Roland Barthes and the death of the teacher

This paper considers the consequences of ‘The Death of the Author’, a short essay by Roland Barthes, for educational thought. Seeking to avoid a co-option of Barthes to the work of educational redemption, Barthes’ essay is considered in terms of its more disturbing implications. In particular, the parallel question of ‘The Death of the Teacher’ is entertained. Here the Teacher is treated as an organising ideal, which, like Nietzsche’s ‘death of God’, is able to die insofar as it ceases to organise and give sustenance to actors who might otherwise depend upon its sanctioning authority. This possibility is considered alongside that of the peculiar afterlife experienced by the teacher as actor, the teacher who speaks but can no longer draw resource or security from the kind of respect that the profession might feel it is still owed.