Justifying Teacher Intervention

In the face of both a vigorous conflict of ideas and the contemporary process of proletarianization and deprofessionalizing teachers, this chapter puts a specific case for teachers learning, guarding, preserving, fostering and transmitting the most valuable manifestations of human achievement and capability. It also promotes rational social reconstruction. The chapter argues that teacher intervention in the lives of the younger generation can be justified on non-idealist and non-imperialist lines. It also argues that teachers would be well placed to engage in activities directed towards social reconstruction. The chapter shows that teachers armed with a curriculum not totally dissimilar to traditional liberal curricula are not necessarily enemies of the oppressed, that the transmission of valuable manifestations of human achievement and the quest for rational social reconstruction are compatible and anything but conflicting activities. Rather than merely collaborate in forms of intercultural articulation, teachers are in fact well placed to lead in the task of social reconstruction position as outlined earlier.