TITLE:
The Fading and Remodeling of Teacher Authority
AUTHORS:
Jie Chen
KEYWORDS:
Educational Philosophy, Jaspers, Teacher Authority, Fading, Remodeling
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.1,
January
17,
2022
ABSTRACT: As a philosopher, theologian and educator, Karl Theodor Jaspers’s
research field was extremely wide, and his abundant academic background had a
significant influence on his educational theory. Among his numerous works, What
is Education mostly embodies his existentialist educational thought. In this
book, Jaspers proposed the Authority Theory as the source of education, in line
with the educational purpose of cultivating “whole person”. As the sole source
and essence of education, authority has three characteristics: spirituality,
democracy and spontaneity. It can be seen that taking the inner spirit as a
pillar, authority is naturally generated. Only teachers with excellent teaching
ability and democratic spirit will become the one who wins the admiration of
his students with ease. Jaspers’ Authority Theory is of great enlightening
significance to the reconstruction of modern teacher authority. Since ancient
times, people’s reverence for teachers and recognition of their authority has
been passed down from generation to generation. However, due to various
reasons, nowadays people have questioned or even challenged the authority of
teachers, gradually damaging teachers’ authority image and influence. The
existence of teacher authority is in jeopardy under the situation of internal
and external threatens. In this study, the author first makes a detailed explanation
of Jaspers’ Authority Theory, then analyzes the reasons for the fading of
contemporary teachers’ authority based on the reality, and finally tries to
help teachers establish authority again from three aspects: school system,
legal guarantee and teachers themselves.