Authority in Education

Abstract

"Authority" is seldom discussed by proponents of educational reform, except as something to be abolished. In this article, Professor Benne analyzes the concept of authority and the reasons for its neglect by philosophers and its disrepute among educators. He describes two types of authority, expert authority and rule authority, and the limitations of these two concepts in dealing with current education. He then proposes a third type, which he calls anthropogogical authority,which may provide a way of describing the relationships of students,teachers, and community in a more vital and relevant model of education.

The co-development and interrelation of proof and authority: The case of Yana and Ronit

“…When we consider, on the one hand, Benne's (1970) ideas of educational authority, where authority, when it is fully developed, informs the growth of an intellectual community and Lakatos' (1976) ideas of proof as an activity occurring in a social setting, on the other, we realize that there is also going round and round, like a dance, 12 in a mature mathematical community fully at work on what can be said and proved about mathematical objects and about proof itself. That dance-like relationship between authority and proof in such a mathematical community can be represented and specified diagrammatically as follows:…”

“…Thus shared authority is, ultimately, a kind of authority which is non-localized, that is, in which there is no immovable division between the subject and agent of authority (a possibility that may be compared, by the way, to Foucault's views on power, specifically, that it "must be analyzed as something which circulates" (Foucault, 1980, p. 98)). For this more general, non-localized authority, we take the work of the educational theorist, Kenneth Benne (Benne, 1970) as an example. Benne's (1970) basic thesis is that, understood correctly, authority can be approached as a force for liberation and social change; it need not be the mark of a despot.…”

“…For this more general, non-localized authority, we take the work of the educational theorist, Kenneth Benne (Benne, 1970) as an example. Benne's (1970) basic thesis is that, understood correctly, authority can be approached as a force for liberation and social change; it need not be the mark of a despot. Thus, from the start, Benne situates authority not in a context characterized primarily by power and struggle but by dependence and interdependence, not by domination but by negotiation; an authority relationship arises, in Benne's (1970, pp.…”

Student authority: Antidote to alienation

“…The voluntary submission by individuals or groups to commands accepted as valid makes authority legitimate, just as involuntary submission to commands perceived as illegitimate marks power relationships. The domination and repression manifested in authoritarianism eradicates the will; authority engages it (Arendt 1968;Benne, 1970;Grant, 1988;Metz, 1978;Nisbet, 1953;Sennett, 1981;Simon, 1940;Weber, 1947). When an administrator secures a teacher's compliance through threat of sanctions she has lost her authority as the teacher, whose student refrains from cheating because of the consequences he anticipates, or whose conduct more generally is ruled by grades and external discipline, has lost hers.…”

Authority in an agency-centered, inquiry-based university calculus classroom

“…3-159). This paper aims to outline some new authority roles for teachers and students that have been realized in the mathematics classroom, that can dissolve the traditional hierarchy of subordination and give way to the realization of autonomy with interdependence as called for by Benne (1970).…”