Understanding Emerson’s Self-Reliance in Terms of Education with a Focus on Language Didactics

• Authors: Jérome Kouassi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Education has always been at the heart of most, if not all, human endeavours. This explains the growing interest of many scholars in educational issues. Self-Reliance, one of Emerson’s most impressive and influential works, provides an outstanding contribution to education in general and particularly to the personal development of individuals in society. The relevance of the educational values addressed in Self-Reliance makes it an appropriate context for academic reflection. This paper scrutinises the educational dimension of Emerson’s work with a focus on language didactics. My concern is to provide evidence that the educational values expressed instruct didactics. The study of Self-Reliance reveals the expression of some values, the main ones being trust, responsibility, commitment, creativity, autonomy, independence, self-esteem, self-determination, self-evaluation, and individual talents. By reflecting on their educational dimension with a focus on their didactic implications I come to conclude that even though didactics does not draw directly on Emerson’s educational philosophy, it integrates some aspects, notably the values referred to in this paper.

Keywords

EN

Didactics; Self-Reliance; Constructivism; Education; Value

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human and Social Studies
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 90-106

Dates

published

2015-10-01

online

2015-11-10

Contributors

author

Jérome Kouassi

• Department of English, Félix Houphouët-Boigny University, Cocody- Abidjan, 01 BP V 34 Abidjan 01 Ivory Coast

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/hssr-2015-0026