Organizational Determinants of Classroom Social Power

Abstract

Previous literature on classroom social structure suggests that perceived academic competence is a resource relevant to the acquisition of social power. The present study argues that instructional organization affects student perceptions of academic competence which in turn control the distribution of power. A cluster of instructional characteristics is hypothesized to produce variation in the hierarchical distribution of classroom social power and to affect the association between power and perceived competence. Student respondents from two distinct instructional settings were compared. The findings indicate that classroom social power is more closely related to perceived competence and significantly more hierarchized under unidimensional than multidimensional conditions.

Notes

^1. This research was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health through the Department of Sociology, Stanford University (Grant No. 5-T32-MhI4243-04). I am grateful to Stephen Rosenholtz for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.