Abstract:

The aim of this qualitative study, which takes the last form that French and Raven’s taxonomy of power bases as its theoretical framework, is to present a group of preservice teachers’ evaluations of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the bases of power in the process of classroom management as based on their perceptions they formed through their lived experiences in their high school years. The findings based on the written responses to open-ended questions of 345 preservice teachers, showed that personal reward power (as being an effective basis of power) and impersonal coercive power (as being an ineffective basis of power) were mentioned with the highest frequencies. In regard to the appropriateness of their use in classroom management, personal reward power was approved by all the participants who mentioned it, while coercive power was disapproved by all the participants who regarded it as an ineffective, and by almost all the others who regarded it as an effective basis of power. The literature on the power interactions between teachers and students have so far been theoretically based on the earliest form of French and Raven’s taxonomy of power bases presented in 1959. The present study points to the need to take the taxonomy in its final, the most comprehensive and thus the most explanatory form that it took in 1993. The stated taxonomy was presented in its final form, and implications of the findings for research and practice were also discussed. 

Keywords: