The Tact of Teaching

Book excerpt: In The Tact of Teaching bestselling author Max van Manen offers teachers at every stage an original and inspiring interpretation of the notion of pedagogy, one that searches for its roots in the experience of in loco parentis. Using dozens of anecdotes and scenes taken directly from life in classrooms, including many from the often-neglected domain of high school, The Tact of Teaching explicates the meaning of pedagogical moments, the conditions of pedagogy, the relation between pedagogy and politics, the nature of pedagogical experience, and the practical forms of pedagogical understanding. The author: -Presents experiential analysis of the relation between pedagogical reflection and action-Explores how pedagogical tact manifests itself, what tact accomplishes, and how tact does what it does-Speaks of hope and humane practice in an era of schooling often given over to mindless technocracy or fashionable despair