In this episode we welcome Finn Thorbjørn Hansen, professor in applied philosophy at Aalborg University. Finn published extensively on the phenomenology of wonder and assumes it a key-dimension in higher education, professional studies and existential pedagogy in general. By means of the question “What would happen if we in the curriculum of higher education took seriously that we should learn our students ‘to stand in the open’, that is, really acknowledge that the future is unknown?” he delves into the concept of philosophical literacy and presents a wonder-based research approach that is strongly in line with the phenomenological-hermeneutical tradition as well as current eco-phenomenological thinking. Finally, he outlines how he conducts such wonder-based research in the form of his Wonder-Labs. 

00:00:48 – What is applied philosophy? 

00:02:08 – What is existential pedagogy? 

00:09:18 – The philosophical life as an ideal of Bildung and learning to stand in the open 

00:12:33 – Wonder in higher education and learning to deal with the unknown  

00:17:10 – What is wonder-based research? 

00:26:44 – What is philosophical literacy? 

00:29:36 – The existential, the spiritual and the apophatic  

00:32:43 – What is a Wonder-Lab? 

00:37:38 – A summarizing view of Finn’s academic work and research 

Further literature: 

• Hansen, F. T. (2024): The sense of wonder as a necessary “Philosophical Literacy” in healthcare. In: Ensted, D. & Dellenborg, L. (eds.): Culture, Spirituality and Religious Literacy in Healthcare, p. 217-231. Nordic Perspectives. London & New York, NY: Routledge.  
• Hansen, F.T. (2024). Wonder and Philosophy as Grounding Sources in Health Humanities. In: Crawford, P., Kadetz, P. (eds) Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Health Humanities, p. 1-15. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26825-1_221-2   
• Hansen, F. T.; Botnen Eide, S. & Leget C. (eds.) (2023): Wonder, Silence, and Human Flourishing. Towards a Rehumanization of Health, Education and Welfare. London: Lexington.  
• Hansen, F.T. (2022). What would an Apophatic Action Research look like? International Journal of Action Research, Eikeland (ed.), special issue on «Conceptualizing AR». Vol. 18, Issue 2/2022, pp: 100–115. 
• Thorsted, A.C. & Hansen, F.T. & (2022). At tænke med hjertet: En grundbog i eksistentiel praksisfænomenologi. [To Think With the Heart: Basic Reflections on Existential Praxis Phenomenology]. Aarhus: Klim. 
• Hansen, F.T. (2022). At skrive sig ud mod det gådefulde via undringens fire verdenshjørner. In: Herholdt-Lomholdt, S. (red.), Fenomenologi. å leve,samtale og skrive ut mot det gåtefulle i tilværelsen, s. 47-87Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. 
• Hansen, F.T. & Jørgensen, L.B. (2021). Wonder-inspired Leadership: Or how to cultivate ethical and phenomenon-led health care. Nursing Ethics: Vol. 28, No. 6 (September): 951-966.https://doi-org.zorac.aub.aau.dk/10.1177/0969733021990791  
• Hansen, F. T. (2019): Learning to Innovate in Higher Education Through Deep Wonder. In: Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education. Vol. 1, 3. pp. 51 - 74 
• Hansen, F. T. (2017): Sokratisk og fenomenologisk orientert aktionsforskning. In: Allrø, H. & Hansen, F. T. (eds.): Dialogisk aktionsforskning i et praksisnært perspektiv. Aalborg: Aalborg Universitetsforlag.  
• Hansen, F.T. (2016). At undre sig ved livets afslutning: Om brug af filosofiske samtaler i palliativt arbejde [To Wonder at the End of Life: On the use of philosophical conversations in palliative care]. Copenhagen.: Akademisk forlag. Scientific monography. 
• Hansen, F.T. & Dinkins, C. S. (2016). Socratic Wonder as a Way to Aletheia in Qualitative Research and Action Research. In: HASER. Revista Internacional de Filosofía Aplicada, Nr. 7: 51-88. 
• Hansen, F.T. (2015). The Call and Practice of Wonder: How to Evoke a Socratic Community of Wonder in Professional Settings, s. 217-244. In: Noah Weiss, M. (ed.), Socratic Handbook:Dialogue Methods for Philosophical Practice. Wien: LIT Verlag 
• Hansen, F. T. (2010): The Phenomenology of Wonder in Higher Education. In: Brinkmann, M. (ed.): Erziehung. Phänomenologische Perspektiven, p. 161-178. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.   
• Hansen, F. T. (2007 [1st edition: 2002]): Det filosofiske liv. Et dannelsesideal for eksistenspædagogikken [The Philosophical Life: A Bildung Ideal for Existential Pedagogy] Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.  

