Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to propose a brief analysis of the parrhesia concept in the last courses of Michel Foucault at the Collège de France to rethink the importance of teachers and their education today. Following Foucault’s argument, I analyze the concept of parrhesia in contrast to the concept of confession as operators in the constitution of the ethical subject in two distinct subjectivation modes: in the philosophical schools of Greco-Roman Antiquity and in the Christian pastoral dispositive. In the Hellenistic philosophical schools, the figure of the master is central in the formation of the ethical subject as that one who both allows and promotes the autonomy of the pupil. In the Christian practice of conducting, in contrast, the goal is the mortification of the will and the perpetual subordination to a conduct guide. This analysis allows us to understand how institutions and contemporary educational practices are still anchored in the Christian hermeneutics of the self, which is correlative to pastoral forms of conduct and government of individuals. In order to a better understanding of the issue, I turn to the distinction established by Jacques Rancière between the teacher as emancipatory master and the teacher as citizen. I also consider the “desapearance” of the teacher in the discourses and practices of “learning” following Gert Biesta’s analysis. Finally, I evaluate some implications of Foucault’s analysis for rethinking the dilemmas of critical educational theories today and the teacher's role as specific intelectual in the transformation of educational practices.
Keywords:
Foucault; parrhesia; subjetivity; intelectual; teacher education