Mystery—Whereof We Cannot Know, Yet Cannot Keep Silent

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1916-4467.40912

Keywords:

mystery, existence, relationality, liminality, epistemology, ontology, silence

Abstract

After the long labour of bringing a journal issue from idea to reality, an editorial gives the editors an opportunity to stand at the threshold and invite readers in. In this special issue, here’s what you will find: eight curriculum scholars, including the editors, wondering about “Mystery, World and Education”, as they ask themselves: What is mystery? How have I experienced it? What ways of knowing, teaching and/or learning does mystery suggest? This issue asserts no joint position. Rather, it tells eight unique stories, emerging from what the scholars are concerned about as educators, how and what they have learned from opening to mystery, and how this relates to their aspirations for curriculum. However, out of the diversity, commonalities emerge that speak to the nature of mystery. The scholars begin their inquiries wondering about mystery in terms of knowledge, qua the unknown and unknowable. Thinking about the unknowable is related to experiences of indeterminacy and enigma—mystery is found both in liminal spaces and as liminal. Significantly, the scholars experience mystery in and through their relations with more-thans—other persons, more-than-humans (animals, animate beings, agented things), Spirit Beings, Being itself and the Divine. Mystery develops from an epistemological to an existential concern. Theorizing mystery entails explicating one’s ontological (or metaphysical) beliefs. Come, tarry, experience what it is to dwell on, with and in mystery.

Author Biographies

Holly Tsun Haggarty, Lakehead University

Holly Tsun Haggarty, Managing Editor of JCACS, is the lead editor of this special issue on mystery, world and curriculum. She appreciates that this role has allowed her not just to promote the articulation of scholarly works, but to dwell poetically with all the contributors, sharing their wonder of existential mystery.

Douglas D. Karrow, Brock University

Douglas D. Karrow, Associate Professor at Brock University, is an invited guest editor of this special issue. Through his experiences teaching field classes in environmental education, he developed a keen interest in inviting mystery into the curriculum. He is currently writing a book on mystery and education with Sharon Harvey.

Sharon R. Harvey, Arizona State University

Sharon R. Harvey, Associate Teaching Professor at Arizona State University, is an invited guest editor of this special issue. Her interest in inviting mystery into the curriculum was prompted by an experience of arboreal awe, and it developed through her keen interest in Heideggerian philosophy. She is co-writing a work on mystery and education with Doug Karrow.

References

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This is a photomontage depicting a cloud of unknowing. On the left of the image is the beach of a lake, with a boat on a point of sand. The shoreline extends in a sharp line, but the water merges into mist that covers most of the right side of the image. A low sun, just above the boat, is reflected in the water by the shore, suggesting that the clouds will lift and clarity will be unveiled.

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Published

30-06-2025

How to Cite

Tsun Haggarty, H., Karrow, D. D., & Harvey, S. R. (2025). Mystery—Whereof We Cannot Know, Yet Cannot Keep Silent. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 22(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.25071/1916-4467.40912

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 1 (2025): Mystery, World and Curriculum

Section

Editorial

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Holly Tsun Haggarty, Douglas D. Karrow, Sharon R. Harvey

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Copyright for work published in JCACS belongs to the authors. All work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.