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This paper introduces the concept of 'pedagogy in practice' (PiP), referring to the immediate interaction between students' learning experiences and school's pedagogy and distinct from the pedagogy advocated 'from above' by the school. We bring the concept of PiP into focus by analysing students' open-ended discourse about their learning experiences in 24 open group conversations, comparing two holistically different learning environments (conventional and an alternative arts and sciences (A&S) high school in Israel). The results show that A&S students described their learning experiences as ones wherein they actively steered and navigated their own learning process. Students' experience of the conventional school's pedagogy implies that the conventional school's PiP considers its students as passengers joining a ride over which they have little control. Traditionally, research has looked into students' perceived learning experiences for the purpose of better understanding their learning processes. We suggest that students' talk about their experiences is also informative for understanding their interaction with the schools' pedagogy.

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The following paper elaborates on the compound character and the importance of an intellectual discussion regarding Modernity, secularisation and theology that raged within a cluster of German scholars during the 1950s and 1960s (Hans Jonas (1903-93), Hans Blumenberg (1920-96), Gershom Scholem (1897-1982 and Eric Voegelin (1901-85)). It argues that these scholars were united discursively owing to the appearance of the concept of Gnosis in their postwar debate. Challenging the thesis of Karl Löwith , in which he defined Modernity as secularised Christian theology, they connected Modernity with the Gnostic theology. By innovatively returning to late antiquity and re-introducing the obscure Gnostic theology, these scholars interwove the intellectual debates of the early twentieth century -in which the concept of Gnosis was redefined -into an acute post-1945 moral crisis, in order to make a case either for or against Modernity.

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This paper revisits the admixture of secular and spiritual aspects in Bildung. It aims at re‐examining the intimate relations between the secular, rational and enlightened educational ideals, which were invested in the formation of the Bildung concept at the turn of the eighteenth century, and the religious, and mystical foundations of these ideals. The paper argues that Bildung should be regarded as a symbol of the unvarying presence of what sociologist Philip Wexler termed ‘mystical interactions’, that is, the manner in which mysticism becomes a resource for understanding the secular‐modern (rational) education. Rather than holding to a simple differentiation between rational, enlightened education and religiosity, the paper points to the entwining of reason and faith in Bildung. The importance of revisiting the mystical aspect of a secular and rational educational ideal may rest in suggesting that such an ideal cannot be exhausted by a one‐dimensional educational standpoint.