Authoritarian Teaching and the Suppression of Critical Questioning

Although structured classrooms can provide much of the needed discipline, guidance, and learning support, excessive classroom structure can morph into Authoritarian Teaching (AT), which stifles creativity, undermines critical thinking, and hampers the development of skills that are essential during adulthood. With pedagogical methods remaining largely without any significant reforms since 1992, teaching methods remain stagnant across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) despite significant developments in access to education. More recently, this was even recognized at the beginning of the current KRG cabinet when the minister of education named qualification, tolerance, and democracy as the principles underlying the new vision for teaching in the KRI. In this research, we aim to examine the relationship between AT and the students’ ability to engage in higher order thinking, specifically asking critical questions in the KRI education system. This research also focuses on developing a nuanced understanding of how the manifestations of AT through rigid conformity to curricula, excessively controlling information delivery, and suppressive classroom management lead to the undermining students’ ability to ask critical questions. This study develops a nuanced and deeper understanding of how AT has remained entrenched in the KRI, prevents students from engaging in the most basic forms of critical engagement with their learning materials, and in the longer term produces passive students unable to cooperate or be effective in professional settings.