Teacher power and authority: an analysis of exemplar faculty by career stage

ABSTRACT

Although the constructs of teacher power and authority are widely adopted in the study of classroom management, less is known about how faculty power, authority, and career stage intersect. This interpretive, qualitative study is thus guided by the following question: What role do formal, expert, and referent power play in the approaches and practices of exemplar university teachers across career stages? We adopted a three-pronged teacher authority framework to explore the conceptualizations and utilizations of formal, expert, and referent power by exemplar college teachers in early, mid-, and late career stages. Our findings highlight both the tasks and tensions perceived by faculty in each career stage, as well as the forms of power these teachers draw on to navigate the classroom. Ultimately, exemplar teachers encouraged student engagement, learning, and relationships through pedagogical, personal, and relational authority.

KEYWORDS:

• University teaching
• Power and authority
• Career stage

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to Dr. Don Haviland (California State University, Long Beach) for his thoughtful feedback on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Ethics statement

This study was determined to be exempt from review by the Baylor University Institutional Review Board, IRB Reference No. 1559132.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Teaching Exploration Grant from the Academy for Teaching and Learning at Baylor University.