Module 22: Authority, Empowerment & Consultation – balancing the interests of all stakeholders
Module description:
In relation to a working definition of the process of holistic development this module looks at the nature of, and use of, the idea of ‘Authority, Empowerment & Consultation – balancing the interests of all stakeholders’ by the teacher, or other practitioner, so as to encourage learning, professional development and/or personal growth.
Authority:
The sociologist Max Webber has identified three foundations of authority:
Rational-legal Based on one’s defined office/role (rules/ duties).
- For example, teachers, a policeman or policewoman and judges.
Tradition Based on established practices.
- For example, for a long time in some Christian denominations women were not given authority by the Church to become priests. In the Roman Catholic Church this tradition has authority today as it is still upheld but in the Church of England women are now able to become priests and so for them this tradition no longer has the authority it once did. (For more on this see The Role of Women in the Church)
Charismatic A person of exceptional ability is perceived as having the right to lead.
- For example, Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement.
SEE: http://www.faithnet.org.uk/A2%20Subjects/Ethics/authorityjustice.htm
Empowerment:
“An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.” Stephen Covey
Consultation (dialogue, philosophical inquiry):
“Discourse is dialogic not because speakers take turns, but because it is continually structured by tension, even conflict, between the conversants, between self and other, as one voice “refracts” the other….” (Nystrand, et al., 1997,
SEE http://faculty.ed.uiuc.edu/burbules/ncb/papers/dialogue.html
Introductory reading/s to get started:
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=search_results&criteria=parents
A sense of the field can be obtained from Roger Stack’s ‘Map’ of Holistic Education see also his blog
