Browsing by Author "Luts, Lore-Eliisa"

Goal. In the educational field there is a large amount of discussion about teacher’s pedagogical authority and how it is formed. Authority itself has been studied a lot but it is difficult to make a difference between authority in general and pedagogical authority. Teacher’s pedagogical authority and its recognition are seen to play an important role when it comes to controlling students and creating a peaceful atmosphere in the classroom. Defining teacher’s pedagogical authority and the factors affecting it benefit teachers in their work. The main purpose of my research is to find out how teacher’s pedagogical authority is defined and which are the factors teacher’s pedagogical authority is built of. I examine the definitions given to teacher’s pedagogical authority and explain the factors affecting it when it is defined. Method. The method I implemented in this research was a descriptive and more precisely a narrative literature review with the purpose of providing a wide review of the chosen topic and summarising the earlier results found within the same topic. The material I used in this research included both Finnish and English articles, works and researches. An aggregated summary of the results was formed based on the chosen material. Results and conclusions. The results of my study indicate that teacher’s pedagogical authority is a multidimensional concept and it can not be defined unambiguously. Based on the results teacher’s pedagogical authority can be divided into four different types of authority which were social authority, intellectual authority, directional and moral authority, and authority based on using power. The main factors that were seen to affect the development of teacher’s pedagogical authority were a functional interactive relationship between a teacher and a student, teacher’s expertise and experience and teacher’s own personality. The results of this study give an opportunity for teachers to reflect their own pedagogical authority and its development.