French and Raven's Power Bases: A Focus for Educational Researchers and Practitioners

Abstract

The paper argues that the effective use of power, a little-investigated concept, is crucial to providing leadership in educational settings. It then presents French and Raven's social bases of power—coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, and expert—and builds a case for power being a focus for both educational researchers and practitioners. The former, researchers, are encouraged to look upon power, its definition, its categories, its enhancement, and its application as untilled soil ripe with opportunities for investigation. The latter, practitioners, are asked to come to grips with the potential and limits of each power base in order more effectively to exercise such power in the classroom.