The classroom environment in higher education: a perspective from Hannah Arendt

Abstract

Hannah Arendt presents an interpretation of public space and living in the polis, which for her equates to freedom. This means being in contact with the world and encountering other human beings to engage in dialogue and exchange viewpoints. Thus, this freedom and living in the polis, can only occur within a public space where citizens truly interact with one another.

The essay presented below aims to take up the proposal of this author and address it from the classroom environment of higher education, where teachers and students are in constant dialogical exchange. The proposal consists of the classroom being a kind of agora where social issues are relativized, viewing it as a public space and linking it to the life in the polis of professionals in training.