Dr. Philip L. Smith, co-adviser and Chair (Ohio State University) Dr. Bryan Warnick, co-adviser and committee member (Ohio State University) Dr. Patti Lather, committee member (Ohio State University) Dr. William Taylor, committee member (Ohio State University) Dr. Timothy Leonard, external reader (St. Xavier University)
Abstract:
In the strictest sense, this dissertation is not theoretical. It is methodological and descriptive. Methodologically, I am concerned with how to speak of ontology and education. Attempting to speak this way, my analysis begins with some categories and technical terms that create a preliminary roadmap for the work to come. This roadmap serves as the reference point for my descriptive project: to describe the what of education, study, and the person.
In the end, my purpose is to describe things in a way that shows alignment between the how and the what. The “alignment” is not meant to be exact; it should only begin to sketch things out.
The normative work that might follow from these descriptions is not the topic for discussion, but insofar as my descriptions grasp onto some-thing instead of no-thing, then, there are normative claims that must be made: to reject nihilism; to be, live, and exist; to struggle against disenchanted conventions; to teach.
Beyond normative claims, there are also practical suggestions for curriculum and teacher education. Namely, that phenomenological methods and ontological descriptions should be a part of teacher preparation and curriculum development. They are powerful tools for education as a way of being rather than just a way of learning. Approaching education in this way, teachers—you and me, in others words—might begin to develop the resources for creating a curriculum of things in the world, not disembodied theories or practices. Such an approach might offer resources to education that could withstand the loss of the school itself.
