J. CURRICULUM STUDIES, 2010, 1–25, iFirst Article Journal of Curriculum Studies ISSN 0022–0272 print/ISSN 1366–5839 online ©2010 Taylor & Francis http://www.informaworld.com DOI: 10.1080/00220270903494279 Reviving forgotten connections in North American teacher education: Klaus Mollenhauer and the pedagogical relation NORM FRIESEN and TONE SÆVI 1 Taylor and Francis TCUS_A_449845.sgm 10.1080/00220270903494279 Journal of Curriculum Studies 0022-0272 (print)/1366-5839 (online) Original Article 2009 Taylor & Francis 00 0000002009 Dr NormFriesen nfriesen@tru.ca Despite the dominance of instrumental, psychological approaches to educational theory and practice in North America, a different understanding of the value and dynamics of education is often articulated informally in cultural representations (e.g. fiction and feature films) and in personal recollections. This alternative understanding is one in which the personal char- acteristics of a teacher or professor, and the relation between student and teacher are often paramount. Through reference to existing research and to examples drawn from real-life practice, this paper presents a broadly existential and explicitly relational way of understand- ing education, or, rather, pedagogy. It gives special emphasis to the way that such an under- standing has been articulated in the text Vergessene Zusammenhänge: über Kultur und Erziehung [Forgotten Connections: On Culture and Education] by Klaus Mollenhauer. The paper describes how the insights of Mollenhauer and other writers regarding an existential and relational pedagogy were translated and adapted for a North American course in teacher education, and how such a course can serve as an important ingredient in nurturing under- graduate students who are becoming teachers. Keywords: culture; educational philosophy; educational practices; Mollenhauer; pedagogical relation; teaching education The humanistic European pedagogy at the core of this paper can perhaps be best introduced not through general historical or theoretical statements, but through a particular and vivid description. This paper begins, there- fore, not with theory or even practical suggestions, but with a description of a pedagogical experience told by a mentally challenged student 2 named Oda: When my answer is wrong, I know it immediately because Per [the teacher] looks at me with this particular humourous glance and says, after just a tiny little pause: ‘Yes …?’ Then I understand that he wants me to give the question a second thought. He just leans back comfortably and waits. That’s why I like him so much. I feel relaxed and smart with him. 3 Norm Friesen is Canada Research Chair in E-Learning Practices at Thompson Rivers University, University Main Campus, Box 3010, Kamloops BC, Canada V2C 5N3; e-mail: nfriesen@tru.ca. He is the author of Re-thinking E-Learning Research: Foundations, Methods, and Practices (New York: Peter Lang, 2009). Tone Sævi is a professor at the School of Education in the Norwegian Teachers’ Academy, Bergen, Norway. She teaches pedagogy and philosophy of education, and her research focuses on phenomenological pedagogy, the phenomenology of disability, and pedagogy and film.