ABSTRACT
Authoritarian parents focus on controlling children. They do not allow children to make any decisions for themselves and they do not allow any independence of thought or behaviour. They are not accepting of children’s individual needs or differences and so are often rejecting of children. When a child experiences authoritarian parenting, self-expression and independence are often suppressed. In an educational setting, children of authoritarian parents may find it difficult to engage in self-directed work, because they have so little experience of deciding on their own actions, and are accustomed to adults telling them what to do. The idea of ‘styles’ of supporting positive behaviour makes sense within educational settings, and this conceptualisation can help people understand interactions between children and educators, as well as those between children and parents. An authoritarian educator treats all children the same and takes a zero-tolerance approach to enforcing the rules regardless of the reasons for behaviour.
