Respect by Design: How Different Educational Systems Interact with Mutual Respect in Classrooms

Abstract

This ethnographic and comparative study examines interactions between educational systems and mutual respect in classrooms. I define mutual respect as the work of intervening on those power asymmetries typically found in classrooms — both between teachers and students, and among students — by way of according children increased equality, autonomy, and equity. I partnered with four elementary schools, situated across two educational systems (i.e., Montessori and International Baccalaureate) and two national contexts (i.e., Washington, D.C. and Toronto). Through participant observation, interviews, video-cued multivocal ethnography, and document collection, I analyzed: 1) the ways in which educational systems design for mutual respect; 2) how teachers understand and manage mutual respect in practice; and 3) the experiences of teachers and leaders as they manage designs for mutual respect in practice.

Overall, the findings from this study provide clearer understanding of how and why systems might design for mutual respect, and how and why approaches might differ across systems. What is more, the findings suggest that a system’s relationship with its environment can shape the trajectory of mutual respect within the designs of a system, the practical logics of teachers, and the social contexts of classrooms. This study contributes an analytic framework — informed by the literature and elaborated via empirical study — for describing, comparing, and reasoning about the relationship between educational systems and increased equality, autonomy, and equity for students in classrooms.