The Tact of Teaching:
the meaning of pedagogical thoughtfulness

Available in: English, Norwegian, Spanish, Chinese

The Tact of Teaching is an interpretive explication of the meaning of pedagogy and the pedagogical relation adults and young people, as a relation sui generis. Distinctions are made between pedagogical situations, relations, and actions. Good teaching (and parenting) is difficult since it is improvisational, normative, and pedagogical: Improvisational since good teaching requires instant action; normative in the sense that pedagogy always requires distinguishing between what is appropriate and less appropriate in one’s action with children; pedagogical in that all action presumes the virtue of a pedagogical tactfulness. Using reflective, anecdotal discourse, The Tact of Teaching explicates the meaning of pedagogical moments, the conditions of pedagogy, the relation between pedagogy and politics, the nature of pedagogical experience, and the practical forms of pedagogical action.

To order from Althouse Press:
http://www.edu.uwo.ca/althousepress/book.asp?BookId=54

This text is based on a research project that is concerned with epistemology of practice and the meaning of pedagogy.