status. Although it seems to be a very extreme case, in reality it happens very often, since it
has been observed that when the teacher feels weak in her knowledge, she tries to
compensate by adding more power to her relationship with students.
2) The lower right comer shows the extreme situation of lack of power and knowledge; the
teacher has abdicated both, interactional and transactional authority. This situation results in
the complete absence of control over the social and the pedagogical aspects of the
teaching∕leaming situation.
It is obvious that the right side of the diagram has little if anything to do with education. By
definition, the lack Ofknowledge on the part of the teacher makes her incapable of teaching.
Let’s consider now the left side of Fig. 3.5.
3) The upper left comer shows the presence of both knowledge and power. This means that
the teacher deploys authority in both senses; she is authoritarian and authoritative at the
same time. This situation can be described by a teacher-centred approach. Although
nowadays this type of approach has been highly criticised, it results in positive outcomes for
a certain type of learners.
4) The lower left comer represents a learning situation characterised by the presence of
knowledge and the absence of power. It clearly refers to a learner-centred approach, where
the teacher exercises her authority by creating the best conditions for learning. This also
results in a mutual respect in which both participants acknowledge each other's transactional
authority. Apparently, this seems to be the best situation for a SAC environment since self-
directed learners are free to make decisions at different levels (Holec, 1980, and 1987) but
are guided by the authoritative expertise of the SAC counsellor.
However, as I see it, both sections on the left side (upper and lower) show educative
potential for self-direction. When discussing pedagogical issues, one should consider the
interactional nature of the process. In this case, I strongly believe that pedagogical success
depends on the degree of convergence of roles between participants. It is important to take
into account that whenever students' expectations are different from those of their teachers
about the degree of interactional authority deployed (if they want a less dominant teacher, if
they would prefer a teacher-like counsellor in the SAC, and so on) a very serious
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