Locating Authority over Content and Pedagogy: Cross-Current Influences on Teachers' Thinking and Practice

Abstract

In this paper, I explore two questions. One asks where teachers locate authority over their content and pedagogical decisions. Here I describe and illustrate the swirl of personal, organizational, and policy factors teachers cite as influencing their instruction. The second question focuses on the nature of these factors and asks what relationships exist among them. Here I suggest that influences run as cross-currents, definable in one sense, but mixing and merging in another. I conclude with three considerations which explore the stance one takes on influences, the relationship between influence and authority, and assumptions about changing teachers' practices.