respect of teachers essay

Essay on Respect Of Teachers

Students are often asked to write an essay on Respect Of Teachers in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Respect Of Teachers

Introduction.

Respect for teachers is important. Teachers help us learn and grow. They guide us in life. They are like our second parents. So, we should always respect our teachers.

Why Respect Teachers?

Teachers work hard to teach us. They spend hours preparing lessons. They help us understand difficult things. They also care about our future. That’s why we should respect them.

Showing Respect

We show respect by listening to our teachers. We should also follow their instructions. We can ask questions politely. We should never interrupt them. These actions show respect.

Benefits of Respecting Teachers

When we respect teachers, we learn better. Teachers feel happy and teach us with more energy. This makes our learning more fun and easy. So, respecting teachers benefits us too.

In conclusion, respecting teachers is necessary. It helps us learn and makes our teachers happy. Let’s always respect our teachers.

250 Words Essay on Respect Of Teachers

What is respect.

Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone because of their abilities, qualities, or achievements. It means showing kindness, listening, and being polite to others. When we talk about respect in a school setting, teachers are often the first people who come to mind.

Teachers are the building blocks of society. They are the ones who guide us, help us learn new things, and prepare us for the future. They work hard to make sure we understand our lessons and grow as individuals. For all these reasons, it is very important to respect our teachers.

Ways to Show Respect

There are many ways to show respect to teachers. We can listen to them attentively when they are teaching. We can follow their instructions and do our homework on time. It is also respectful to greet them when we see them and to say thank you when they help us.

The Outcome of Respecting Teachers

When we respect our teachers, we create a positive environment in our school. This makes it easier for us to learn and for our teachers to teach. Furthermore, respecting our teachers teaches us how to respect other people in our lives.

In conclusion, respect for teachers is essential. It helps create a better learning environment and teaches us important life skills. So, let’s make sure we show our teachers the respect they deserve.

500 Words Essay on Respect Of Teachers

Respect for teachers is an important value that all students should learn. Teachers play a big role in shaping our minds and character. They give us knowledge, guide us, and help us become better people. Showing respect to teachers is a way of thanking them for all they do.

Teachers are like a guiding light in our lives. They not only teach us about subjects like math and science, but they also teach us about life. They help us understand the world around us and how to behave in it. When we respect our teachers, we show that we value their wisdom and their efforts to make us better people.

Respect for teachers is not just about being polite. It’s also about listening to them, following their instructions, and trying our best in our studies. It’s about showing them that we are serious about our education and that we appreciate their hard work.

The Role of Teachers

Teachers do a lot more than just teach. They inspire us, motivate us, and support us. They spend a lot of time preparing lessons, grading our work, and helping us when we struggle. They care about our well-being and want us to succeed.

Teachers also set an example for us. They show us how to be responsible, honest, and kind. They teach us to respect others and to value learning. By respecting our teachers, we learn to respect others and ourselves.

How to Show Respect

There are many ways to show respect to our teachers. We can start by being polite and kind. We should always say “please” and “thank you,” and we should never interrupt when they are speaking.

We can also show respect by being good students. This means listening carefully in class, doing our homework, and studying for tests. It also means asking for help when we need it and accepting feedback with an open mind.

Another way to show respect is by appreciating our teachers. We can thank them for their help, tell them that we enjoyed their lessons, or even write them a nice note. These small gestures can mean a lot to teachers and show them that we value their work.

Respect for teachers is a key part of education. It shows that we value learning and appreciate the efforts of those who help us learn. By respecting our teachers, we not only show them that we care, but we also learn important values like gratitude, humility, and respect for others. So, let’s always remember to respect our teachers and appreciate all that they do for us.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

• Essay on Respect For Students
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Perspective | respect educators and their knowledge.

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I recently had a conversation with a retired teacher who later went on to a successful career at a major technology company. She shared with me the difference she experienced when she was introduced as a teacher versus as someone who works in tech. “It is almost like they were sorry in the first case and curious in the second,” she noted. This disrespect for teachers is something she has been sensing again.

We owe it to educators (as well as all students) to ensure they feel the trust and respect they deserve. That is particularly important right now because teachers stay in the profession when they believe their voices are valued, and they have a supportive work environment. However, more than three-quarters of the teachers in a recent survey listed lack of respect as one of the serious issues they face .  When more than 60% of Americans say they would not want their kids to become teachers , teachers feel disrespected. When teachers’ autonomy to make professional decisions is diminished, teachers feel disrespected.

Educators have specific professional knowledge that is developed through initial preparation, professional development, and reflective practice. This is the case for superintendents, principals, teachers, and many more educators who make up our school systems. In the case of teachers, they not only need to know the content they teach; they need to develop a type of knowledge called “pedagogical content knowledge,” which was first defined in the 1980s as knowledge that goes beyond content to include knowledge of teaching in specific domains. This knowledge is specific to the teaching profession, just as engineers, economists, architects, doctors, pharmacists and other professionals have knowledge that is specific to theirs. Thus, in the same way we respect other professionals for their knowledge, we should respect educators and trust their expertise.

But that’s not always happening. My colleague who moved to the tech field specifically mentioned limiting teachers’ choice of books to read in school as an example of the lack of respect shown to educators. Choosing what to read is an integral part of educators’ professional autonomy to make decisions regarding instruction. When educators’ options are reduced, it disregards their professional knowledge and sidesteps the processes through which instructional materials are selected in school. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge includes their ability to select appropriate materials to promote student learning, foster curiosity, and enhance students’ comprehension of the world. Limiting the books teachers can use removes important tools from their pedagogical repertoire.