In this episode, prof. Catrine Torbjørnsen Halås, former head of the Center for Practical Knowledge at Nord University, reflects on the relevance of practice research for professional studies like teacher education, social work or nursing. By means of personal experiences, she gives an elaborated account of what practical knowledge is and outlines different methodological approaches, how to develop that kind of knowledge. Last but not least, she explains why it is legitimate to use one’s own practice experience as starting point when conducting practice research.
 
00:00:44 – Catrine's “personal journey” towards research on practical knowledge
00:02:20 – What is practice research?
00:04:09 – About research on practice, with practice or in practice?
00:05:59 - Differences between humanistic and social science research approaches in professional studies
00:08:39 – What is practical knowledge?
00:13:48 – Your own experience as valuable starting point for practice research
00:16:52 – What kind of methodologies can be used in order to develop practical knowledge?
00:21:03 – The role of unease in practice research
00:26:49 – To what extent is good practice, and with that practical knowledge, a question of the practitioner’s responsibility?
00:30:08 - How should we educate practitioners that are able to take responsibility?
 

Further literature:

-              Halås, C.T. & Fuglseth, K.S. (2021): Fagområdet praktisk kunnskap. In: Fuglseth, K.S. & Halås, C.T. (eds.): Innføring i Praktisk Kunnskap. Anerkjennende, kritisk og konstruktiv praksisforskning. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.  

-              Halås C.T, Kymre, I.G and Steinsvik, K. (eds) (2017): Humanistiske forskningstilnærminger til profesjonspraksis. Gyldendal Akademisk.  

-              Halås, C.T (2023) Jakob Meløe’s Praxeology – an ethnographic approach to research in practical knowledge . Antologikapittel i C. Cederberg, K. Fuglseth &  E.vd Zande (eds) "Exploring practical knowledge. Life-World Studies of Professionals in Education and Research. Brill.

-              Halås, C.T (2022) Kunnskapsreflektert praxis som tilnærming til å skape sammenheng mellom praktisk og teoretisk virksomhet i sosialt arbeid . i Ø. Henriksen, A. Solstad & G.W. Øydgaard. Sammenhenger i sosialt arbeid. Universitetsforlaget.

-              Halås, C.T & McGuirk, J (2021) Det vitenskapelige essayet i profesjonsforskning: en kritisk utprøvende metode.  Tidsskrift for psykisk helsearbeid: Volum 18, s. 5-14. https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-3010-2021-01-02

-              Halås, C.T & Lombholdt Herholdt, S.M Podcast about writing essays: https://nord.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=5dd3a0f6-39ef-4853-a8c2-b1370076f1d5 

In this episode prof. emeritus Anders Lindseth talks about his work in the committee for Bildung in higher education (“Dannelsesutvalget - om dannelses perspektiver i høyere utdanning”, 2009) and the fundamental perspectives that this committee brought forward. Furthermore, he discusses the intention of The Research Council of Norway to have more practice-near research and how the Center for Practical Knowledge at Nord University, where Lindseth was professor, met this intention in terms of Reflective Practice Research. In the further conversation, Lindseth gives an in-depth account of why and how this research approach is deeply rooted phenomenology and hermeneutics and why it is legitimate for practitioners to conduct research on their on practice.

00:01:12 – What is the role of Bildung in professional studies and research?
00:02:51 – What are experiences of discrepancy and how to investigate them in terms of research?
00:05:08 – The “personal” in research
00:06:30 – What is Reflective Practice Research?
00:11:45 – Methodologies that can be used within the research approach of Reflective Practice Research
00:23:52 – What is “response-ability” (or “respondability” as Anders also calls it) and why is it important for professionals like nurses, teachers etc.?
00:25:10 – ResponsAbility (or “respondability”) and the practitioner’s search for meaning
00:26:59 – On the theoretical reflection- the third phase of the research process in Reflective Practice Research.
00:29:32 – On the relationship between reflection and meditation
 
Further literature:

-              Lindseth, A. (2020). Dosenten i et FoU-perspektiv. Refleksiv praksisforskning som en vei mot dosentkompetanse. I C. C. Bachke & M. Hermansen (Red.), Å satse på dosenter. Et utviklingsarbeid (Kap. 4, s. 75–101). Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk. 

