The pathic principle of pedagogical language

This paper attempts to show how the pedagogical task of teaching involves cultivating pathic dimensions of the epistemology of teaching practice. Teacher knowledge is pathic to the extent that the act of teaching depends on the teacher's personal presence, relational perceptiveness, tact for knowing what to say and do in contingent situations, thoughtful routines and practices, and other aspects of knowledge that are in part pre-reflective, pre-theoretic, pre-linguistic and, in a sense, non-cognitive. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.