As a dean of a College of Education, I think about the professionals we prepare. The idea that their professional choice of instructional tools is being challenged is worrisome. The reality that they are experiencing a sense of disrespect is disheartening. Educators who graduate from our colleges are prepared to focus on student learning, to impart knowledge, to promote growth, and to make sure everyone in their classrooms achieves their potential. That is the educator’s role. That is what they work for every day, despite all difficulties and challenges. Improvement is something we should always strive for, day-in and day-out, and educators in our schools are working above and beyond their call of duty to do the best they can to support all learners. Trust, resources, and better working conditions are what they need. 

As a state, we need educators to stay in the profession. Each one of us can help make that happen by respecting them. When meeting teachers, principals, superintendents and other educators, be curious about their work. Learn from their professional knowledge. And let decisions that require educators’ professional knowledge ultimately rest in their hands.

Paola Sztajn is the Dean of the College of Education at NC State University. She’s also a professor in NC State’s Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences.

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Why We Should Respect Our Teachers (Essay Sample)

Why we should respect our teachers.

Teaching is considered as a noble profession, with teachers granted the privilege of respect within the society. In several societies, the teacher is allowed a place of respect just like an individual’s mother or father. In other words, teachers are upheld as men and women of wisdom and infinite knowledge, hence deserving respect. However, the democratization of education has opened up opportunities for different students from different castes, creeds, class, and places of birth, an aspect that has seen the need for more teachers and schools. In as much as teachers remain in authority in molding students, there is a need to place them on top of the social pyramid with due respect as the makers of character in students.

Secondly, teachers uphold students with much care and sincerity as they would do their children. According to several communities, teachers are perceived as the greatest of all parents since they spend much of their time with their subjects compared to their parents. In this case, it is evident to consider that the parents are solely responsible for the birth of their children while the teachers take part in shaping their character in a bid to make their futures bright, an aspect that denotes the need to respect out teachers. Given this, we should never ignore or neglect our teachers, but always ensure that we grant them the respect and love they require.

On the other hand, parents are given the responsibility of showing love and quality care to their children. However, it is upon the teachers to shape the characters and behaviors of children to enable them to share their love with the world and the things they relate with in life. Teachers, in this case, ensure that their students understand the significance of education in their lives through their continuous efforts. Teachers additionally act as sources of inspiration for the students, thus nurturing success and the capacity to understand life. The teachers, therefore, motivate their students through the use of examples of great personalities globally with the intention of making their lives a success.  In this regard, they ensure that their students are stronger and prepared to withstand all the barriers in life. Through their immense knowledge and wisdom, the teachers nourish the lives of their students to ensure they turn out responsible in life, thus denoting the need to grant them respect in the community.

Teachers additionally play significant roles towards the education and the shaping of their students’ lives. This is evident in the fact that teachers are vision bearers, knowledge holders, and experience givers in life. The teaching profession, therefore, accords the teachers great responsibility that shapes the students tomorrow, thus establishing the need to respect the teachers since this impacts the growth, well-being, and development of their subjects. In as much as there are times when our teachers are bound to make a fool out of us by embarrassing and humiliating us in a classroom, considered as the cruelest punishment, we should never retaliate badly. Given this, we need to ensure that as students we are in a position to abide by all the rules of the school, an aspect that cultivates respect between the students and the teachers. Additionally, we need to make teachers our best friends and not enemies, a perception that has been established by students, thus negating the perception of respecting teachers. In this regard, it is vital to attest to the fact that all the great minds that exist in the world today have passed through the hands of teachers, thus positing the need to respect our teachers.

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5 Ways to Respect and Support Teachers

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This is the week we take time to acknowledge the incredible contributions of our teachers to our country. Their dedication and commitment leads to every great achievement in our nation.

Our teachers have never faced more demanding challenges. At the same time their students’ needs continue to grow, teachers face ever-tougher expectations from their states, school systems, and schools. The many demands on teachers include newly adopted career- and college-ready standards, new student assessments, new teacher evaluation requirements, and emerging technologies.

Here I outline five actions that systems can take to demonstrate their respect and support for educators, support them on their journeys to achieve excellence, and encourage them to see the learning profession as one worthy of a lifetime commitment.

Give teachers the feedback and support they need to increase their effectiveness. Too many teachers spend years in the profession without receiving feedback on their performance or help with their problems. Teachers need school systems to create the structures and invest in the people who will provide teachers with the feedback and support they need to improve their practice on a daily basis. Systems can choose to make this a fundamental part of their employment compact, and teachers can choose to work in places where the support is nonnegotiable.

Give teachers access to colleagues who share the responsibility for the success of a select group of students. No teacher should have to turn far to find support with his or her immediate problems of practice. Just as in higher-performing countries, teachers need to be assigned to learning teams with clear expectations that they share responsibility for a designated group of students.

Give teachers time during the work day to collaborate, problem solve, and learn with colleagues . Teachers should not be expected to learn only on their own time. While some learning may take place beyond the work day, substantive time and support should be scheduled within every teacher contract to acknowledge that learning is a core responsibility of every educator.

