Ramsey Affifi – författare

This book considers whether and how various philosophies, practices and artworks might help people face, and give new faces to, finitude. Formal education typically emphasizes the journey upward, with ascending and healthy aspects of life like growth and flourishing being common educational aims. However, life also involves downward journeys of illness, decay and death. Written by contributors based in the UK and beyond, it explores the educational potential in a range of spiritual and social practices as well as from cinema and literature that engage with downward journeys. The chapters cover written works by E.M. Forster, Hume, Nietzsche, and Robert Louis Stevenson; films such as Des Hommes et des Dieux and Arrival, Living and My Life Without Me; and social practices and rituals including football. The authors argue that some artworks frame or narrate descent in ways that can educate audiences and reveal the folly in beating wings only upward. Downward journeys show falling or failing and fear of the suffocating dark unknown; but they may also provide glimmers of light, hope and amusement. Education full of art and artistry can prepare us to rise and fall, and rise and fall again, not simply to solve or heal, but to be present to what finitude teaches.

There is an ongoing tendency in contemporary research, policy and practice to see the teacher as a technician who, with guidance from scientific evidence about ‘what works,’ can become increasingly more effective in bringing about measurable learning outcomes. This book not only shows why a technical understanding of teaching is problematic, but also explores in detail what can be gained from understanding teaching as a situated art that requires the purposeful combination of craft – teachers’ ‘know how’ – and wisdom – the ability to make meaningful judgements about what needs to be done in the always concrete and unique situation of the classroom. The book asks what the artistry of teaching is, how it matters for teaching, what it looks like and feels like for both teachers and students, how the arts can help in deepening our understanding of teaching, who may benefit from the artistry of teaching, and what this means for becoming and being a teacher, individually and collectively. The book seeks to provide a meaningful alternative in contemporary discussions about teachers, teaching and the future of teacher education. In addition, the idea of artistry highlights the aesthetic qualities and dimensions of teaching and opens up new ways for understanding teacher formation and teacher development.