论教师权威的正当性

On the Legitimacy of Teacher Authority

维护教师正当的权威是营造全社会尊师氛围,发挥教师专业行动力的重要举措。但教师权威在现代社会受到挑战,需要对其正当性进行辩护。已有的“分类的辩护”通过对不同教师权威进行分类和对比,来阐述教师权威的正当性问题,既内生着逻辑矛盾,也可能带来教师权威的消解。学校教育不能完全等同于公共领域,教师权威的力量根源在于“天然的不平等”,它具有丰富的伦理意涵,是一种内在的精神力量,而并非纯粹的制度性安排。从“教育逻辑”出发,教师权威的正当性可划分为向善性和有限性两个维度,前者是教师权威的规范正当,是其正当性“质的规定性”;后者是教师权威的经验正当,是其正当性“量的规定性”。教师权威不同于教师权力,以往对教师权威的“正当性质疑”并未将两者有效区分开来,所谓教师的“不正当权威”实质是滥用的教师权力。

The maintenance of teachers' legitimate authority is an important measure to create a social atmosphere where teachers are respected, and give full play to teachers' professional action. However, teacher authority is challenged in modern society, and its legitimacy needs to be defended. The existing "classified defense" by categorizing and comparing the authority of different teachers elaborates on the legitimacy of teacher authority, but this contains inherent logical contradictions, and may lead to the dissolution of teacher authority. School education cannot be entirely equal to activities in public sectors. Rooted in "natural inequality," teacher authority contains rich ethical connotations, and it is an intrinsic spiritual force,rather than a purely institutional arrangement. Based on the "logic of education," the legitimacy of teacher authority can fall into two dimensions: goodness, which indicates the normative legitimacy of teacher authority and reflects the "qualitative stipulation" of the legitimacy, and finiteness, which refers to the experiential legitimacy of teacher authority and embodies the "quantitative stipulation" of the legitimacy. Teacher authority is different from teacher power. The previous doubts about the legitimacy of teacher authority failed to effectively distinguish between these two terms, and the so-called "improper teacher authority" is in essence abused teacher power.