Give teachers time to implement new initiatives with accuracy and fidelity. The teachers I know are eager to learn new skills and apply new technologies that have potential to help their students achieve more. They are committed to the promise of higher standards. They are eager to introduce new curriculum and write new lessons that engage their students in deeper learning. They also know their efforts may not work as intended the first time around. They want time to improve their craft and get implementation right. When systems connect new standards to high- stakes immediately, teachers’ efforts to innovate are stifled, their willingness to learn from mistakes is compromised, and returning to old practices is safer. Let’s give teachers the time they need to implement new practices in an atmosphere of appreciation, recognition, and support — as opposed to fear, punitive accountability, and shame.

Make the teaching and learning profession attractive to those willing to make a lifetime commitment. This year I celebrate more than 40 years in the learning profession. I was fortunate; I paved a path that gave me countless opportunities to develop and exercise leadership skills. While I moved away from the classroom, I still ensured I would interact with teachers on a regular basis. We need many more pathways that give teachers opportunities to lead and at the same time continue to serve students. Many teacher surveys and the growth of teacher leadership initiatives demonstrate that teachers want to teach and serve the profession simultaneously. Organizations outside school systems shouldn’t be the only ones creating these options; rather, such pathways should be a fundamental part of how each district supports its work force.

Let me hear about how you rank my five recommendations. Where is your school system in relation to these actions? Are these the right steps to move us forward? I will continue to work on these actions and report on our progress a year from now.

Until then...Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to Mrs. Knuckles, Mr. Roslawski, Mr. Young, Mr. Mansur, Mr. Lovercheck, Dr. Ponder, Dr. Kemerer, Mrs. Ceballos, and the countless other teachers who make me who I am today!

Stephanie Hirsh Executive Director, Learning Forward @HirshLF

The opinions expressed in Learning Forward’s PD Watch are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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When it comes to teachers, respect takes many forms – and all matter

There’s been a great deal of discussion recently about Australia’s teachers and the challenging workplace conditions they’re facing. This includes the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan , which has generated important conversations about teacher shortages.

One of the significant issues raised by our own research , and that of others , is that teachers aren’t feeling respected or appreciated for their work. But what does this mean, and what can be done to change it?

In May this year, we surveyed almost 5000 teachers across Australia to ask them about their working conditions. Their responses provided insights into the ways disrespect is impacting teaching across the country.

Overall, seven in 10 teachers don’t feel respected, and it has significant implications for teacher retention.

Policy and politicians

The expectations for teachers to account for their work have expanded in recent decades. Communicating students’ achievements is important, but the excessive requirements for teachers to collect and report data, then to justify the ways that they teach, can be demoralising.

A driver of this has been the narrow performance measures assessed by the NAPLAN program. NAPLAN was introduced in Australia in response to expansions of global testing programs such as PISA.

Excessive reporting and compliance requirements, as well as the narrowed curricula, have cascaded down from the standardised testing regime in this country and had concerning impacts .

These performance pressures find their way into policy development and the political discourse.

Read more: Listening to non-native English-speaking teachers could help solve the shortage

One example of this was seen in the lead-up to the recent Victorian state election. When promoting their proposed education policy, which included the introduction of a mandated phonics program aimed to improve literacy results, the opposition spokesman for education described the policy as “ending the era of guesswork”.

Comments like this imply teachers were not previously informed by experience, expertise, or ongoing professional development. Concerningly, this kind of language undermines teachers’ expertise and influences the public narrative.

This type of rhetoric has been abundant in Australia, and our study showed the impact – just one in 10 teachers felt politicians respected them.

Teachers are experts. They care about children and their learning. They’re professionals with deep knowledge and experience, but too often this isn’t reflected in policies, nor the associated political and media commentaries.

And to add insult to injury, while the use of “evidence-based” approaches are pushed heavily by policymakers , in Australia education research receives less than 1% of research funding .

From the newspaper to the classroom

Research has shown that teaching receives more negative media attention than other professions . These adverse sentiments work their way into the professional relationships that teachers navigate every day in their classrooms. Negativity about teacher quality translates into a lack of trust in teachers’ expertise.

Our research found that in 2022, seven out of 10 don’t feel respected or appreciated, despite the fact that in 2019, public opinion research suggested that there were high levels of respect for teachers, and a 2020 follow-up survey  found this improved due to teachers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This disconnect highlights a gap between what we think and how we behave.

Read more: Jason Clare has a draft plan to fix the teacher shortage. What needs to stay and what should change?

Teachers have told us that one way that they feel disrespected is from the excessive monitoring of their work. The expectations for them to justify and explain their decisions about curriculum, teaching approaches and classroom management are high.

Alongside this, they report they’re frequently questioned, challenged, and even abused (including physically).

In our survey, teachers described such things as constant emails from parents, students’ disregard for expectations of behaviour and basic courtesy, and a sense of individual entitlement that compounds with the competition that’s inherent in our education systems.

As a society, most people agree we need to respect and appreciate teachers, but often this doesn’t seem to translate into action. In the bustle and rush of our lives, we engage less with school communities, and are less likely to notice or acknowledge the many, many positive experiences that most children have at school.

Why it’s important right now to increase the respect

The situation for teachers in Australia right now has far-reaching consequences. Teaching has just been added to the National Skills Commissions priority list , and teacher shortages are already having damaging effects  on the education of children and young people.

Our research shows teacher retention will be a crucial ongoing issue, with seven in 10 teachers saying they plan to, or would like to, leave the profession. If we can make changes so that we don’t lose those currently considering leaving, and possibly also entice back some teachers who have already left, it might make a significant difference.

