This book sets out to explore the challenge to education contained in Heidegger's work. His
direct remarks about education are examined and placed in the broader context of his philosophy
to create an account of Heidegger's challenge. Martin Heidegger is an undisputed giant of 20th
Century thought. During his long academic career he made decisive contributions to philosophy
influencing a host of thinkers in the process including Arendt Gadamer Sartre Merleau-Ponty
Derrida and Foucault. Heidegger inquired into the deepest levels of human being and its social
natural and technological contexts. Although he did not develop a systematic philosophy of
education his philosophical insights and occasional remarks about education make him an
interesting and troubling figure for education. Heidegger is of interest to education for his
contributions to our understanding of human being and its environment. Heidegger's insights are
troubling too for many of the assumptions of education. His critiques of humanism and the
modern instrumental mindset in particular have significant implications. The work of scholars
who have expanded on Heidegger's remarks and those who have been influenced by his philosophy
is also surveyed to fill out the examination. A vision of education emerges in which teachers
and learners awaken to the deadening influences around them and become attuned to the openness
of being.
