"The other" or otherness is an important concept in educational research as well as contemporary thought. The concept enables us to avoid mistreating other people, especially minorities or the oppressed. Scholars have been attempting to answer the question: how the recognition of "the Other" is possible. Because the educational relationship between a teacher and a learner, however, is different from any other human relationships, it is misleading to apply the general concept of "the Other" to educational contexts. It has, then, not been clear what "the other" means in educational relationships. The purpose of this paper is to specify the feature of "the other" appearing in educational relationships, and to explore the significance of inquiry about the otherness of learners. The first section, after clarifying the concept of "the other" and tracing the history of the problem of "the Other" briefly, considers the difference between "the Other" questioned in contemporary thought and "the other" appearing in educational relationships. The concern of contemporary thinkers regarding "the Other" is ethical and political as well as philosophical. It is the emancipation of oppressed people. "The other" in educational relationships, on the other hand, is not necessarily oppressed. It is easy to fail to notice the particular feature of "the other" in educational relationships when we are hold captive by the picture of oppression and emancipation. In order to specify how the otherness of learners appears and disappears in educational situations, the second section compares the discussions of Georg W. F. Hegel and Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is argued that it is not the Hegelian concept of Otherness but the Wittgensteinian one which explains the feature of "the other" in educational relationships. Hegel and his successors are concerned about the master-slave dialectic, in which they reverse their relationship. Self-Consciousness is described as struggling with the other for recognition from the beginning. Wittgenstein, on the other hand, does not describes "the other" as either a fighter or an oppressed person. He specifies grammatical features of "the other" in educational relationships. The otherness of learners appears when they make a language game of teaching and learning break down because of their lack of skills and / or knowledge. Their otherness merely disappears when they agree in our practices or forms of life, and it can appear again anytime. The final section clarifies the significance of inquiry about the otherness of learners in order to explore the possibility of recognizing "the other" in educational relationships. Wittgenstein's discussion restricts the concept of education. Education cannot be either control of learners' minds or neglect of them, but it ends in agreement in our practices. Education is no means of achieving a utopia. We should recognize the potential otherness of learners.

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