‘A Love for the World’: An Existentialist perspective on engagement

Synopsis

Education… is an intrinsically worthwhile endeavour, in so far as it testifies to a love for the world and brings about the possibility of a transformation in our individual and collective lives, in the here and now.’ (Vlieghe & Zamojski 2019).

In an age of unlimited online and free content offering unsupported solo learning, I argue that students choose university learning because they wish to connect with others. From an existentialist perspective, engagement can be understood as enlarging our Being-in-the-World through our Being-with-Others (Heidegger 1962), in a shared ‘love for the world’ (Vlieghe & Zamojski 2019). An existentialist approach to engagement will (1) recognise each student as a unique Being-in-the-World; (2) recognise that the student is seeking to learn with others (Being-with-Others); and (3) seek to maximise the freedom-responsibility of each student with regard to their own learning journey. In a practical sense, engagement requires finding a point of connection – a ‘spark’ – that renders an excitement and a change in being: it brings the topic of learning into focus and clears space for personalised learning to occur. Such engagement will foster a feeling of ‘I am so glad I am here!’ / ‘I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on this!’ / ‘I’ll never forget this moment’. In this paper I will discuss ways to foster such connection and forms of evidence we can look out for to prove that such connection has been established.

References

Heidegger, M., tr. Macquarrie, J., & Robinson, E. (1962). Being and Time. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Vlieghe, J., Zamojski, P. (2019). Towards an Ontology of Teaching . Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi-org.ezproxy.une.edu.au/10.1007/978-3-030-16003-6_5

Dr Felicity Joseph