Hermeneutics, digital culture and intercultural education: teacher education in the times of digital technologies
Abstract
Recent works on philosophical anthropology state that the changes related to the popularization of digital technologies have profound impacts on the anthropological self-understanding of the "digital man." One way of conceptualizing such transformations is considering the emergence of a distinctive digital culture. The degree to which a person is immersed in this digital culture is variable. However, it is argued that there is a generational difference in the use and access to these technologies. The educational relevance of taking these differences into consideration is called into attention given the current increasing need for online educational solutions. Research and experience in the field of multicultural education have provided both a warning about the difficulty of education in these settings (different cultures) and possible solutions based on teacher education. A subset of this literature draws upon the philosophical tradition of hermeneutics as sources of inspiration. This situation brings forward 4 questions, that I would like to discuss and explore in this seminar: (1) In what ways can we consider digital culture as something distinct? (2) How are these differences reproduced and accentuated between generations? (3) What part of the discourse on multicultural education can be translated into the discourse of cultural differences based on technology? (4) How hermeneutics can serve as a tool for teacher education to bring into consideration these differences?