Right Distance or Right Presence?

• Main Author: Edmée Runtz-Christan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul 2011-05-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença
• Subjects: Presence; Pedagogy; Didactics; Teacher Education; Performance
• Online Access: http://seer.ufrgs.br/presenca/article/view/22014/13692

At a time when experts confront each other in order to determine what is essential to knowledge and didactics, to the logic of intention or to the logic of competence, it is necessary to recall that the only thing that the teacher can transmit is the will to know. Neither teaching nor didactics allows the learner to economize in the transition to the act. It is only when the student has decided to learn that they will acquire the knowledge and skills to succeed. It is essential to stimulate the student to act, remembering that, to be viable, the pedagogic relationship must be inscribed within an ethical, institutional and relational system, avoiding dependence or indifference to any of these. How then to convey the will to know without manipulating the student by means of didactic, relational or institutional strategies? How could the presence of the teacher be used to enhance the process of learning? What distances should be respected in order to sustain interest?