Teachers carry out a number of roles in the educational system. Their primary role is to help all students develop knowledge and skills, but, most of the time, they take on the role of gatekeepers: They evaluate students and exercise selection on the basis of performance. We analyze the roles of teachers through the lens of the literature on social influence and put forward the proposal that teaching is a form of social influence. We review existing research on the mechanisms that explain the differential effects teachers may have on students’ learning, students’ prospects, and, therefore, educational justice. We conclude that if teachers endorse the role of mentors—instead of that of gatekeepers—focusing on the development of their students’ knowledge, they can promote deep study, long‐term learning, and equality of treatment. Such an approach could help design teacher training and school reform so as to maximize the learning potential of all students and empower teachers to become active agents of profound individual and social change.

中文翻译：

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作为社会影响力的教学：使教师有能力成为社会变革的推动者

教师在教育系统中扮演着许多角色。他们的主要作用是帮助所有学生发展知识和技能，但是在大多数情况下，他们扮演看门人的角色：他们根据表现评估学生并进行选择。我们从社会影响力的文献角度分析了教师的作用，并提出了教学是社会影响力的形式的建议。我们回顾了有关解释教师可能对学生的学习，学生的前景以及教育公正产生不同影响的机制的现有研究。我们得出的结论是，如果教师认可导师的角色而不是看门人的角色，而是着重于学生知识的发展，那么他们可以促进深入学习，长期学习和平等待遇。