Pursuing Freedom, Making Strange - Pedagogical Considerations for Art as an Other

Oct 15, 2026

This analysis addresses the ethical and epistemological considerations for using arts-based pedagogy to disrupt dominant hegemonies in the classroom and to support an inclusive, robust democracy. It advances two arguments: education should renew democracy through ethical and political responsibilities toward the other, and art can function as that other in unique and powerful ways. The discussion centers on intersubjective relations at the core of ethics and politics, and concludes with pedagogical implications.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

The Significance of the Other

Levinas: Listening, Responsibility, Wisdom, and Freedom

Arendt: Politics, Natality, and the Common World

Pursuing Freedom, Making Strange: Pedagogical Considerations for Art as an Other Lana Parker York University Abstract This analysis addresses the ethical and epistemological considerations for using an arts-based pedagogy in the classroom as a means of disrupting dominant hegemonies and as a foundation fora more inclusive, robust democracy. The work advances two arguments. First, education must seek recourse for a renewed democracy by focussing on our ethical and political responsibilities in relation to the other. Second, art can serve to act as that other in unique and powerful ways in the classroom. I begin by proposing that an intersubjective relation is at the heart of both ethics and politics. I then consider how art can serve as an other in that relation. To conclude, I discuss the pedagogical implications for art as an other in pursuing freedom and advancing toward democracy. Keywords: art; art pedagogy; ethics; democracy; other Dr. Lana Parker is a Course Director at the Faculty of Education at York University, Toronto, Canada. She researches and writes about the complex intersections of literacy pedagogy, politics, and philosophy of education. Email: [laparker@edu.yorku.ca](laparker@edu.yorku.ca) This study explores the possibilities for an education that forefronts the intersubjective relation as the heart of both ethics and politics, and that enriches learning through a considered approach to the arts. First, I argue that in the face of post-industrial liberalism, neoliberalism, and neoconservatism, education must seek recourse for a renewed democracy by focussing on our ethical and political responsibilities in relation to the other. I suggest that art, as an encountered sign, can serve as an other in the classroom. The last half of this analysis considers two possibilities for pedagogy: art as a way of pursuing freedom and art as a way to move toward a deeper, more responsive democracy. The Significance of the Other In seeking to disrupt dominant hegemonies and in moving toward a more just and inclusive democracy, this work aims to establish an intersubjective relationship with the other as requisite to ethics and politics. To elaborate on the significance of the other for ethics and politics, it is useful to contemplate the work of Levinas (1989, 2011) and Arendt (1998) . Their work offers possible consideration for how (and why) the other might be established as a primary point of departure in our search for meaning-making that is simultaneously inclusive and disruptive. Levinas: Listening, Responsibility, Wisdom, and Freedom Levinas (1989) proposes the conditions for an ethics that is rooted in our inherent responsibility for the other. Each person assumes a pre-ontological responsibility for an “other” whose place and space they inhabit. Levinas (1989) notes,“one has to respond to one's right to be, not by referring to some abstract and anonymous law, or judicial entity, but because of one's fear for the Other”(p. 82) . A person meets this responsibility through an interaction with the other in which the self (I) becomes a listener who is vulnerable to the other; this other speaks to me and calls me into question. In this interaction, where I am the listener the other becomes my teacher, I listen with the aim, not of possessing a complete knowledge of the other, but with the goal of breaking apart my own incomplete understandings ofthe world. I resist complete knowledge, the pretence of full understanding, which Levinas (1989) terms the bonne conscience, by seeking the uncertainty of the “mauvaise conscience”(p. 82) instead. The distinction between the bonne and mauvaise conscience can be articulated as the difference between knowledge and wisdom. For Levinas, the bonne conscience is synonymous with Western epistemologies that prioritize the mastery of “accepted doctrine, teachings, [and] sciences”(Levinas, 1989, p. 77). Knowledge, independent of the other, is self-contained and untr

FAQs

What is the central ethical purpose of arts-based pedagogy in this work?

It uses arts-based pedagogy to disrupt dominant hegemonies and to establish an intersubjective relationship with the other as required for ethics and politics.

How does Levinas connect listening to responsibility, wisdom, and freedom?

Levinas frames ethics as responsibility for the other and describes listening as vulnerable engagement that troubles self-certainty; wisdom and an uneasy form of freedom emerge from this ongoing work of listening and responding.

What two possibilities for pedagogy does the analysis consider regarding art?

Art is considered both as a way of pursuing freedom and as a way to move toward a deeper, more responsive democracy.

Oct 15, 2026

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