A Study on the Relationship between ‘Other-Me’ and Educational Relationships: Focusing on the philosophy of Lévinas and Ricoeur

Abstract

The research methodology adopted in this article is to replace the educational relationship between teacher and student with ethical relationships between others and me. This stems from the view that ethical relationships are more fundamental than educational relationships. First, my relationship with others is based on a personal and collective ethical perspective. From this ethics, moral and ethical subjects can establish their own views on others and the world. Second, this ethical and philosophical relationship is useful in educational practice, especially teacher-student educational relationships. Therefore, the contribution of this study is twofold. It is the aspect of comparative analysis of Lévinas and Ricoeur’s philosophy of ‘others-me’ and the aspect of attempting philosophical reconciliation between ethical and educational relations. The goal of this study was to derive and propose a new educational relationship through an in-depth examination of ethical relationships. As a result, the education of others based on Lévinas’ philosophy and the education of mutual recognition based on Ricoeur’s philosophy were proposed. First, in the pedagogy of others, three themes were emphasized. 1° Double asymmetry of teacher-student relationship, 2° Relationship of domination and subjugation. 3° Pedagogy of the other as possibility education. Through these three elements, the characteristics of Lévinas’ pedagogy were discussed. Second, the pedagogy of mutual recognition also dealt with three topics. 1° Self-affirmation and the teacher-student educational relationship. 2° Caring and teacher-student educational relationships. 3° Mutual Recognition and Educational Relationships. These three themes are elements that represent Ricoeur’s pedagogy.