Masschelein’s article works as both a proposal and an invitation: it proposes an existential orientation to questions of educational concern, and it invites everyone to think along with him, to implicate themselves in this particular exercise of thought. In response, therefore, the author seeks to create a conversation, one that reflects an exercise of her own thinking in relation to that of Jan’s – and highlights in her reply ‘in relation to’ for reasons which will become clearer in the article. She does this by building upon the main thinker with whom he is himself in conversation – namely, Hannah Arendt. First, however, the author offers a reading of what she sees as Masschelein’s main position and then turns to her own encounter with his text as an illustration of what she later discusses as ‘becoming present in context’ – a context in which the place of narrative occupies a central position. She then discusses what this means for the relation between philosophy of education and transformation.