INFLUENCE OF AUTHORITARIAN ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS ON THEIR BEHAVIOR INCROSS-CULTURAL CONFLICTS AT SCHOOL

This study analyzes the relation between teachers' authoritarianism an d their behaviour in cases of intercultural conflicts in the classroom . Subjects were teachers of different school types from Hessian and No rthrhine-Westphalia (N = 425) who filled in standardized questionnaire s. Authoritarianism, as measured with a newly developed ''Teacher-Auth oritarianism Scale'', correlates negatively with a pedagogically usefu l reaction-category including methods of interactive handling of probl ems between teacher and students. Authoritarian teachers also do not a sk school psychologists for advice. Rather they tend to sanction the s tudents involved in the conflict. Two possible explanations are discus sed: First, the preference of an authoritarian vs, democratic style of leadership, and, second, the influence of the strength of teachers' i ndividual ethnic prejudice.