Worldlessness and Wordlessness: How Might We Talk about Teacher Education in a Fractured World?

Abstract

In this polyvocal article, four teacher educators evoke Arendt’s notion of world alienation or worldlessness : a fracturing not only of the spaces that allow action in concert with one another, and a more generous recognition of plurality, but also wordlessness , the experience of a flood of meaningless words and constructions that serve to cover up possibilities for understanding. The authors reflect collectively and separately on neoliberal influences on faculties of education, and of experiencing a loss of language that might allow for deeper understandings of humanity in our academic institutions. These collective reflections about teacher education highlight the stories and discussions of experiencing worldlessness, and facing the challenge of narrating more generously the meanings of our work.