The Teacher's World: Heideggerian Authenticity and Existential Thinking in Initial Teacher Education

In this study, it is argued that Heidegger's philosophic pedagogy-the realization that we are always already philosophical (ontological) beings-should constitute an integral part of a school-based approach to initial teacher education curriculum. Beginning teachers need to be equipped with an intimate understanding of a teacher's world to experience the unified nature of this world and experience disruptions and perplexity within it to learn to renew their attunement to the unity of this world. This can only be done by being immersed within the praxis of teaching from the very start. Clinical experience and coursework should not be treated as two separate domains that are somehow externally interlinked. The starting point and the unit of analysis for the curriculum should be the teacher's world. Clinical experience and coursework can then become meaningful distinctions and moments within a holistic understanding of this world.