Teacher as an authority? Supporting the student's Sense of belonging to the school community as a condition for their development and the teacher's success in educating

Abstract

The article aims to show the importance of the teacher's authority in the modern school. The authors present a different view from the one well established in the literature looking at the problem of the formation of teachers' authority. In addition to the definitions relating to the professional competence and cognitive abilities, a significant aspect of the analysis was focused on the teacher's ability to form and shape the student's sense of belonging to school. The paper also includes the research findings univocally indicating that the teacher is a highly regarded authority if they can build and maintain positive relationships in the classroom between them and students as well as between the students themselves, especially the ones manifesting difficulties in the current social functioning.