Construcción y ejercicio de la autoridad pedagógica: Siete hipótesis desde la perspectiva de profesores chilenos

This work exhibits seven hypotheses on teacher’s authority in secondary education from the point of view of Chilean teachers which were identified as authorities by their students. The following research is a descriptive study with no prescriptive purpose, that elicits teachers’ subjective experience of behaviors and beliefs related to their development and exercise of authority. Through the survey “Conceptions on Pedagogical Authority” (Zamora, Meza & Cox, 2015), 936 second-year high school students from 27 different classes, from schools with diverse socio-economic backgrounds, identified 19 teachers as pedagogical authorities. Then, a qualitative study was conducted with the aim of eliciting propositions on teacher authority from these 19 educators through interviews. The categorization of these interviews’ content was validated by means of a triangulation, including group discussions with teachers participating in the study, as well as interviews and discussions with expert educators. The results demonstrate that pedagogical authority is a permanent developing process. Within this process, the first 5 years of professional exercise are especially relevant, since teachers face their own conceptions of their role as educators, as well as assuming their authority. Three legitimacy sources were identified: the depth of the knowledge enabling educators to teach their discipline, which results in the accepted asymmetry between teachers and students; teachers’ respect for students, which reveals the essential symmetry between human beings and which is a condition for students to recognize teacher’s authority; and the establishment of the rules of the pedagogical game, which sets the foundations of the relationship, since these guidelines govern both teachers and students, thus making the consistent conduct of the teachers not only a source of legitimacy, but also one of trust, even when these rules are not laid down democratically. Additionally, teachers perceive the development and exercise of pedagogical authority as an individual process, in which schools can be perceived an aid, but not as an actual support for authority. The seven theses and their related findings deepen our understanding about teacher authority in practice and from the subjective experience of those who undergo this process. Also, they allow us to establish some critical points for discussion within teachers’ formation and novice teachers’ support.