Time to teach

In order to make clear the very different ways in which time, as well as the relation between student and teacher takes shape and form within education this paper explore two archetypes of teaching: Socratic teaching and Sophist teaching. Here I analyse the distinctly different ways in which power and the organisation of the social sphere take place within each. Socratic teaching is shown to rely on a notion of time as reproduction, which involves reproducing the power structure of a certain social order of inequality. By contrast, Sophist teaching relies on a notion of time as the instantiation of change and equality in the present. The paper concludes with pinpointing that what is at stake in teaching is the possibility of a liveable life for all (Sophist) rather than only for some (Socratic).