Wonder and Education: On the Educational Importance of Contemplative Wonder

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Many people, whether educators or not, will agree that an education that does not inspire wonder is barren. Wonder is commonly perceived as akin to curiosity, as stimulating inquiry, and as something that enhances pleasure in learning, but there are many experiences of wonder that do not have an obvious place in education. In Wonder and Education, Anders Schinkel theorises a kind of wonder with less obvious yet fundamental educational importance which he calls 'contemplative wonder'. Contemplative wonder disrupts frameworks of understanding that are taken for granted and perceived as natural and draws our attention to the world behind our constructions, sparking our interest in the world as something worth attending to for its own sake rather than for our purposes. It opens up space for the consideration of (radical) alternatives wherever it occurs, and in many cases is linked with deep experiences of value; therefore, it is not just important for education in general, but also, more specifically, for moral and political education.

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An important and foundational counterattack or antidote to ... intellectual and spiritual sleepiness ... [Schinkel] has done a remarkable scholarly job, helping us to see in depth the many aspects and dimensions of contemplative wonder and connecting these insights to education. * Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education *

Author Bio

Anders Schinkel is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Education at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands.