ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on four considerations. First, it reviews some major traditional views surrounding the relationship between authority and schooling. This will be followed by a rationale for giving the concept of authority a central role in educational theory and practice. The chapter argues for an emancipatory view of authority, that provides the ontological grounding for a critical form of teacher work and practice. Next it presents the broad theoretical outlines of a transformative pedagogy that is consistent with an emancipatory view of authority. Finally, the chapter also argues that the notion of authority has to be considered within a wider set of economic, political, and social practices in order for teachers to step out of their academic boundaries and enter into alliances with other progressive groups. It is crucial that this emancipatory view of authority become a part of an ongoing social movement whose purpose is to analyze and sustain the struggle for critical forms of education and democracy.
