In the Spanish educational context, lately we talk about the delegitimation of the teaching work. The role of the teacher has changed and is currently questioned by society, the media, politicians, parents and even students. The teachers themselves acknowledge that they have lost authority (Gallego, Acosta, Villalobos, López & Giraldo, 2016). The current tensions between teachers and students are evident in the difficulties experienced by teachers to be recognized as a pedagogical authority. This situation is new, since in the traditional school the teachers enjoyed a legitimacy before the students and before the families. In school, the children left their particular world and acceded to the universal culture that was internalized without resistance. However, in today's school, students present a polarity of values ​​(Dubet, 2007) and seek their teachers to give them a space to recognize their individuality. Considering these changes, the teacher's authority no longer rests exclusively in the school but must be built by the teacher and recognized by the students (Zamora, Mesa, & Cox, 2015).

Several studies on school coexistence that have developed in Spain (Díaz-Aguado, 2002) and in other European countries (McGarr, Grady, & Guifolyle, 2016) indicate that teachers complain about the behaviour of their students, that they lack respect, they do not obey them and that their most frequent behaviour is not to accept their requests. 65% of teachers in Spain admit to having difficulties to attend classes because they cannot control the behaviour of students. To these behaviours of disobedience of the norms of the centre / classroom has been denominated indiscipline, and according to the opinion of the professors is one of the most important problems in the education. Experts point out that this is linked to the lack and/or loss of authority of the teacher.

The concept of authority has been little studied in the field of education. Thus, the term is still confused with coercion; that is, authority, with obedience, fear and punishment (Rahul, & Montero, 2013). Many studies that have investigated teacher authority has focused on addressing the differences between authority and authoritarianism (Guilt, 2006, Barba, 2009). Others have referred to how teachers conceive of authority and how they construct it (Harjunen, 2009; Zamora & Zerón, 2010), but there are few researches that have examined students' perceptions and motivations to recognize Their teachers or accept to obey them, and to identify the possible consequences of the exercise of a certain type of authority in the classroom.

In this study, we understand that teacher authority is based on students' recognition of their demands (Kojève, 2006) and that to educate is not to impose; is to convince and help to grow. Espot (2006) already defended that education must necessarily use the auctoritas and potestas. Authority and power, effectively, are two elements necessary to manage the class. This means that the authority of the teacher no longer rests exclusively in the school institution, but must also be built by the teacher and recognized by the students (Lai, Gu, & Hu, 2015). 

According to the antecedents presented, the objectives of the study are 1) To determine the traits that characterize the authority of the teachers, from the perspective of the Spanish students and 2) to identify what kind of behaviours generate these traits in the students.

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