ABSTRACT

In his classic text The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation (1964) Max Weber observed that power in any social relationship is reflected in the probability that one person will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance. In theory, teachers have the power to control the behaviour of children in their charge. Since society has given them the ‘duty of care’, as it is known in legal parlance, because they are acting as a parent substitute, in loco parentis, they must be given power to administer fair punishments, for example, so that they can carry out their duties.