Tough Teachers Actually Care: An Ethnographic Look into the ‘Problematic’ Role of Teachers as Figures of Authority Under Learner-Centered Education

Teacher authority is culturally valued among Filipinos. This authority however poses a threat to the fundamental principles of learner-centred education as it arguably perpetuates ‘teacher-centered’ instruction and obstructs positive student-teacher relationships which are necessary for student learning. This problematic role of teacher authority is examined in this study by investigating what constitutes good pedagogy in one class within a rural school in the Philippines. With this research problem, this study used ethnographic research approach to examine what students and teachers understand about ‘classroom authority’ and its perceived value in good pedagogy within a specific and cultural place. Ethnographic data in this study suggest that teacher authority is central in understanding good teaching within specific classroom contexts as this cultural valuing of teachers as ‘authorities’ may support student engagement and foster student-teacher relationships which are built on ‘academic care’. This ‘academic care’ could offer a practice which bridges the presumed binary between teacher-centered and learner-centered pedagogies.