In the cell of self-knowledge: the development of a hermeneutic horizon of post-secondary teaching

Abstract

The question of what it means to be a university teacher rather than merely do university teaching is answered by examining the process by which a horizon of the meaning of teaching developed through the writer's lived experiences. Gadamer writes that having a horizon "means not being limited to what is nearby but being able to see beyond it", knowing "the relative significance of everything within this horizon, ... near or far .. great or small" (Gadamer: 302). Encounters within obviously educational contexts combine with emotional, spiritual and medical experiences to reveal a complex horizon made up of the lived experiences of childhood, parenthood, studying, teaching, Platonic thought, medieval mysticism, research on ethics in university teaching, analysis of institutional codes, religious conversion, Catholic sacraments, and breast cancer. This horizon continues to change and in the face of that changing, the only way to understand what it means to be a university teacher is to be transparent in the face of an understanding of Teaching that transcends conventional definitions.