I cannot emphasis enough that teacherly authority is a basic attribute of being human, to quote Zak Stein*:

“Teacherly authority is a deeply rooted aspect of what it means to be human. We have had structures, both formal and informal, of teacherly authority in play for as long as we have been human. In fact, as soon as we started putting them in play is when you could say, “Oh, okay, human.””

It is this attribute that allows us to focus the attention of the next generation onto what is important for cultural continuity, so they don’t have to create everything again from scratch but can build on what is already in place.

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About 40% of teachers see teaching is all about ‘relationships, relationships, relationships’. Of that 40% about 5% have high levels of legitimate teacherly authority such that students willingly do their best work, and these teachers have a lifelong impact on their students. In Why We Teach I called these teachers ‘Enlightened Teachers’ and described how they had got to this level of performance despite the system, not because of it.

The balance of the teachers in this 40% group I called ‘Motivated Teachers’.  The concept of teacherly authority now provides a pathway for these teachers to achieve the same level of performance as their enlightened colleagues.

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Dr Mark Merry, principal of Yarra Valley Grammar, and I co-authored some research on principal leadership which has something to say about what teachers and students are looking for in a principal. The research has now been published in Frontiers in Education*.

Here is a flavour from the Discussion section:

“The findings of this study indicate a departure from the past; we are no longer seeking compliant behavior but adaptable behavior. This shift from developing traditional skills and compliant behaviors to developing 21st century skills and more adaptable behaviors is not simply a question of changing the curriculum but is, in addition, a question of developing new behaviors throughout a school.

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In Why We Teach (2020) I recount the following:

“Elizabeth was teaching at a Sydney high school when I spoke with her in 2001. Close to retirement, Elizabeth was always surrounded by a gaggle of students who clearly wanted to spend time with her, and she clearly enjoyed spending time with them. When the subject of discipline arose during our conversation, Elizabeth observed, “In my thirty years of teaching I have never had a discipline problem*, yet in this school there are two or three teachers whose sole objective on entering the classroom is to survive to the end of the lesson.”

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