Everyone in the community should consider these issues as a wake-up call. We can all do more to respect and appreciate teachers.

A place to start is to recognise that teachers deserve to feel safe in their workplaces and valued for their expertise, and this needs to start with respect.

Let’s also remember that, ultimately, the working conditions our teachers are experiencing are the learning conditions of our children and young people. If we don’t improve the ways we respect teachers, their education may suffer.

We need to stop blaming teachers for failings that are out of their control. We need to trust them, and value their training and expertise. We need to believe they’re teachers because they care about our students and our communities.

We need to uphold basic expectations of safety and courtesy for our teachers, so they’re not exposed to disrespect and abuse that we wouldn’t accept elsewhere.

If we can do these things, we might help break down the constraints that stop teachers from embracing their innate passion and creativity. They’ll continue to improve their practice and do the best for their students, because it’s in their nature to do so.

These actions to enhance respect will result in more positive and productive relationships between teachers and students, as well as with colleagues, and parents.

These relationships are the foundations that will enhance students’ wellbeing as well as their educational achievement – and will ultimately strengthen our society.

• teacher shortage
• Teacher Workforce Action Plan
• respect for teachers

Fiona Longmuir

Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Culture and Society; Co-leader, Education Workforce for the Future Research Impact Lab

Kelly-Ann Allen

Associate Professor, School of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Education

Michael Phillips

Associate Professor, School of Curriculum Teaching and Inclusive Education

Listening to non-native English-speaking teachers could help solve shortage

We can partially solve the teacher supply crisis by first recognising the problems and taking action, including making processes easier for international educators.

Bad writing or hidden disability? What NAPLAN fails to tell us about poor writing standards

Missing in the discussion about low writing achievement among students is the impact of writing disabilities such as dysgraphia.

Draft plan to fix the teacher shortage: What needs to change?

There’s an “unprecedented” shortage of teachers right across Australia. Education ministers have released a plan to try to address it.

What AERO’s report of writing development in Australia doesn’t want to talk about

The Australian Educational Research Organisation’s failure to acknowledge NAPLAN’s flaws, nor draw on significant existing research, reflects a lack of respect for English teachers.

Initial teacher education: With the profession in crisis, let’s not waste the chance for change

A change of federal government in Australia presents an opportunity to focus on schools as a whole and help create a sustainable environment for teachers to thrive.

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Teacher Appreciation Day – Why We Should Respect Teachers

In Early Childhood Education by audseo May 9, 2020

I am from a family full of teachers and educators. I married a School Counselor and Special Education expert, My mom was a teacher, I proudly can say that I have a daughter and a son who are teachers, numerous aunts, sisters-in-law, nieces and friends are teachers. Much of my professional life has been spent working with teachers- supporting them and providing training and consultation to them. So it is no wonder that on Teacher Appreciation Day I am deeply proud and thankful for the teachers in my life.

Most of us can remember at least one teacher who had a profound effect on our life at some point in our development- someone who had a positive impact on us and contributed to making us the person we are today.

Yet teachers in America have been made to feel belittled and underappreciated. In many ways teachers are vilified- the profession disparaged. This trend in thinking over the past couple of decades has prompted a teacher shortage in America- a shortage likely to grow worse over the next decade. Because of this negative messaging about teachers and the teaching profession, college students are significantly less likely than their parents to see teaching as a viable way to become agents of social change. Of all age groups, voters 18-29 are the most pessimistic about the teaching profession. Only 24 percent are “very likely” to encourage a friend or family member to become a K-12 teacher today.

I recently read an essay on the teaching profession where the researchers were asking people to name another profession which they felt had a comparable status to teaching. In the West, teachers were overwhelmingly thought of in the same bracket as librarians or social workers. Compare that to China, where teachers were considered to have an equal status to that of doctors.

There is a definitive societal lack of respect for teachers in the West. The media is a huge source of fueling the demise of the teaching profession. When teachers get a mention in the media they are often blamed for a vast array of society’s ills: from the loss of manners to the decline in academic performance to the shortage of viably trained professionals and vocational workers.

My feeling is that this attitude towards teachers is not just morally wrong, it’s sabotaging the education system. If we constantly attack teachers, we will miss out on generations of talented graduates who will not want to join a profession that is constantly derided.

If our culture so richly rewards celebrities, actors, reality TV personalities and sports stars, heaping praise and riches on them, why should not outstanding teachers be equally celebrated? The moniker “hero” is thrown around so haphazardly today that we often fail to see the true heroes standing right amongst us- and every teacher that I know has worn that proverbial cape more than once in some child’s life.

Teachers wear so many hats today in the classroom- they are educator, nurse, counselor, protector, facilitator, monitor…sometimes they provide the only love and encouragement that a child gets. Teachers work countless hours and have sleepless nights with concerns about their children that they hold close in their hearts. They are as proud as a child’s parent when celebrating accomplishments and as devastated as a parent when a child is hurt in any way.

If you are wondering why we should respect teachers- it is because they hold the future in their hands. There was a teacher behind every great inventor, every great philosopher and every great idea in history. Fierce independent minds – from Nelson Mandela to Steve Jobs – have paid tribute to the influence of a teacher during their early years. Countless future leaders and society contributors will one day credit their teachers as well. If it’s your love of reading, your interest in space, your love of thought and debate- I know that there was a teacher in your past that sparked your interests and fed your self-worth to help make you the adult you are today.

