Open AccessResponsibility as the Welcoming of Difference: Thoughts on Levinas and a Teacher’s Experience
Author(s) -
Tim Molnar
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
in education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1927-6117
DOI - 10.37119/ojs2012.v18i1.24
Subject(s) - hospitality , sociology , context (archaeology) , economic justice , racism , vulnerability (computing) , social justice , social responsibility , work (physics) , pedagogy , epistemology , public relations , social science , law , gender studies , philosophy , political science , tourism , mechanical engineering , paleontology , computer security , computer science , biology , engineering
This work interweaves a discussion of the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and the experience of an educator working in a cross-cultural context, to provide an opportunity for the reader to reconceive the idea of responsibility. Through this article, I develop the idea that responsibility can be understood as a welcoming of difference where a “language” of interruption, vulnerability, hospitality, and learning from the other exists. The notion of welcoming is offered as complimentary approach to other arguments advocating the necessity for educators to attend to anti-racist and social justice issues and perhaps offers another answer to doubts concerning the involvement of educators.Keywords: Levinas; responsibility; difference; social justice; anti-racism