David Lewin is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His research focuses on the intersections between philosophy of education, philosophy of religion and philosophy of technology. He is the author of Technology and the Philosophy of Religion (Cambridge Scholars, 2011) and Educational Philosophy for a Post-secular Age (Routledge, 2016), and has edited a number of books including: From Ricoeur to Action: the Socio-Political Significance of Ricoeur’s Thinking (Continuum 2012), New Perspectives in Philosophy of Education (Bloomsbury 2014), and Love and Desire in Education (Wiley Blackwell 2019). David’s current research focuses on notions of didactical and pedagogical representation and reduction. He co-leads the ‘Experiments in Educational Theory’ research group based at the University of Strathclyde.
Karsten Kenklies is a Senior Lecturer in Systematic Pedagogy and History of Education at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Very much rooted in the tradition of Hermeneutic Pedagogy and informed by discussions around Queer Theory and Inter- & Transculturality, his research is interested in the systematic structures of theories and practices of education and their embeddedness in the context of the History of Ideas, Science, Philosophy and Art. The temporal scope reaches from Antiquity to the present - along exoteric, but also esoteric lines of tradition. Keenly interested in Japanese culture, a substantial part of Karsten’s research is devoted to intercultural comparisons of ‘Western’ and, especially, East Asian & other approaches to education. He co-leads the ‘Experiments in Educational Theory’ research group based at the University of Strathclyde.
This book opens up philosophical spaces for comparative discussions of education across ‘East and West’. It develops an intercultural dialogue by exploring the Anglo-American traditions of educational trans-/formation and European constructions of Bildung, alongside East Asian traditions of trans-/formation and development. Comparatively little research has been done in this area, and many questions concerning the commensurability of North American, European and East Asian pedagogies remain. Despite this dearth of theoretical research, there is ample evidence of continued interest in (self-)formation through various East Asian practices, from martial arts to health and spiritual practices (e.g. Aikido, Tai Chi, Yoga, mindfulness etc.), suggesting that these ‘traditional’ practices and pedagogical relations have something important to offer, despite their marginal standing in educational discourse. This book will appeal to all researchers and students of comparative education studies with an interest in issues of interpretation and translation between different traditions and cultures.