What and how to observe interactions to understand teachers' educational authority

Abstract

Teachers' authority in the classroom as traditionally understood in schools has come to an end. Therefore, it seems necessary to understand this authority from a new theoretical and practical perspective to educate future teachers. One of the challenges in this field is to identify the references and approaches from which teachers' educational authority in the classroom is built today. This work contributes to this task by presenting the theoretical and practical challenges involved in building a protocol for observing educational authority. It uses qualitative methodology that includes both the opinion of experts and a pilot application, within a model of deliberative decision-making. In relation to what and how to observe, the main conclusion is that a protocol for observing educational authority that aims at opening to the various ways in which it is exerted in the classroom today should focus not on the teacher but on the interactions in the classroom. This focus on interaction permits observing how today's adolescents legitimize authority, and thus allows overcoming the bias that can be found in observers from a different generation.