eteragogy?

“Pedagogy” and “andragogy” are both inappropriate terms for an ecological perspective on our learning and teaching relations with others. First of all, there is no separation between ways of educating adults and children. More importantly though, these terms mislead us into perceiving education as a uniquely human affair. They cut us off from the rich and continuous learning interactions that go on between us and other life forms. Terms such as these have a self-validating nature about them: once we internalize that learning relationships do not occur between us and other species, then we go about our daily lives ignoring those very beings that would be in dialogue with us were we open to it. I have been toying with new sorts of words and think that something more like “eteragogy” or “heterogogy” (or perhaps even “biogogy”) would be more inclusive for reorienting education to being about all humans, all life forms, all interactions. "Etera" is Greek for "other" or "another". It refers to the interactions one has with every other interacting being -including with oneself. I accept that we often live our day to day affairs in a curious dialectic with ourselves: always within us one who leads and the one who is led. What is always at issue is the fact that I am in interaction with someone else, something "other" than the "I" who is conscious of this interaction.

I think it is suitable enough to keep the suffix “gogy” for now - when we interact with others, we really do lead them to believe or act in this or that way, whether we do so consciously, willingly, or otherwise. This leading may be in directions unanticipated than our original intentions.