Teachers and existentialist philosophy (Alison Brady)

Meet The Education Researcher

What relevance does existentialism have for teachers? Dr. Alison Brady (UCL) uses the existentialist philosophy of Jean Paul Sartre to rethink what it means for teachers to reflect and account for their own practice. We talk about Sartre’s ideas about the self and freedom, how teaching might be seen as a process of ‘bad faith’, and why teachers need talk candidly and honestly about the vulnerabilities of being in the classroom. Alison is the author of ‘Being a Teacher: From Technicist to Existential Accounts’ (Springer, 2023).