The Paradox of Being a Teacher: Institutionalized Relevance and Organized Mistrust

In the article "The Paradox of Being a Teacher: Institutionalized Relevance and Organized MistrustW Daniel Tröhler describes the paradoxical nature of the teaching profession which arises out of the mismatch between the excessive expectations imposed on teachers and, at the same time, the constant mistrust shown to them for fulfilling these expectations. The paradox is related to the cultural shift of the educationalization of the Western world – that not only are a wide variety of social, economic and moral problems defined as educational problems but, in addition, education itself is placed at the core of the historical process and expected to fulfil future ideals. According to Tröhler, educationalization was reinforced by the tradition of modern educational thinking and especially by certain inherent fundamental religious motives. The author defends this thesis with the help of two, at first sight very divergent, figures in the history of education: Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi and Burrhus F. Skinner. Common to these thinkers is, according to Tröhler, their argument which is constitutive of the cultural shift of educationalization but, also, their shared view that in order to save the younger generation from the corrupting forces of external society, certain ideal conditions for making the natural development of the children possible are needed. Tröhler underlines the religious motives behind this idea. The task of education is to take care of the salvation of the younger generation, to protect the “God’s creation” against the world of artificial moral corruption. The educator’s task is, then, to be God’s deputy, substitute and imitator, to secure the existence of this moral order. This religious background helps us, according to Tröhler, to understand those enormous expectations that schools and teachers meet even in secular contemporary societies. This raises the question: should one reject expectations, which no one can fulfill