I–Thou Communication in Distant Education from the Perspective of Martin Buber’s Philosophy

Abstract

The internet space has become one of the essential tools for ensuring continuity of higher education studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Established distance learning is based on virtual communication, which, by replacing the experience of interpersonal communication, raises many discussions about the possibilities of ensuring efficiency and improvement of distance education. The article deals with Martin Buber’s dialogue education attitudes, which have become especially relevant in the current era of the internet when the absolutisation of technologies and media poses many threats to developing interpersonal relationships and spiritual values. In the first part of the article, the relationship is discussed as the basic foundation of education. It is revealed that Buber emphasises the importance and priority of I–Thou relationship over theoretical knowledge in developing a young person. In the context of Buber’s philosophy, the second part of the article examines the problems of exclusion and alienation that arise in distance learning during virtual communication. Thus, the analysis of the article reveals the possibilities of improving distance learning in order to raise the objective, formal and instrumental I–It relationship of teachers and students to the subjective plane of I–Thou communication.