The Tact of Teaching ─ The Meaning of Pedagogical Thoughtfulness

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

Max van Manen is emeritus Professor in Research Methods, Pedagogy and Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta and Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria. He is the leading proponent of the practice and meaning of phenomenological inquiry in pedagogy, psychology, health science, and the human sciences. He is author of numerous books on phenomenology and on pedagogy, including Phenomenology of Practice (2014), The Tact of Teaching (1991), and The Tone of Teaching (2002) and has had his books translated into nine languages. He has also authored over 100 articles and chapters on pedagogy, health science, qualitative research methods, and phenomenology. He founded the journal Phenomenology and Pedagogy and developed the website PhenomenologyOnline. He is recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Curriculum Division of the American Educational Research Association among numerous other awards and distinctions.