Becoming-teachers : desiring students

Abstract

What kind of life might I, as a teacher, live? This question, set within the Nietzschean tradition, is the focus of this dissertation. It may sound almost contradictory that practicing teachers, some with more than thirty years of service could be seen as still becoming-teachers. Teacher discourse is often caught within performative and technical terms with the consequence of closing down teachers into discourse which is simple, clean and aimed at 'sense'-making. This dissertation tries to highlight that there is more to the teacher than what is presented in these discourses. Using the works of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, I give an alternative discourse which highlights the teacher as in a constant process of becoming. I further argue that the teacher is a becoming-teacher through her engagement with the students. If becoming-teachers need students, then there is on the part of teachers a desire for the students.