Commentary on Eugene and Kiyo’s dialogue on dialogic

This fascinating dialogue raised many questions. In this commentary I will focus on just three questions that particularly stimulated me to further reflection: ‘why classification?’; ‘what is ontology? ’ and ‘where does agency come from?’ Why classification? Eugene starts with a complex classification of types of dialogic pedagogy and it is this that sparks Kiyo’s disagreement. For Kiyo the division of ontological from epistemological dialogic pedagogy seems too constraining and the whole idea of classification does not seem very dialogic. He prefers to see the terms as related in the way that voices in a dialogue are related. In a dialogue voices are both separate and united, participating in each other. Perhaps terms like ‘ontological dialogic pedagogy ’ and ‘epistemological dialogic pedagogy ’ are more like perspectives on pedagogy than separate practices? Whenever I see a classification system listing everything into clear relationships I think of Borges’ famous alternative taxonomy, which he claimed to have taken from an ancient Chinese encyclopædia entitled ‘Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge’: The list divides all animals into one of 14 categories: Those that belong to the emperor Embalmed ones Those that are trained Suckling pigs Mermaids (or Sirens) Fabulous ones Stray dogs Those that are included in this classification Those that tremble as if they were ma