-              Lindseth, A. (2021): Diskrepanserfaring og svarevne. In: Fuglseth, K. S. & Halås, C. T. (eds.): Innføring i praktisk kunnskap. Anerkjennende, kritisk og konstruktiv praksisforskning 

-              Lindseth, A (2009), Dannelsens plass i profesjonsutdanninger. Kunnskap og dannelse foran et nytt århundre. Innstilling fra Dannelsesutvalget for høyere utdanning

Steen Nepper Larsen is associate professor at the Department of Education Sciences at the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University. He is a renowned Danish intellectual and author of many publications. Among them is book together with John Hattie in which Steen challenges the Visible Learning approach. How this book came into life and what Steen assumes to be severe flaws of the education system today, is examined closer in this podcast episode, where Steen also gives an in-depth account of Bildung and why it is so fundamentally different from education. 

00:01:02 – Working with John Hattie on the book project “The Purposes of Education”
00:04:13 – Steen's main critique of John Hattie’s Visible Learning approach
00:07:06 – What is Bildung?
00:12:26 – How have the themes of Bildung come under pressure?
00:16:36 – Steen's main arguments against evidence-based teaching
00:21:56 – What would an education without “evaluation fever” and the chase for evidence look like?
00:26:09 – Is the concept of Bildung relevant for today’s professional studies?
00:30:11 – Is there a relation between Bildung and responsibility as presented in the European Qualifications Framework?
00:35:41 – What is needed from us to become truly “seeing”?
00:40:00 – Bildung as the “God-given” in humans?

Further literature:

-              Hattie, J. & Larsen, S. N. (2020): The Purposes of Education: A Conversation between John Hattie and Steen Nepper Larsen. New York, NY: Routledge. 

-              Larsen, S. N. (2022): Evalueringsfeber og evidensjagt. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur  

-              Larsen, S. N. (2019): Blindness in Seeing: A Philosophical Critique of the Visible Learning Paradigm in Education. Educational Science 9(1) 47. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9010047 

-              Larsen, S.N (2016). At ville noget med nogen – filosofiske og samtidskritiske fragmenter om dannelse og pædagogik. Turbine akademisk. 

In this episode we welcome professor Gert Biesta as our guest. Gert is author of the book “The Beautiful Risk of Education” and a well-renown scholar in the field of educational theory. In our talk with him, he explicates why the shift of focus from teaching to learning is unfortunate and why a world-centered approach in education is to be chosen over a student-centered approach. He also describes why it is important for an educator to take risks and why the development of practical wisdom in professional studies is mandatory, so that the students do not only become competent but good practitioners. 

00:00:58 – On the difference between educational theory and philosophy of education
00:02:50 – On the unfortunate focus shift from teaching to learning
00:07:41 – Why teaching and learning should be more world-centered than student-centered
00:14:23 – On “subjectification” as one of the three main objectives of education
00:22:37 – What is phronesis and why is it important in professional studies?
00:24:29 – What is virtuosity, in relation to phronesis?
00:27:29 – Is virtuosity teachable?
00:31:18 – Is there a connection between the notion of “responsAbility” and phronesis?

 
Further literature:

- Biesta, G.J.J. (2015): “How does a competent teacher become a good teacher? On judgement, wisdom and virtuosity in teaching and teacher education.” In: Heilbronn, R. & Foreman‐Peck, L. (eds.): Philosophical perspectives on the future of teacher education. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. 

- Biesta, G.J. 2013. The beautiful risk of education. Routledge. 

- Biesta, G,J. 2017. The Rediscovery of teaching. Routledge. 

- Biesta, G.J. 2020. Risking Ourselves in Education: Qualification, Socialization, and Subjectification Revisited. Educational Theory, v70 n1 p89-104 2020