Trish Roberts-Miller wrote: I like _Teaching to Transgress_ also. For prospective high school teachers, I also use Hannah Arendt's "The Crisis in Education" and "What is Authority" and Linda McNeil's _Contradictions of Control_. The basic distinction Arendt makes (that McNeil uses) is between power that comes from coercion and power that comes from authority (which is, paradoxically, the opposite of authoritarian). When the authority of teachers is delegitimized, then all that is left is coercion. Arendt (writing in 1961) and McNeil (in the early eighties) both identify political movements that unintentionally (in 1961) and intentionally (in the early eighties) delegitimized the authority of teachers through denying that teachers either need or have valuable knowledge (about the course material or about the processes of teaching).

In addition to what Joanna says about, and that I also found, I was really disturbed when I started handling student complaints and reading program evaluations. I found that, contrary to my assumptions, a teacher who continually questions his or her authority does not complicate students' notions about power and domination *if* the teacher is a woman or minority. Such questioning actually confirms sexist and racist students, who believe woman and minorities should feel very insecure about being in a position of authority. For such students, having to acknowledge the authority of women and minorities is productively troubling.

Research on teaching evaluations shows that students remark on the knowledge of male instructors and the nurturing of women. My personal suspicion (from reading evaluations) is that studies of minority teachers would show a similar breakdown. White male privilege means, after all, that white males are authorities, and no one else.

Power that comes from coercion is limited--it's reduced by sharing. Power that comes from authority is unlimited--it's increased by sharing. So, assignments designed to encourage inductive thinking (as Joanna says) increase the authority of students--that, too, can be productively troubling to certain students, who have to acknowledge the authority of other students.

Teachers of 306 are in a tricky situation in regard to authority in lots of ways. Arendt says that coercion necessarily reduces authority, and I think that's sometimes true (but not always). It's certainly true that the authority of a teacher is much more problematic in a course students are forced to take--one of many reasons, I think, that evaluations tend to be higher in 309 than 306.

Trish Roberts-Miller wrote: I like _Teaching to Transgress_ also. For prospective high school teachers, I also use Hannah Arendt's "The Crisis in Education" and "What is Authority" and Linda McNeil's _Contradictions of Control_. The basic distinction Arendt makes (that McNeil uses) is between power that comes from coercion and power that comes from authority (which is, paradoxically, the opposite of authoritarian). When the authority of teachers is delegitimized, then all that is left is coercion. Arendt (writing in 1961) and McNeil (in the early eighties) both identify political movements that unintentionally (in 1961) and intentionally (in the early eighties) delegitimized the authority of teachers through denying that teachers either need or have valuable knowledge (about the course material or about the processes of teaching).

In addition to what Joanna says about, and that I also found, I was really disturbed when I started handling student complaints and reading program evaluations. I found that, contrary to my assumptions, a teacher who continually questions his or her authority does not complicate students' notions about power and domination *if* the teacher is a woman or minority. Such questioning actually confirms sexist and racist students, who believe woman and minorities should feel very insecure about being in a position of authority. For such students, having to acknowledge the authority of women and minorities is productively troubling.

Research on teaching evaluations shows that students remark on the knowledge of male instructors and the nurturing of women. My personal suspicion (from reading evaluations) is that studies of minority teachers would show a similar breakdown. White male privilege means, after all, that white males are authorities, and no one else.

Power that comes from coercion is limited--it's reduced by sharing. Power that comes from authority is unlimited--it's increased by sharing. So, assignments designed to encourage inductive thinking (as Joanna says) increase the authority of students--that, too, can be productively troubling to certain students, who have to acknowledge the authority of other students.

Teachers of 306 are in a tricky situation in regard to authority in lots of ways. Arendt says that coercion necessarily reduces authority, and I think that's sometimes true (but not always). It's certainly true that the authority of a teacher is much more problematic in a course students are forced to take--one of many reasons, I think, that evaluations tend to be higher in 309 than 306.

Lisa Moore wrote: Personally, I have a different take on the power issue in the classroom than the one expressed on the website. (I'm sure everyone
has their own take.) I agree that feminist pedagogy should empower students to recognize and critique power structures, including those in the classroom. But I think for women professors in particular, and for teachers from other marginalized groups as well, the problem is often just getting students to acknowledge your authority and expertise in the first place. Study after study shows that women and minority professors get lower course evaluations and their teaching is evaluated much more harshly than the teaching of people who look more like the expected authority figure (ie, white and male). Asking students to "question the instructor's own power over them" right off the bat seems to me to skip a step in the analysis of authority.

For myself, I don't think that my "power" (I usually think of it as "authority") in the classroom is a bad thing. I have it because of the particular role I play and the responsibility I have to the whole group, a responsibility that not just the institution but also my students expect me to discharge competently. Of course, one of the best ways to enhance student learning is to empower them to become experts and teachers for themselves and one another in the classroom, and in that way enhance their authority as members of an intellectual community. But the only reason I can do that is because I have the expertise, experience, talent and institutional role that enables me to create that space. I have to decide, for example, to give them credit for their work as peer editors. That is the language I have for communicating that this collaborative work is of value in my
classroom. Only I have the authority to make that call.

I love talking about this stuff, as you know. Let's continue the dialogue!