, J. (1993). Science, wonder and the lust of the eyes. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 10(2), 139-146. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.1993.tb00070.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5930.1993.tb00070.x
Parsons, H. (1969). A philosophy of wonder. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 30(1), 84-101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2105923
Pinar, W. F. (1994). The method of “currere” (1975). Counterpoints, 2, 19-27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42975620
Pluck, G., & Johnson, H. L. (2011). Stimulating curiosity to enhance learning. GESJ: Education Sciences and Psychology, 2(19), 24-31. https://gesi.internet-academy.org.ge/en/search_en.php
Prendergast, M., Leggo, C., & Sameshima, P. (2009). Poetic inquiry: Vibrant voices in the social sciences. Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789087909512
Sameshima, P., Fidyk, A., James, K., & Leggo, C. (Eds.). (2017). Poetic inquiry: Enchantment of place. Vernon Press.
Schmitt, F., & Lahroodi, R. (2008). The epistemic value of curiosity. Educational Theory, 58(2), 125-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2008.00281.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.2008.00281.x
Schwieler, E., & Magrini, J. M. (2015). Meditative thought and Gelassenheit in Heidegger’s thought of the ‘turn’: Releasing ourselves to the original event of learning. Analysis and Metaphysics, 14, 7-37. https://addletonacademicpublishers.com/contents-am/492-volume-14-2015/2596-meditative-thought-and-gelassenheit-in-heidegger-s-thought-of-the-turn-releasing-ourselves-to-the-original-event-of-learning
Sherry, P. (2013). The varieties of wonder. Philosophical Investigations, 36(4), 340-354. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9205.2012.01474.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9205.2012.01474.x
Taylor, J. S. (1998). Poetic knowledge: The recovery of education. State University of New York Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438421919
Thomson, I. (2005). Heidegger on ontotheology: Technology and the politics of education. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511499210
Vincent, A. (Ed.). (2024). Poetic inquiry atlas. Vol. 1: A survey of rigorous poetics. Vernon Press.
Wrathall, M. A. (2011). Heidegger and unconcealment: Truth, language, and history. Cambridge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511777974
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sharon R. Harvey, Douglas D. Karrow
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright for work published in JCACS belongs to the authors. All work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
