ETHICS IN TEACHER-LEARNER RELATIONSHIPS IN UNIVERSITY SETTINGS IN BENIN

The relationships between teachers and learners are discussed either in terms ofcomprehensive justification or condemnation, but never in a neutral tone.". This articleaims to move beyond these registers to analyze the relationships between teachers andstudents in light of fundamental ethical principles accepted in the academic environmentand to demonstrate that the learning crisis observed in universities is largely related tothe poor management of these relationships.The methodological approach, although socio-anthropological and oriented towards anethnographic and comprehensive perspective of teaching practices, specifically therelationships between teachers and students, appears quite eclectic given the sensitivityof the research subject. It is coupled with a biographical approach focusing on theanalysis of students and teachers’ life stories, interview and focus group data,conversations and testimonies, as well as observational data.From this research, it initially appears that the image, credibility, and prestige of theuniversity institution in Benin seem to depend largely on the relationships betweenteachers and learners, which are often disconnected from the major ethical values andprinciples at play in higher education. This disconnection stems from, on the one hand, alack of understanding of the purpose of education and, on the other hand, tensionsbetween the values promoted by the university institution and the personal normativereferences of the teachers. Consequently, the prominence of the university system mustrely on structural changes and profound transformations that current reforms have notyet managed to implement. Among these changes are the creation of new bodies toanalyse ethical compliance by researchers, the establishment of new mechanisms orinstitutions to formalize the transmission of a unified basic cultural and pedagogicalculture, which could serve as an "invisible mediator" or "invisible filter" in the absence ofphysical mediators within the university institution.