The Possibilities for a Pedagogy of Boredom: Rethinking the Opportunities of Elusive Learning

Abstract

This paper theorizes on the elusive relationship between boredom and education, rethinking the opportunities and implications of encountering the boring in the sphere of schooling. In approaching the writings of Heidegger, Benjamin, and Kracauer, among others, I wonder whether a failure to recognize the utter ambiguity and ambivalence of boredom, as something that affects both teachers and students, bespeaks an impulse to ignore the potential that lies in the uncertainties of educational practice. I also reflect on how the shape of this recognition influences whether we consent to, or disavow, the inevitable absence of omnipotence and mastery in the movements of teaching and learning.