Listening-to-Learn-to-Understand: A Forgotten Virtue?

Conversation requires reciprocity. When we speak, we rely on the interpretative good will of our audiences. We also expect our audience to pay attention to what we are saying. But good listening requires more than simply paying attention and interpretative charity. A good listener will typically be able to empathise with the speaker. They will be able to understand the speaker’s point of view–to put themselves in the their shoes, so to speak. A good listener excels in perspective-taking and exercises phronetic tact and skill in setting aside their assumptions, biases, agenda, and preconceptions. When they are told something that clashes with their pre-existing beliefs, they are willing and able to consider the possibility that there is something wrong with those beliefs, in such a way that the quality and integrity of the listener-experience, and testimonial content therein, remains intact. Interestingly, these questions haven’t been addressed in much detail in contemporary philosophical or educational literature.

To address this lacuna, we aim to bring together researchers working in fields such as education, healthcare, sociology, psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry and philosophy to facilitate critical conversations with the aim of producing novel empirical and conceptual work in this area.

Internationally renowned speakers from the US and UK will speak to some of these topics and more in a convivial setting.

Speaker Lineup:

Prof Maria Kyriakidou, Cardiff University

Dr Susan Notess, Durham University

Prof Nicholas Burbules, University of Illinois

Dr Richard Stupart, Liverpool University

Dr Lisa Foran, UCD

Prof Kate Lacey, Sussex University

All are welcome to this small, yet targeted interdisciplinary event, which brings together researchers and practitioners interested in the topic of listening in learner settings.

We very much look forward to welcoming you in due course.

Gerry and Robin

For queries, please contact [email protected] or [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Marino Institute of Education, Griffith Avenue, Dublin, Ireland