Abstract

Reflections on the educational practices that we have found ourselves using have led us to the notion of “koto”. This is a concept from Japanese philosophy that has no direct equivalent in English, but can loosely be interpreted as the intersection between the concrete world of “things” and the abstract realm of feelings and thought. Although originating in an Asian setting, our ideas are generally applicable. We introduce a conceptualisation we call the “koto wedge” that can be used to ground thinking in and on education, giving numerous examples to demonstrate the predictive and explanatory power of the approach. To aid in understanding the koto concept itself we draw on examples from the real world. Two stories in particular that will help us are those of Achim Leistner, who polishes spheres, and the peasants of Slovakia, who once knew fame for their handmade shawls.