Ansiktets epifani og pedagogikk: Masker og lekkasjer

This article explores how Emmanuel Levinas’s concept of the epiphany of the face can illuminate ethical responsibility in pedagogical encounters under late-modern conditions, where masks and roles dominate intersubjective life. Drawing on a normative-philosophical reading of Levinas and contextualised by sociological diagnoses, the analysis foregrounds how ethical responsibility precedes method, rule, and moral codes. A simple heuristic triad—the lived, the emotional, and the vulnerable—makes visible what masks attempt to conceal yet persistently leak through our (micro-)gestures. The article further examines how “the Third” translates the primary ethical call into justice and institutions without dissolving its asymmetry, and how Levinas’s account of language shapes pedagogical communication. The contribution is conceptual: it articulates conditions for pedagogical judgement and responsibility, and points toward implications for assessment, professional formation, and the design of pedagogical frameworks.