Making the familiar unfamiliar: re-thinking teaching in higher education

Increased interest in teaching has been evident in recent decades, accompanied by heightened activity in promoting teaching quality. Programs about teaching and learning in higher education are one strategy adopted for this purpose. This article is concerned with reflecting upon, and theorising, the experience of teaching in one such accredited program for academics across the disciplines. Selected ideas are canvassed from Heidegger and Irigaray in exploring and articulating the experience of teaching in this program. Despite differences in their philosophies, Heidegger and Irigaray share some common concerns, with implications for pedagogy. Moreover, both have written about education, highlighting an ontological dimension concerned with how we are learning to be. This has resonance with the program explored in this article and aligns with an ‘ontological turn’ occurring in higher education. An ontological dimension has been taken up in the program through making the familiar unfamiliar in experiencing anew our teaching, as well as the learning by and with our students. This article makes an original and timely contribution to re-thinking teaching through exploring, both conceptually and in practice, what an ontological turn means for teaching in higher education.