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

Oct 15, 2026

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Teacher authority is culturally valued among Filipinos but threatens the principles of learner-centred education by fostering teacher-centred instruction and limiting constructive student-teacher relationships. The study examines how classroom authority functions as part of good pedagogy within a rural Philippine school. Using an ethnographic approach, it analyzes students’ and teachers’ understandings of classroom authority and its perceived value in that cultural context. Findings indicate authority is central to good teaching and may support engagement and “academic care,” bridging teacher-centred and learner-centred binaries.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Research focus and ethnographic approach

Implications for learner-centred education

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 47 Issue 6 | Article 2 | | --- | --- | | 2022
Tough Teachers Actually Care: An Ethnographic Look into the‘Problematic’Role of Teachers as Figures of Authority Under Learner-Centered Education
Julie Lucille Haber Del Valle
The University of Melbourne
Follow this and additional works at: [https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte)
Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons, and the Secondary Education and Teaching Commons | | Recommended Citation Del Valle, J. H. (2022) . Tough Teachers Actually Care: An Ethnographic Look into the ‘Problematic’ Role of Teachers as Figures of Authority Under Learner-Centered Education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 47(6) . [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2022v47n6.2](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2022v47n6.2) [This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.](This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.)[ ](This Journal Article is posted at Research Online.)[https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol47/iss6/2](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol47/iss6/2) Tough Teachers Actually Care: An Ethnographic look into the ‘Problematic’ Role of Teachers as Figures of Authority under Learner-Centered Education Julie Lucille del Valle Ateneo de Naga University, The Philippines Abstract: 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 offera practice which bridges the presumed binary between teacher centered and learner-centered pedagogies. Keywords: learner-centered education; cultural impediments; good pedagogy; Philippine education; teacher authority; teacher-centered instruction; Philippine schools Introduction Under strong global imperatives for education reform and in the face of international comparisons, the Philippines moves in the same direction with its Southeast Asian neighbours towards a learner-centred education by overhauling its national curriculum by virtue of the Republic Act (RA) 10533. This national reform policy mandates that the Philippine “curriculum shall be learner-centered” in a way that “teacher-centered pedagogical strategies [must be] applied to a lesser extent”(Republic Act No. 10533 2013, 2; SEAMEOINNOTECH 2012, 44) . This is because these teacher-centered forms of teaching arguably attributed to the ‘lack of interest in attending school and low participation rates’ among students and the ‘decreasing National Achievement Test rates’(Philippine House Bill 6643, 13) . Thus, in its attempt to transition to learner-centred education in 2013, the Philippines placed its approximately 400,000 elementary and secondary public schools under long and extensive in-service training which prescribed the “use pedagogical approaches that are constructivist, inquiry-based, reflective, collaborative and integrative”(Republic Act No. 10533, 2013, p. 2) . Such prescription i

FAQs

What concern does the paper raise about teacher authority in learner-centred education?

Teacher authority can perpetuate teacher-centred instruction and obstruct positive student-teacher relationships, which are necessary for effective student learning under learner-centred education.

How does the study investigate classroom authority and good pedagogy?

It uses an ethnographic research approach to examine what students and teachers understand about “classroom authority” and its perceived value in good pedagogy within a rural school context in the Philippines.

What do the ethnographic data suggest about the role of teacher authority?

Teacher authority is central to understanding good teaching in specific classroom contexts; valuing teachers as “authorities” may support student engagement and help build student-teacher relationships grounded in “academic care.”

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Franzy