As I look ahead to fiendishly complex challenges of the modern age – from climate change to frenetic technological change to global conflict – I know it will require better ideas, and better teachers, now more than ever. Teachers need our respect and they need it every single day. This current generation is in a better place than most of us to reclaim the teaching profession…and they have a chance to remind us what once made teaching beautiful in a million different ways but, we have to model that kind of respect for teaching in order for them to commit to the profession.

Thank you to the teachers in my life when I was a student- Thank you to the teachers among my family and friends- Thank you to the fabulous group of teachers that I get to work with each and every day at Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center- and thank you to teachers everywhere!

Trust me on this…I know that teachers do not work for prestige or income – Teachers teach for the outcome…They work for “their” children’s success and future.

Be well, joe cozzo

Todd Tevens Marsha Koemel Zach Howe Daniel Reininga Gerald Chiari

Paul Banas Catherine Campbell Ryan Erwin Laura G. Gioia, M.A. Annette Herrman Daniel P. Mecca William Panzica Samuel Savarino Dennis J. Szefel Ken Tirohn Robin Tomasula Joseph J. Cozzo Bruce Goldstein, Esq

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Why do some countries respect their teachers more than others?

In the debate about how to improve educational standards, the role of teachers is paramount. In fact, in recent years it's become a truism that attracting good quality and well-qualified people into teaching is accepted as the essential prerequisite to raising educational standards. In Finland and Singapore, teachers are recruited from the most-qualified graduates, all with a second degree.

One obvious way these countries have attracted the best and brightest into teaching is by paying them well. As I have established in my previous research, there is a demonstrable link between the level of teachers' salaries in a country and their educational track record. But the influence of teacher status – the social and cultural forces that determine how much we respect teachers – are harder to measure.

However, it is vital that we try and do so since the cleverest graduates, in demand from the best employers, will not want to join a profession that is publicly denigrated or seen as a second-best option for graduates. Governments that are serious about attracting the best people into teaching must look seriously at the status of teachers – alongside other factors such as their salaries.

There have been many international comparisons of educational performance such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). But teacher status has never been examined in any comprehensive way. It's common for people to remember a vanished age when teachers were respected, or feel that their own country alone has stopped giving teachers the respect they deserve. But until now there has been very little evidence to substantiate these perceptions.

The Varkey GEMS Foundation , aware of this gap, commissioned me to oversee the 2013 Global Teacher Status Index , the first large-scale international comparison of the status of teachers. Some 21,000 people were polled across 21 Asian, European, South American and Middle Eastern countries with the same questions. To gauge the social standing of teachers we asked people to rank teachers against other professions such as doctors, lawyers and librarians. We asked a question that goes to the heart of attitudes towards teachers: would you encourage your own child to become a teacher? We also asked how much, in a fair world, teacher should be paid. This survey evidence was then condensed into the index, with rankings for each of the 21 countries surveyed.

The results were not entirely predictable. Teachers had the highest status in China and Greece and the lowest in Israel and Brazil. Most European countries including the UK and the US ranked halfway down the index.

However, the UK came higher on the teacher status index than most other European countries – including Finland – as well as other countries with a similar GDP per capita such as Germany and France. Its secondary school teachers had the highest status of every other European country polled. Like most other countries surveyed, Britons were most likely to compare teachers to nurses and social workers and around a quarter would encourage their child to become a teacher – which, though low, is a higher proportion than German, France and Finland.

So why do the UK's teachers have a comparatively high status compared to other European countries? This is hard to be definitive about but UK teachers do earn more than in many European countries – including Italy, Portugal, Spain and France. Secondly, UK education has focused heavily on targets in recent years so there is general understanding in Britain that teaching has become a very demanding job.

Finally, the relative success of Britain compared to others in Europe could be more to do with the unhappy mood of our neighbours. France and Germany have had intense public debates about the quality of their education systems that may have adversely affected the status of teachers. In both countries after performed disappointingly in the PISA rankings, there was a bout of national naval-gazing about education standards that we haven't had in the UK.

In the UK, the status of headteachers was higher than in any other country. This is perhaps because in the UK over the last few years we have had the phenomenon of the 'super head' and seen headteachers as agents of change in the education system. This is different to the culture in other countries where headteachers are seen more as administrators than pedagogical leaders.

In most countries surveyed there was a clear pecking order: headteachers were respected most, followed by secondary school teachers and then primary school teachers. (Though not in France, China, Turkey and the US – where primary school teachers were respected more than their secondary school colleagues). In most countries, the public felt that teachers should have higher salaries – though there were exceptions. France, the US and Japan thought that they should be paid less.

At least half of all people polled supported performance related pay for teachers. In two thirds of the countries surveyed, teachers were most likely to be compared to social workers. Interestingly, in the US teachers were most often compared to librarians – perhaps because libraries are located next to schools in many middle American towns. These comparisons show that there is a lot of progress to be made before teachers are thought of in the same bracket as lawyers and doctors.

But the starkest differences were between Eastern countries and the West. Apart from the sole exception of Greece, teachers in China, South Korea, Egypt, Turkey and Singapore had a higher status than every country surveyed in Europe and the US.

In European countries, between 10 and 25% of people tended to think that pupils respected teachers – compared to 75% in China. Fewer than 20% of Germans would encourage their child to become a teacher compared to nearly 50% of Chinese people. Out of all the countries surveyed, only Chinese people tended to compare teachers with doctors. Here, cultural issues seem to be at work. Teaching is treated with reverence in Asian societies – especially in China.

