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.
teacher authoritylegitimacyeducational authorityteacher power