Abstract

In this article, the text genre of educational policies of today are identified as ›neoliberal metaphysics‹ and as bare of pedagogical reality. They lack human depth and interdisciplinary breadth. By taking stand in the approach of Hans-Georg Gadamer, a German philosopher of the so called continental tradition, this paper refers civil engagement, education and Bildung to the principles of interpersonal conversation as a mode of ›creating theory within practice‹. Considering conversational relationality in terms of pedagogical responsibility, also the ›dignity of pedagogical practice‹ is explained. Gadamer’s hermeneutic-phenomenological conception of conversation is compared with an approach to language advanced by the American pragmatist, Richard Rorty. Both approaches amount to the conversational character of pedagogy instead of accountability policy that addresses purpose and compliance.