The findings also have an important message for governments in these times of austerity. There is no clear link to be found between teacher status and pupil outcomes. A large part of the reason for this is that occupational status is indistinguishable from remuneration in some countries, whereas it is entirely distinct from pay in other countries. The upshot of these findings is that governments cannot expect that improving the status of teachers will lead to better pupil outcomes in the absence of well-remunerated teachers.

Presenting teaching as a vocation whose rewards are to be had from social respect alone is doomed to fail. There is no free lunch for governments that want teachers to do more for less. However – this is not necessarily a straightforward demand to increase the pay of all existing teachers. What we want is for many of our most able graduates to enter the profession who will be able to get the best from pupils. We will only be able to attract them if teaching is seen as both a highly paid and high-status profession.

My own view is that in the UK we won't improve the status of teachers unless teaching is recognised as a profession. Lawyers and doctors have their own professional bodies such as the Law Society and the General Medical Council. These organisations represent their professions but also regulate the conduct of their members. If a doctor is found to have compromised professional standards, the GMC can take sanctions against them. These bodies are therefore respected by the public in a way that unions are not, because they are seen as being on the side of the public.

Others will have different ideas for how to raise the status of teaching. By publishing the 2013 Global Teacher Status Index, we hope to encourage such debates – from education ministries to staff rooms – about how we bring about the transformation in teacher status that the next generation need, and teachers themselves deserve.

Peter Dolton is professor of economics at Sussex University and a senior research fellow at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. He is co-author of the Varkey GEMS 2013 Global Teacher Status Index , published on Thursday.

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• The Construct of ‘Respect’ in Teacher-Student Relationships: Exploring Dimensions of Ethics of Care and Sustainable Development

Canute S. Thompson, PhD. 10.12806/V17/I3/R3

Introduction

The job of leadership involves inspiring others to share a vision and follow in the direction the leader is taking towards that vision. The Centre for Visionary Leadership asserts that the most effective visionary leaders are responsive to the real needs of people. A leader’s capacity to be responsive to the needs of others depends on the extent to which the leader has developed and is exercising the discipline of respect, which is often expressed through active listening. In effect, therefore, a leader’s capacity to inspire others to share a vision depends not only on his or her capacity to communicate, but equally on his or her ability to listen (Covey, 2000). There are many reasons leaders listen to those they seek to lead. Two of the most important reasons are (a) to demonstrate respect for the views and perspectives of others, and (b) to ensure that the organization benefits from the wisdom and insights of others (Thompson, 2015).

This focus of this study was triggered by data conducted from a wider study that sought to explore students’ perceptions and expectations of leaders in a postmodern era. The findings of the study revealed that the variable respect accounted for a significant percentage of the variation in the data. Based on those findings it became evident that a further exploration of what respect means should be the subject of further exploration. This paper represents that further exploration.

In undertaking the further exploration two new constructs emerged as prisms through which respect should be understood. The two constructs are “ethics of care” and “sustainable development”. The exploration of these concepts, within the context of students’ relationships with their teachers, would be valuable only to the extent that they positively impact performance, the overall quality of teacher-student and student-student relationships, as well as the extent to which the teaching and learning environment prepares students for functioning in the world after school.

Ethics of care is a theory that promotes a pragmatic and practical mode of engagement, centered on the notion of interdependence and takes account of the indispensability of community and recognizes that some people are more vulnerable than others and thus seeks to afford them extra consideration (Gillian, 1982). Unlike other philosophical principles that hold that there are absolutes, ethic of care asserts that there is no universal truth. In this regard ethic of care is particularized, contextualized, and evolutionary as it seeks to promote the specific needs and interests of the vulnerable communities (Noddings, 1984). Students represent the less powerful constituency within the school community and allowing others to have a voice is one of the most potent expressions of power-sharing and therefore, also, an expression of the ethics of care. Thus the culture of listening in a school, which is founded on allowing others to have a voice, forms the framework not only of an ethos of ethics of care but also, a contributor to improved student discipline and academic performance.

The quality of relationships between and among people who share common interests, spaces, destinies, and relationships, critical elements of the issue of sustainable development (Howarth, 2012). Fundamental to the preservation of the common interests, spaces, and relationships that people share, are mutually respectful relationships. This assertion is applicable to all contexts in which people share common interests and destinies, and therefore applicable to the teaching and learning environment of schools. A central component of respect is listening and as Covey (2000) argues, listening plays a role in all effective leadership. Thompson (2009) found that the degree to which students perceive respect in their learning environment, which respect is manifested in the willingness of their leaders to listen has implications for the effectiveness of teaching and learning. It is against the background of the established position that listening lies at the root of a host of positive outcomes of teacher-student relationships that this study seeks to explore Jamaican students’ perspectives on listening and its relationship to their assessment of the quality of the leadership of their schools. The assumption this study makes, based on available evidence from a qualitative study, is that positive teacher-student relationships constitute an important element among the factors that contribute to improved student discipline, student performance, and sustainable development.

Statement of the Problem.  The 2015 Report of Jamaica’s National Education Inspectorate (NEI) shows that students’ attainment in English and Mathematics was below the targets set by the Ministry of Education in 78% of the 953 schools inspected. Students’ progress was rated as unsatisfactory in 51% of schools, and teaching in support of students’ learning was unsatisfactory in 44% of schools. Overall, 55% of the 953 schools were rated as ineffective.

