This article revisits Listening to the Literal: Orientations Towards How Nature Communicates (Blenkinsop & Piersol, 2013), a phenomenological inquiry that proposed the radical idea that nature speaks—literally, not metaphorically. Through renewed dialogue with the authors and a tracing of how their thinking has evolved over the past twelve years, this paper explores the continued resonance and expansion of their work. Drawing from conversations, recent publications, and Indigenous and eco-phenomenological scholarship, the paper re-engages the original five orientations toward more-than-human communication and expanded understandings of ontological fluidity and polyvocality. Particular attention is paid to the politics of language, the ethical implications of listening as a pedagogical act, and the ways in which Indigenous languages and relational grammars emerge from the Land. This re-engagement offers a generative reflection on how listening to the literal has catalyzed new research on eco-democracy, consent, and Bildung. As planetary systems teeter toward collapse, the paper proposes that cultivating literal listening especially in education as a vital practice for ecological attunement and survival. Ultimately, it calls for a reorientation of language, perception, and pedagogy toward a world where the communicative agency of the more-than-human is acknowledged, respected, and co-educational—between human and more-than-human beings.
This article reflects on Stephen Smith's influential 2011 phenomenological paper, Becoming Horse in the Duration of the Moment: The Trainer's Challenge, through a retrospective dialogue between Smith and co-editor Andrew Foran for this Special Issue of Phenomenology & Practice. The discussion traces Foran's initial skepticism toward the manuscript and the subsequent shift in understanding prompted by peer review and deeper engagement. Becoming Horse is not about literal identification with animals, but about how serious engagement in more-than-human relationships-particularly those involving human-horse interactions-can deepen human relational and pedagogical sensibilities. Smith argues that attunement to animals enlarges humanity, offering insights into care, responsiveness, and pedagogical sensitivity. The dialogue revisits Smith's motivations, his turn toward the "animal question" in phenomenology, and how equestrian practices such as gentling, liberty play, and motion-based interactivity informed his evolving phenomenological method. Drawing on thinkers such as MerleauPonty, Heidegger, Henry, Barbaras, and van Manen, Smith emphasizes motility, tactility, and life phenomenology as central to making good sense of deeply lived experience. Ultimately, the article positions Becoming Horse as a lasting contribution that challenges human-centered phenomenology, expands pedagogical thinking, and models a phenomenology of possibility grounded in animated, life-affirming relational practices.
The experience of having one’s body looked upon in a simultaneously public, yet private space, such as a fitness center change room, is both deeply specific and yet highly recognizable. First explored by Marianne Clark in her 2011 article, Whose Eyes?: Women’s Experiences of Changing in a Public Change Room, author Clark discusses, with Phenomenology & Practice’s co-editor Erika Goble, how the phenomenon has both changed and yet, remains highly relevant 14 years later. Clark and Goble also discuss the centrality of the body in the production and interpretation of meaning and the persistent difficulty in adequately theorizing and conceptualizing bodies and their capacities.
This paper presents a retrospective, dialogic reflection on Being and Becoming Woke in Teacher Education (Babulski, 2020), authored collaboratively by Timothy Babulski and guest editors Wills Kalisha and Helene Torsteinson for the Special Issue: Looking Ahead by Looking Back. Through a phenomenological exchange shaped by time, shifting political contexts, and scholarly correspondence, the authors revisit the concept of "becoming woke" as both a pedagogical and political phenomenon. Drawing on Babulski's experiences as a graduate student and teacher-scholar navigating neoliberal higher education in the United States, the dialogue examines how wokeness has been variously appropriated, contested, and misunderstood over the past decade. The conversation explores the phenomenological impact to trace wokeness as a dynamic, multistable phenomenon rather than a fixed state of being. The paper further situates wokeness in relation to education, authority, and democracy, engaging theorists including Arendt, Ahmed, Dewey, Foucault, Deleuze, and Guattari. By introducing the concepts of solidarity and "sorcerous" teaching, the authors reimagine the classroom as a liminal space for ethical becoming, disruption of authoritarian knowledge structures, and the cultivation of socially just educational praxis.
This interview features Stein M. Wivestad, Professor Emeritus of General Pedagogic, discussing the enduring significance of Klaus Mollenhauer’s modern classic, Forgotten Connections: On Culture and Upbringing (Vergessene Zusammenhänge). Wivestad reflects on over thirty years of teaching Mollenhauer’s work to students of education, detailing a unique seminar approach that pairs Mollenhauer’s six central themes—such as presentation, representation, Bildsamkeit, and self-activity—with feature films to illuminate their existential dimensions. The conversation explores the distinction between “pedagogy” as mere instructional technique and “general pedagogic” (allgemeine Pädagogik) as a broader, reflective discipline concerned with the fundamental relationship between generations.
