Introduction

Abstract

In the chapter, d’Agnese presents the book’s overall framework and its aims and purposes. Dewey and Heidegger, of course, are central. However, d’Agnese’s attempt is not an analysis of Dewey and Heidegger per se. The book responds to the challenge of creating an alternative educational space than that embodied by the neoliberal educational agenda, which, over the last couple of decades, has reframed educational goals and schooling practices worldwide. To accomplish this task, d’Agnese deeply explores both Deweyan and Heideggerian understandings of existence and experience. In both thinkers, d’Agnese argues, the world, living, experience and even one’s conscious thinking always maintain a foundation of mystery and unpredictability. In other words, Dewey and Heidegger reveal an inescapable uncertainty at the core of human thinking and acting. Such an uncertainty, rather than flowing in some nihilistic defeat of educational purposes, puts radical responsibility on the side of the subject, who is simultaneously embedded in and produces educational processes and practices. In this sense, preserving the very unpredictability of students’ connectedness and beyondness is at the core of our educational and philosophical work.