From "Respecting Teachers" to "Democratic and Equality": the Dissolution of Teachers’ Authority

• In Event: Poster session 2

Proposal

Respecting teachers and emphasizing "Tao" is an important tradition in history of Chinese education. As the proverb in The the Book of Rites says,“a student believes in teachings only when he is close to his teacher.” In a certain sense, teacher is a higher exist than student, which not only shows in his/her erudite knowledge, but also in his/her exalted moral qualities. Teachers can be regarded as representatives of social moral personality. As a consequence, teachers’ authority emerges. In essence, teachers’ authority is a kind of social authority, embodied in his social responsibility, recognition of social concepts and common social life, and also in leadership of the younger generation socialization. Authority is the basis of education. Teachers’ authority is not a forced and arbitrarily "violent power", not a "consent power" based on persuasion, but a "teaching power" based on social culture. Under the impact of the wave of modernization and marketization, the education concept of democratic equality between teachers and students has been established step by step. In the practice of education, teacher-student relationship has also undergone a dramatic change, which includes respecting and protecting students’ interests, bringing student and parents evaluations to the whole teacher assessment system, etc. In my opinion, the emphasis on the extreme egalitarianism may change teachers and students into “sellers” and “buyers”，eventually resulting in the dissolution of teachers’ authority. Put it another away, the new relationship is not proper and a misunderstanding of teacher-student relationship in the new age.

Author

• LIli WANG, Graduate School of Education ,Peking University ,China