ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to chart the notion of ‘freedom’ that is essential for understanding the relationship, and to think about the ways in which this notion has been installed in different educational regimes, and throughout different educational stages. The teacher–student relationship, and how to define it, has often been an area of interest for educational researchers, perhaps because it is so central to the very notion of education itself. However, in an age of globalisation, the competitive playing field between public services has increased immensely, and it is often argued that neoliberalism has become the dominant, and thus inescapable, way in which various providers function globally. Moves towards a more progressivist understanding of the teacher’s role in relation to the student can be traced at least as far back as Rousseau in his highly influential book Emile. In neoliberalism, the authority of the student lies in their ability to rate, and subsequently influence, the practices of teaching.