Dunkley (2013), reporting on a Ministry paper tabled by the Ministry of Education in Parliament in May 2013, stated that there were 915 fights, 160 robberies and three murders reported in Jamaican schools in the 2012/13 academic year. In addition, 1,288 weapons were seized, including 431 knives and 486 pairs of scissors. School resources officers arrested 201 students, cautioned 2,361 and monitored 1,109. According to the report, illegal substances were seized on 164 occasions. A 2015 Child Month report showed that between the academic years 2009–10 and 2012–13 there were 4,973 expulsions and some and tens of thousands of suspensions.

The foregoing situation depicts an education system in crisis. The consequences of failing to deal effectively with the problems described above include, but are not limited to

• insufficient numbers of adequately trained persons to assume leadership roles in society;
• high school graduates who are not capable of acquiring skills that are needed to improve living conditions in society;
• the risk that with less than marketable skills, students enter adulthood being overly dependent on the state for support and thus pose risks to the environment and efforts at sustainable development.

The solutions to the problems of academic underachievement, inappropriate modes of engagement between teachers and students, student indiscipline, and unsustainable development practices are multidimensional and complex. This paper does not attempt to explore a range solutions related to each of them but seeks to explore the perspectives of students concerning their perceptions of their teachers’ and principals’ display of respect towards them and their assessment of quality of the leadership and learning environment that the display of respect conveys. The paper seeks further to examine the implications of the mode of teacher-student engagement for ethics of care and sustainable development.

The quality of leadership is an important part of the overall quality of teaching and learning. The quality of teaching and learning has been identified by Leithwood et al. (2004) as the single greatest factor in determining educational outcomes. The larger question that this paper thus seeks to explore is whether students’ perspectives of their teachers’ display of respect provide clues concerning the fundamental components of the quality of teaching and learning which, according the Starratt (2005), is related to the ethics of care and, as a principle of how community is maintained according to Agenda 21, sustainable development.

Objectives of the Study and Research Questions.  Thus the objectives of this paper are:

• to ascertain students’ perspectives on the role of respect in their relationships with their teachers;
• to understand whether there is a relationship between students’ experience of being respected and their assessment of the quality of leadership and learning environments of their schools;
• to explore the relationship between students’ experience and display of respect and the issue of sustainable development.

Based on the foregoing objectives, the research seeks to answer the following questions:

• What are students’ assessments of their teachers’ and principals’ demonstrations of respect towards them and do these assessments influence the respect they have for their teachers and principals?
• Is there a relationship between students’ assessment of their teachers’ and principals’ demonstration of respect their views on the quality of their schools’ leadership and learning environment?
• Are students’ assessments of the extent to which their teachers and principals show them respect affected by variables such as gender, school type, and school location?
• Is there support in the scientific literature for characterizing teachers’ and principals’ display of in respect being related to the ethics of care and sustainable development?

Significance and Scope of the Study.  This study is significant for at least three reasons, namely:

• it seeks to address an exceedingly important area of teacher-student relationships – one that has potentially major implications for the quality of teaching and learning;
• it offers new insights on the relationship between on an important element of teachers’ behavior (respect) and other critical variables that inform students’ relationship with their learning environment;
• it opens new perspectives on the question of the type and quality of leadership that students expect from their teachers and principals;
• it opens up a new dimension of a discourse on the issues of ethics and sustainable development.

Literature Review

Defining Respect.  The Stanford Encyclopedia (2014) defines respect as a responsive relation which is expressed in various ways including attention, deference, acknowledgment, valuing, and behaviour. The English word respect is derived from the  respicere , which means “to look back at” or “to look again”. The Stanford Encyclopedia further notes that respect is a particular mode of apprehending the object, and explains that the person who respects something pays attention to it and perceives it differently from someone who does not. It is therefore instructive that the synonyms for respect are words such  regard , which means to “to watch out for” and  consideration , which means “to examine carefully” or “paying close attention to”.

Respect requires paying close attention and involves other behaviours such as deference and acknowledgement, as well as a philosophical orientation of valuing another’s point of view. Relying on the ethical theory of Immanuel Kant, Wood (1999) suggests that when one respects another, one is not prone to be oblivious or indifferent to that person, or to ignore or quickly dismiss that person, neglecting or disregarding that person, and argues that it is morally wrong to express disrespect or contempt for persons by not valuing them as ends in themselves.

The importance of respect, as part of the process of leadership, is not confined to the world of business and to adults. It is equally important when leading schools and relating to students. Kohn (1996) contends that children are more likely to be respectful when important adults in their lives respect them; a view later echoed by Boynton and Boynton (2005) who note that people are more apt to go out of their way to please a boss who they believe values them as individuals and treats them with dignity and respect. According the Boynton and Boynton, students have the same feelings as adults do. They thus conclude that in order to foster positive teacher-student relations and improve student discipline teachers should seek to show respect to students. Thus if respect has positive effects on teacher-student behavior then the absence of respect may be deemed to be a contributor to negative student-teacher relationships and negative attitudes of students towards school and school authorities, although the negative attitudes of students towards school and school authorities result from a variety of factors.

