ABSTRACT
An autonomy-compatible interaction between teacher and student requires that the teacher have an empathetic understanding with the student in order to effectively use superior knowledge to help the student. Policy advice from development professionals anxious to show their expertise and backed by conditions on lending risks undermining people's incentives for developing their own capacities and weakening their confidence in finding their own solutions. If a utopian social engineer could perform an institutional lobotomy to erase present institutions, development advice would not need to be tailored to present circumstances. The teacher, according to John Dewey's theory, must be able to see the world through the eyes of the students and within the limits of their experience and at the same time apply the adult's viewpoint to offer guidance. Maurice Friedman emphasizes the importance of seeing through the eyes of the other in Buber's notion of dialogue.
