The Other, the Preservice Teacher, and the Figure of the Teacher: Evidence from Posthumous Letters

Abstract

This article analyzes the discourses produced by twelve preservice teachers from the Federal University of Sergipe regarding the figure of the teacher, drawing on the theoretical frameworks of the Lacanian concept of the Other and Bernard Charlot’s notion of students’ subjective position. The investigation employed the writing of posthumous letters as its data production instrument, prompted by the following guiding question: “What would you like a student to say about who you were, as a teacher, at your funeral?” The analyses reveal that the students construct the image of an idealized teacher, symbolically invested as a figure of the Big Other, capable of subjectively shaping their formative trajectories, generating desires and meanings, and establishing ethical, affective, and intellectual reference points. The data and findings demonstrate that students’ representation of the teacher surpasses technical and pedagogical dimensions in the constitution of their identities and in their relationship with knowledge throughout their education. It is argued that initial teacher education and academic trajectories require subjective and symbolic dimensions that permeate educational practice, reinforcing the need for training processes that integrate desire, meaning, and subjectivity into this complex and fundamental dimension of human life.

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Spanish.