Students’ use of compliance gaining strategies with graduate teaching assistants: Examining the other end of the power spectrum

One goal of this research was to test empirically students’ perceptions of GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) and professor power and credibility. Overall, students perceived professors to be more credible and powerful than GTAs. However, students still perceived GTAs as being highly credible and powerful. Students also felt they have more power with GTAs than professors. A second goal of this research was to examine students as sources of power and persuasion by developing a typology of compliance‐gaining strategies students use to influence their GTAs. Importantly, students are recognized as powerful forces in the classroom. Moreover, by examining students as agents of persuasion, researchers gather a more complete picture of compliance‐gaining models.