Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

Recognizing Students among Educational Authorities 753
willing not only to change the ways we think but also constitute a new language and a new culture
for reforming education.
Like those in charge of the health care system, educators think that we know what education
is and should be. It is in part our roles as adults, and thus those responsible in many ways for the
younger generation, that condition us to think that way. However, given the unpredictable and
unprecedented ways in which the world is changing, we do not know more than students living at
the dawn of the twenty-first century about what it means to be a student in the modern world and
what it might mean to be an adult in the future. To learn those things, we need to embrace more
fully the work of recognizing students’ perspectives in conversations about schooling and reform.
Education has traditionally been about changing students to make them fit. Perhaps education
now needs to be about changing adults to fit students and the future.
TERMS FOR READERS
Authority—An authority is one with rightful power. One who has authority has power and
esteem born of others’ recognition, one has competency. An authority is one who is appealed to
as a legitimate source of knowledge and understanding. An authority, like an author, can create
something, can participate in important decision-making processes, can make change.
Listening—To listen is to give close attention to with the purpose of hearing; to yield to advice
or admonition. Thus listening is paying attention with the intention of responding, of acting in
response. Listening to those who have previously been unrecognized or who have had perspectives
and roles without a voice means retuning ears to hear, then being ready to act on what we hear,
and then listening again and anew.
Perspective—Perspective means two seemingly different things: on the one hand, a narrow, limited,
albeit valid angle or standpoint from which one looks; on the other, a wide and encompassing
view. It means both the single angle and the interrelation of multiple aspects of a subject; thus it
implies both looking and understanding, individual and collective.
Recognize—To know again, to admit the truth or validity of, to acknowledge. To recognize is
to see and acknowledge something one has been ignoring or was not aware of—to see it and
acknowledge it either for the first time or again and anew. It carries with it the implication of
thinking again, of rethinking, as well as seeing, re-seeing, and seeing anew.
Role—A role is a part, a function, a prescribed piece in a performance, or the expected behavior or
participation in a social interaction. A role is constituted by a collection of expectations that others
have for a person occupying a particular position. It implies as well a set of rights and responsibilities
as defined and approved by the system in which the person acts. In addition, role implies
the existence of other roles that have bearing on one another. People occupying different roles are
ascribed different degrees and kinds of power. These power dynamics affect interactions and people’s
sense of themselves, which are closely intertwined. They influence people’s thinking about
what they are responsible for, what is possible for them, and what is not. Essential here is the notion
that roles are not fixed identities but rather socially constructed phenomena that can be revised.
FURTHER READING
This chapter is based on an article I published in Educational Researcher called Authorizing Students’
Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education (Vol. 31(4), May 2002, 3–14). This