FROM INSTRUMENT TO WISDOM: REBUILDING AUTHORITY IN EDUCATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56238/arev7n12-056Keywords:
Authority, Teaching, Phronesis, Education, Means, ModesAbstract
This research investigates the crisis of teaching authority in contemporary education, proposing a historical and phenomenological analysis that links Aristotle’s categories of Episteme, Techne, and Phronesis to the distinction between means and modes of teaching. The study begins with the observation that reducing teaching to technique (Techne) not only fails to restore authority but deepens pathologies such as shouting and teacher burnout. Its aim is to show that authentic pedagogical authority emerges from Phronesis, manifested in ethical, relational, and existential modes of interacting with students. Methodologically, the study combines Aristotelian theoretical review, historical analysis of school discipline in Brazil, and paradigmatic case studies centered on figures like Socrates and Jesus, who exercised authority without coercive or structural resources. Results indicate that teaching effectiveness does not reside in the accumulation of technical means, but in the ethical and practical integration of modes that foster respect, discernment, and care. It concludes that reconstructing teaching authority requires valuing pedagogical tact, communicative rationality, and the “beautiful risk” of education, overcoming instrumental logic and promoting education aimed at the integral formation of students.
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