Dialogue in education

Abstract

This paper analyses the phenomenon of dialogue that is in close relationship with  the process of education and in this context we seek its meaning and role. Starting  from the etymology of the word ‘dialogue’, we indicate here some basic problems  related with dialogue, its nature and its relationship with education. Education calls  for dialogue because of tis spiritual character and nature. The analysis of the basic  elements that compose the structure of dialogue allows us to list its varieties and  its implications for education and teaching and for pedagogy itself as a science. An  authentic dialogue requires many attitudes, internal inclinations and skills. It is the  leaving of person’s ‘I’ from himself through speech (by way of words or gestures)  and tending toward the second ‘you’ in which we offer ourselves to another, and we  also accept his word and open ourselves to his most intimate sphere.  According to J. Tarnowski, dialogue is a process through which two subjects,  with the use of words, reconcile their points of view and their ways of life. Dialogue  understood in this manner is a method, process, and attitude and it may be fruitful  only there where its subjects support and respect each other. Without this climate,  dialogue would remain monologue or else, as it happens at times, dialogue between  the deaf people. According to Janusz Tarnowski, the basic forms of dialogue are the  following: 1) substantial dialogue, its subject matter being everything that surrounds  us, that is, any spheres of knowledge; 2) personal dialogue, that tends to unite persons  when its partners reveal themselves with their internal experiences and their drive  towards the Truth and Beauty; 3) existential dialogue is based on a complete gift that  the partners offer of their existence, the gift that is a token of the ultimate Love.  Education to dialogue presupposes the shaping of pupils to be able to enter  into a dialogue with other persons as such, to accept and respect them, and to  contribute to their humankind. The essence of educational dialogue is connected  with the relationship between one person and another person. In this relationship, the  differences related to age and role become blurred. It arouses sympathy and mutual  interest, mutual communication and a readiness to take into consideration the other  person’s words and viewpoints, until one is able to look at the world around from  the position of another person.