Exercising Teacher Power Responsibly

In chapter 18 of Brookfields, The Skillful Teacher, he discusses the teachers’ role in exercising their “power” responsibly. I can completely relate to his vision of being a fly on the wall. I always wanted the students to view me as an equal. Just another body in the room to aid the process of learning. I tried, and still do try, to involve the students in much of the decision making, in terms of breaks, consequences for days missed, rules on cell phones in class, and the ability to grade their own assignments. I find the students do not respond to this in the ways I had hoped. Most of them expressing that I am the teacher and that is my job to make those decisions. I have started to realize that the students depend on me to exercise this power. They are not looking for a companion or a colleague, they are looking for a leader or a mentor. I agree with the theme amongst students’ that transparency is justifiable exercise of power. With some of our assignments we hand out a grading sheet, the same one we use to mark their finished project. “Students wont always like the way we do these things and they may argue that we have underestimated the value of their work, but they will be far more likely to accept our judgments if we’re up front about what we’re looking for and if we’re willing to explain why we’ve assigned a specific grade” (Brookfield, 2015, Pg. 244).

Here is a link I found about being transparent in the classroom:

https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/power-transparency-teaching/

During my search of exercising teaching power responsibly, I stumbled upon this ted talk. It’s a different take on the power of a teacher and maybe little bit off topic, to inspiring not to share it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyogyD7vXbw

Brookfield, S. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.