Un/Doing authority and social inequality: understanding mutual vulnerability in pupil-teacher relations and challenging situations

ABSTRACT

Authority is a central issue for teachers and refers to the leadership relationship between teachers and pupils for the purpose of initiating learning. A review of the current state of research shows that the interplay between authority and social inequality has seldom been investigated to date. That is the starting point for the present ethnographic research project. It adopts a sociological and socio-philosophical perspective on the relevance of social background in negotiations of authority between pupils and teachers in inclusive primary schools in Germany. With respect to the developed concept of un/doing authority, it shows that the aspect of vulnerability is particularly important in these interactions. The study comes to the following conclusion: the mutual vulnerability of “good” pupils and teachers is recognised, whereas teachers’ relationships with “bad” pupils show a mutual violation that can often be understood as a re-enactment of social inequalities and future educational exclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnography
• inequality
• vulnerability
• authority
• difference

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Bettina Fritzsche, Ursina Jaeger, Carola Mantel, Itamar Manoff and Thorsten Merl for their attentive reading of the draft, thinking together and discussing the topic of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In Germany, there are differences among the Bundesländer (federal states), as education is governed at the Land level. Primary school is the only educational institution that is consistent through all Länder and represents the most unified school form. By contrast, the secondary schools briefly described above vary from one Land to the next.

2 Sociologists distinguish between three types of authority (Sofsky & Paris, 1994): the first, known as “factual authority” (German: Sachautorität), is based on the recognition of a verifiable superiority in the form of professional training, practical experience, or the like. The second is “official authority” (German: Amtsautorität), which is linked to the exercise of an official position and is therefore institutionally bound. The third and final type is based on personal persuasiveness and leadership (“charisma”).

3 There are many compound words in German, like Fahrprüfung, that have to be classified according to the terms Zahl, Fühl, and Fahr [number, feel, and drive] in this assignment.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by a doctoral scholarship from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.