The Authority Illusion

The damage done when nobody dares say, “this is bollocks.”


Authority in education is broken. It’s not based on understanding, expertise, or results—it’s based on who shouts loudest and wears the right fucking Ted Baker suit. One confident dickhead at the top can derail an entire school. And because no one wants to be seen as “unprofessional”, we let it happen. We’re stuck in a system where people confuse leadership posturing with actual knowledge—and it’s costing us everything.

Problem

Too many decisions in schools are made by people who don’t know what they’re doing, but who’ve got just enough power—or charisma—to carry it off. MAT CEOs, trust leaders, consultants, edu-influencers: half of them haven’t taught in years and the other half never really understood teaching to begin with. But they’ve got a TED-style voice and a PowerPoint full of bastardised Rosenshine quotes, so we hand them control of our classrooms.

This is what Dan Ariely calls the illusion of understanding; leaders feel confident about ideas not because they do understand them, but because they’ve seen them repeated often enough. Familiarity becomes mistaken for competence. And once a buzzword sticks, it becomes doctrine. “I heard it on a podcast once… “.

Teachers are expected to implement every new directive without question. No discussion, no dissent, just compliance. If you challenge it, you’re “not aligned.” If you want nuance, you’re “resistant.” This isn’t policy. It’s fucking dogma. And it’s enforced through a toxic performance culture where what matters is not whether something works, but whether it looks like it’s working.

Causes

It’s psychological. The Milgram effect proved that people will do terrible, irrational things if told to by someone in authority. Education is a live demo of that every term. SLT says “cold calling” is mandatory? Done. MAT CEO says “no group work”? Fine. Consultant says every lesson must begin with retrieval practice? Let’s fucking go. Nobody questions it. Because questioning makes you a target.

Conformity bias, as Jonah Berger outlines in Invisible Influence, means we follow the herd—especially in high-pressure environments. If everyone else is nodding along in the CPD session, you will too. You’ll add the icon to your slides. You’ll rewrite your lesson plan. Even if it feels wrong. Even if you know it’s wrong. Because silence is safer than standing out.

Richard Shotton fucking nailed this too: authority and social proof are deeply manipulative forces. You don’t have to be right—you just have to look like you are. That’s how trust CEOs and influencers pull this shit off. They trade on confidence and perception, not competence. And in a school system built on high-stakes inspection, nobody wants to be seen as “falling behind the curve.”

The result is a leadership culture obsessed with image. Edu-consultants push polished diagrams that reduce complex ideas into neat boxes. MAT bosses chase visibility instead of depth. SLT parrots whatever they heard last at a conference. No one’s thinking—just mimicking. This is what Steven Johnson calls “peer-based cascade thinking”—decisions that spread fast, unchallenged, because they appear to come with consensus. They don’t. They just come from authority.

Effects

The result is a demoralised, confused, and exhausted profession. Teachers are forced to ditch professional judgment in favour of scripts, walkthroughs, and box-ticking bullshit prepared by some dick head director of subject. You’re not trusted to teach—you’re expected to perform. Deliver what the CEO wants. Show what the consultant said. Never question. Never adapt.

That leads to burnout. Not the slow, creeping kind—this is rage burnout. What the fuck are we even doing? burnout. Teachers leaving because they can’t stand delivering something they know is bollocks. Because they’re sick of pretending to be on board with ideas that don’t work.

And students suffer too. Their education is shaped by leadership cosplay, not actual pedagogy. Strategies change every year. Language changes every term. Lessons are warped to fit whatever’s trending—not what’s needed.

This isn’t evolution. It’s chaos. And it’s all happening because nobody wants to be the first one to say: this doesn’t make any fucking sense.

Solutions

First, leadership needs to get off the stage and get back to reality. If you don’t fully understand a concept, don’t implement it. Don’t roll it out because someone with a podcast mentioned it. Don’t force it on your staff because it looks good on Twitter. Read the source. Trial it properly. Fucking think.

Stop punishing challenge. If someone in your school says “I’m not sure this works”—you should be thanking them, not sidelining them. George Orwell said, “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” That’s education right now. We punish dissent and promote obedience. Flip that.

Stop hiring consultants who haven’t seen a classroom since Gove was in power. If you need external voices, get actual teachers. Frontline, sharp, bullshit-sniffing teachers. Build systems that value experience over volume.

Kill off the performative CPD. Burn the fucking walkthru templates. Give teachers space to reflect, to experiment, to question, to share. Stop treating every lesson like a performance review.

And most of all: stop mistaking confidence for competence. That guy with the keynote voice and leadership lanyard? He might be full of shit. Don’t let him make policy.

Conclusion

What we’ve got is a system built on the illusion of authority. We’ve handed the steering wheel to people who look the part but can’t drive for shit. And we’re crashing—hard. Staff are burning out. Kids are missing out. And the same arseholes are still on stage talking about “vision.”

It’s time to stop obeying and start thinking. Time to put evidence ahead of ego. And time to reclaim education from the confidence merchants who’ve hijacked it.

As Jon Ronson might say: these people are dangerous because they’re certain. Certainty without depth is what got us here. Doubt is not weakness—it’s a fucking safeguard.

And schools need that safeguard now more than ever.

Published by admin

super experienced educator