Observations of Childrens' Responses to Different Types of Adult Authority Figures

The present study examined children’s responses to directives from teachers and student teachers in the classroom. According to previous interview data, children should demonstrate greater obedience to a teacher than to a student teacher due to her higher social position and greater knowledge. Seventeen second grade children were observed in their classroom as they interacted with the different authority figures. The authority figures’ directives and the children’s responses were categorized using coding systems developed for the study. Results show an interaction between gender and response to authority figure directives. Children, in general, were less compliant with the student teacher and this was more so for the boys. It was also found that student teachers use more requests as directives than teachers. Observations of children’s responses 3 Observations of Children’s Responses to Different Types of Adult Authority Figures A child can respond to different authority figures in many different ways. This research examined children’s responses to different authority figures depending on the social status and knowledge possessed by the authority figure. The observations were made within the context of the school. How a child responds to authority and obedience is one aspect of moral development and different theories regarding this development will be examined in the following paragraphs.