DR VESELIN RAKOČEVIĆ
PEDAGOGY
as Practical Wisdom
Pedagogy as Practical Wisdom – A Hermeneutic Journey of a Teacher in the Age of Artificial Intelligence follows three decades of school and university experience of the teacher Herma and his pupils, later students. Teaching begins as a monologue within a closed horizon of knowledge, then gradually opens toward dialogue with tradition—represented by thirty-two great thinkers—and with a contemporary interlocutor: technology. In this movement, it ceases to be mere transmission and becomes a relationship in which even the unspoken can lead the spoken toward a word that truly resonates.
Anyone who has ever stepped into a school will recognize the movement between the given and the familiar—the uncertainty of the forced and the security of routine engagement—and that which is new and unpredictable, which calls for authentic dialogue. Within this “in-between,” without abandoning one’s own native ground of experience, an opportunity arises to learn a different language and to understand one’s own prejudices and limits in a new way.
A genuine question does not arise within the closed circle of personal experience. It is born in the space in-between—where text, experience, and the other meet, and where what is read can become an inner transformation.
This pedagogical-philosophical novel is intended for all those who recognize in education something more than a predetermined path—teachers, pupils, students, parents, and curious readers. For those who discover through dialogue that words, in encounter with others, can hint at the possibility of participating in the event of pedagogy as practical wisdom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Veselin Rakočević holds a PhD, and is a pedagogue and teacher with more than three decades of experience in primary, secondary, and higher education. He holds the highest professional title in the educational system of Montenegro—teacher-researcher.
He is the author of professional and scientific works, and his creative path has moved from the secure frameworks of systemic thinking, which provide continuity, toward a hermeneutic approach that introduces openness, ongoing reflection, and critical re-examination of pedagogical practice.
The novel Pedagogy as Practical Wisdom – A Hermeneutic Journey of a Teacher in the Age of Artificial Intelligence represents a synthesis of his professional and personal experience, as well as an affirmation of pedagogy not only as a theory, but as a living, responsible, and thoughtful practice.
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TITLE
Pedagogy as Practical Wisdom – Dr. Veselin Rakočević
A book that presents pedagogy as a practice that begins as monologue and gradually becomes an interpersonal dialogue in which technology, too, may serve as a medium for shaping meaning, understanding, and the disclosure of truth.
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Pedagogy as Practical Wisdom – The Hermeneutical Journey of a Teacher in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Dr. Veselin Rakočević is a unique pedagogical-philosophical novel, which follows three decades of experience of teacher Herm and his students, later disciples.
Teaching, which begins as speech within a closed horizon of knowledge, gradually opens toward dialogue with tradition — embodied in thirty-two great thinkers — and with a contemporary interlocutor: technology, transforming itself into a relationship in which even the unspoken may lead toward deeper insight.
Within this movement emerges the tension between the familiar and the unfamiliar, certainty and uncertainty, where the conversational “in-between” opens the possibility of a different understanding.
There, the question arises as an encounter of text, experience, and the other, while what is read becomes an inner shift.
This pedagogical-philosophical novel is addressed to all who recognize in education a path that does not end, but continues and expands within the event of pedagogy as practical wisdom.
Pedagogy as Movement
Pedagogy as movement: from forced, routine, and mechanical engagement toward dialogue that enables original and authentic participation — opening the horizon of Pedagogy as Practical Wisdom.
Pedagogy as an Expanded Horizon
This book does not proceed from a definition of pedagogy, but from experience through which pedagogy gradually reveals itself over time.
Pedagogy is presented here first as a closed system of knowledge, and then as an expanded horizon in which understanding is continuously reshaped. What is already familiar does not lose its value; rather, it acquires renewed meaning in encounter with the other — with the pupil, with the text, and with the time in which we live.
In this sense, pedagogy appears as practical wisdom: not as a finished statement, but as the capacity to pose open questions, to wait for responses, and to shape the appropriate words within a relationship in which conversation continues and expands.
Between Tradition and Contemporaneity
This book takes shape through dialogue with tradition — with the great thinkers who have marked the history of reflection on education and the human being. Herma and his students engage in conversation from different horizons of participation: forced, routine, and originally authentic, opening a space in which past and contemporary perspectives encounter one another. Among the inspirations present in this dialogue are: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Herbart, Montessori, Dewey, Freire, Illich, Neill, Makarenko, Bloom, Vygotsky, Piaget, Rogers, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dilthey, Buber, Heidegger, Gadamer, Ricoeur, Levinas, Sartre, Dostoevsky, Leonardo, Einstein, Tesla, Njegoš, Andrić, and ChatGPT.
In this encounter, tradition does not appear as a past that merely repeats itself, but as an interlocutor continually understood anew. Contemporaneity, on the other hand, brings not only new possibilities, but also new questions — particularly in the context of artificial intelligence as a participant in the process of learning.
Between these two poles, a space opens in which pedagogy becomes alive.
A Dialogue Without End
Understanding, as presented here, does not emerge as the result of simple explanation.
It takes shape through dialogue — through a process in which no participant remains unchanged.
Dialogue is not a path toward a final conclusion, but an open encounter in which the question possesses equal, and at times even greater, significance than the answer, for it is through questioning that deeper understanding becomes possible.
Within this process, even what remains unspoken finds its place — as the possibility for language to acquire deeper meaning.
Pedagogy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
The contemporary context in which this book appears opens a new chapter in thinking about education. Artificial intelligence does not participate in dialogue in the same way as a human being, yet it helps shape the horizon within which that dialogue unfolds.
For this reason, the question of pedagogy today cannot be considered without simultaneously asking:
- what it means to understand
- what it means to learn
- and what it means to be in relation with another
This book does not offer definitive answers; rather, it deepens and opens these questions, allowing the reader to reconsider them through personal experience and reflection.
Who Is This Book For?
This book is not intended solely for those professionally engaged in education. Above all, it addresses everyone willing to enter into the process of understanding and into an open encounter with text and lived experience.
It speaks especially to:
- teachers who recognize that teaching is not merely a matter of method
- pupils and students who seek meaning within knowledge
- parents who understand education as being in relation
- readers prepared for dialogue with text and with their own experience
About the Author – Dr. Veselin Rakočević
Veselin Rakočević is a pedagogue, teacher, and researcher with more than three decades of experience in primary, secondary, and higher education. He holds the highest professional title within the educational system of Montenegro — teacher-researcher.
He is the author of professional and scholarly works, and his intellectual journey has moved from the secure frameworks of systemic thought, which provide continuity, toward a hermeneutic approach that introduces openness, sustained reflection, and critical re-examination of pedagogical practice.
The novel Pedagogy as Practical Wisdom – A Hermeneutic Journey of a Teacher in the Age of Artificial Intelligence represents a synthesis of his professional and personal experience, as well as an affirmation of pedagogy not merely as theory, but as a living, responsible, and thoughtful practice.
Pedagogy as Practical Wisdom – A Different Perspective
This book does not approach pedagogy as a predetermined discipline or a collection of ready-made rules. Instead, it presents pedagogy as a living process in which we participate, as a relationship in which understanding is not achieved as a final goal, but occurs through encounter, conversation, and experience.
In this sense, pedagogy as practical wisdom is not something we possess or simply receive. It arises through interaction with others and through the learning process itself – through an open dialogue that transforms us as it carries us forward.
The greatest strength of “Pedagogy as practical wisdom” lies in the originality of the idea, authenticity and serious reflective tone.
Contact and Reference
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