ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 shows that time is a pedagogical factor, impacting the planning practices, lesson implementation and evaluation strategies of teaching. The purpose of this study has been to investigate the importance of time for teaching and learning, especially in teacher-student relationships, in an educational situation. Both John Dewey’s understanding of time and up-to-date conceptions of time related to interaction and unpredictability are being discussed in relation to various pedagogical choices. I also argue that time has been altered due to neoliberal influences in education. In education steeped in neoliberal practice, time has become chronological and mechanistic, and the consequence is that time turns into a controlling element instead of freeing the students, turning the daily operations in the classroom more and more into direct methods. Thus I make use of different theories of time as analysis tools for studying a case: a grade nine student, “John,” who is academically challenged and struggles behaviourally. Central to the discussion are the possible outcomes of different perspectives of time for communication of both the teacher and the student, and the student’s initiative for his own learning process. I have determined that time, as a lived phenomenon, can be exploited positively, in favour of both communication and learning. For this to be achieved, I argue that the neoliberal and mechanistic understanding of time, which is calling for direct approaches, is given less emphasis while focusing on indirect approaches in which ‘genuine time’ can become an integral element in the students’ being.
