Session Information
MC_Poster, Poster Session; Main Conference
All Poster are presented in the two Poster Sessions of ECER 2008: - 11 September 12.15 - 13.15 and - 12 September 12.15 - 13.15
Time:
2008-09-11
12:15-13:15
Room:
Poster Exhibition Area
Chair:
Contribution
Teachers do not act for free; they get something in return for their services. One could speak therefore of a ‘pedagogical contract’ or a process of ‘give-and-take’: “the teacher gives something of value - a body of knowledge, a set of skills, a way of thinking, of living, and so on - in return for which the student, or one of his proxies, parents, the state, a sponsoring body, is expected to render some form of payment, perhaps a salary, a gift, or gratitude.” (Yun Lee Too 2003, 13).
What we would like to examine is the possibility to think the teacher as a public figure in the sense of a ‘shared or available object’. Point of departure is the comparison between Socrates and the 'hetaira' or prostitute (Xenophanes’ Memorabilia). In ancient times, Socrates is seen as the ideal of the ‘wise man’ in contrast to the sophists (sophists) (e.g. Morrison 1994, Strauss 1973). The sophist or the professional teacher, as we can call hem according to Yun Lee Too, does not teach for free. For the sophist, teaching is a 'profession': the status of teaching is a means for making a living, just as practicing medicine, law, or the most paradigmatic profession of all, business. The emphasis lies on what one has to offer to the customer. Here, discipline refers to the skills, expertise of knowledge, to what one can sell. In Plato’s Euthydemus, the sophists Euthydemus and Dionysodorus are described as ‘advertising themselves’. (Yun Lee Too 2003, 24, cf. Euthydemus 273e). From this perspective the difference between on one hand the sophist and the common prostitute ('porné') and on the other hand Socrates and the prostitute ('hetaira') becomes clear. The service of the 'porné' can be described as instructing customers in the sexual activity (cf. pornography). The prostitute does not instruct, in the sense that she is not a professional sex-worker. Nor will she ask for money such as does the 'porné' for her services. In antiquity the prostitute symbolizes the woman that is nobody’s or no-ones property; she is in this sense ‘free for use’. The emphasis resides not in the money she might earn, as it is currently the case these days, but on the public aspect: the Latin word ‘prostituere’ means ‘exposition’, ‘abandon’.
Method
Literature based research
Expected Outcomes
It is the comparison between the prostitute and Socrates that we want to examine further in order to reconsider the teacher as someone ‘free for use’.
References
Morrison, D.R. (1994). Xenophon’s Socrates as Teacher. In: P.A. Vander Waerdt, The Socratic Movement. (Pp. 181-208). New York: Cornell University. Strauss, L. (1973). Xenophon’s Socrates, Ithaka (N.Y.): Cornell University Press. Yun Lee Too (2003). The Pedagogical Contract. The Economies of Teaching and Learning in the Ancient World. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press. Xenophanes (s.d.), Herinneringen aan Socrates (Memorabilia) (M. Van Deventer, transl.). Amsterdam: S.L. Van Looy & H. Gerlings.
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