ABSTRACT
T he trend to decenter authority in the com position classroom affects teach ers o f writing at every level, and the questioning o f teacher authority has touched nearly every aspect of our scholarship, changing the way we theorize about, research, and practice the teaching o f writing. A lthough teacher au thority has been at the center o f our discussions in teacher training, work shops, conventions, and publications, little attention has been paid to the different social and cultural positions o f m en and women. A s a community, we have taken for granted a stable and single definition o f teacher authority that does not account for gender, racial, cultural, or other differences. I am certainly not arguing here that these various m ovem ents to alter our concep tions o f teacher authority are invalid, but I do think we have missed a crucial aspect o f this conversation. Particularly in a field where the majority o f prac titioners are women, we should be taking these differences into account when we discuss issues o f teacher authority.
