This article considers the notion of a praxis of higher education teaching. Our arguments are drawn from the existential literature and the particular contribution made by Heidegger. They point to a learning community where the community practises the scholastic processes of conversation, involvement and engagement as modes of revealing knowledge. In the search for authenticity the practice of learning is as important as the acquisition of the practical skills of scholarship, but it needs to be contextualized within a form of learning community currently shunned by the demands of an economically effective model of higher education.