Ethics of Care.   Burton and Dunn (1996) assert that ‘ethics of care’ refer to ideas concerning both nature and morality. They suggest that the construct stands in contrast to ethical theories such as Kantian deontology and utilitarianism which are principles to designed to highlight morality. The contrast cited by Burton and Dunn is sharpened by Held (2006), who characterizes the ethic of care as containing features such as: (a) a commitment to meeting the needs of particular others; (b) an epistemological perspective that places value on others’ emotions and relational capabilities which enable morally concerned persons in actual interpersonal contexts to understand what would be best; (c) a rejection of the notion that abstract theories provide a more effective starting point for reasoning about moral problems because they more likely avoid bias and arbitrariness (d) the adoption of a relational conception of persons, which is in stark contrast to Liberal individualism.

Burton and Dunn (1996) highlight the pioneering work of the American philosopher Nel Noddings whom they contend provided one of the first comprehensive theories of care. Noddings, they argue, saw relationships as ontologically basic to humanity. In this construction identity is defined by the set of relationships that individuals have with other humans. The most fundamental element of these relationships is the display of care, thus a caring relation is ethically basic to humans.

The notion that caring is basic to humans suggests that in the absence of care, humans are likely to function at a level below, or outside of, their better selves. To the extent that academic underperformance among students suggests that they are operating at a level below, or outside of, their better selves, one of the question that arises, which this paper seeks to examine, is whether the demonstration of care possesses the efficacy that could lead to improved academic performance. The related issue is whether in the absence of care, human behavior veers off its ideal or desired path and, in the case of students, towards indiscipline, that undermines performance.

Sustainable Development.  The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in its 1987 publication, in relying on the seminal definition of sustainable development as articulated by the Brundtland Commission, restates that sustainable development is the ability to make development capable of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The WCED notes that while the popular notions of sustainable development tended to focus on the environment, the application of the construct related to the equitable sharing of resources with the poor and other marginalized and vulnerable groups as well as ensuring stakeholder participation in decision-making. The WCED posits that while the concept of sustainable development has wide-ranging application, at its core is an approach to development that looks to balance different, and often competing, needs against an awareness of the environmental, social and economic limitations we face as a society.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in a 2013 publication, reiterates the position of the WCED when it asserts that s ustainable development  requires:

• building strong coalitions to address issues of common concern and thus there is the need for more inclusive decision-making at all levels of society;
• establishing institutional mechanisms for interrogation of ideas and decisions at national and institutional levels which have economic, environmental, and social implications; and
• creating frameworks for stakeholder participation in policy making and implementation.

The field of sustainable development is a wide one covering dimensions, which may be broadly categorized into social and economic arrangements, conservation and management of resources, and relationships among various groups in communities and the wider society. The dimension which is the focus of this paper concerns relationships among groups in communities and the wider society. This dimension I wish to refer to as the ‘third dimension’ for ease of reference. Under this third dimension, the exploration is directed at relationships between teachers and students in the school community. Notwithstanding the focus on the third dimension, however, the other elements of sustainable development are considered in the discourse.

Discipline and Student Performance.  Thompson et al. (2017) conducted a qualitative study of two formerly underperforming schools in Jamaica and found that two main factors were responsible for improvements in student discipline and academic performance. These factors were the quality of relationships (display of respect) that the principals sought to foster between themselves and teachers on the one hand, and fostering a culture of intolerance towards indiscipline at all levels.

Simba, Agak, and Kabuka (2016) conducted a study at 34 randomly selected schools in Kenya and found supportive evidence similar to that of Duckworth and Seligman (2006), who conducted a study among selected Grade 8 students in the USA, and Zhao and Kuo (2015) who conducted a study among selected 10th grade students in China. All three studies found that that discipline plays an important role in students’ academic performance. The researchers concluded that self-discipline was a predictor of students’ academic achievement.

According to Canter and Canter (1997), one of the likely consequences of negative relations between teachers and students is student indiscipline. The opposite is equally true they contend, suggesting that one positive consequence of positive relations between teachers and students is that students are likely to comply more readily with the school’s norms, and are more focused on academic and personal development.

There is a correlation between students’ discipline and students’ academic performance. Wishman and Hammer (2014) conducted a study analyzing over 160,000 student records and found that students with one or more discipline referrals were 2.4 times more likely to score below proficiency in math than those with no discipline referrals. The study further found that as the number of disciplinary referrals increased so did the odds of poor academic performance, such that students with 2 to 4 referrals were 2.7 more likely to score below proficiency, while students with 5 or more disciplinary referrals were 4.6 more likely to underperform in math. Karanja and Bowen (2012), and Rausch and Skiba (2005) made similar findings based on analyses of students’ performance across a wide range of subjects and socio-economic contexts. They all concluded that there is a strong relationship between school discipline and general academic performance. The major ingredient in positive relationships between teacher and student is the students’ perception of being respected (Zehm and Kotter, 1993; Thompson, 1998; Marzano, 2003; Boynton and Boynton, 2005). According to Zehm and Kottler (1993), students will never truly trust or open themselves up to hear what teachers have to say unless they sense that their teachers value and respect them. Similarly, Thompson (1998) suggests that the most effective tool that a teacher possesses in his or her efforts to foster a favorable learning climate is a positive relationship with our students.

Boynton and Boynton (2005) contend that improving students’ relationships with teachers has important, positive and long-lasting implications for both students’ academic and social development. Duke (1990), Boynton and Boynton (2005), and Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos (2011) acknowledge that the existence of positive relationships between teachers and students will not by themselves result in academic gains. They do contend, however, that while the quality of the relationship between teachers and students will not by itself and in and of itself produce improved academic outcomes, students who have close, positive and supportive relationships with their teachers are more likely to attain higher levels of achievement than those students with more conflict in their relationships. If the desired outcomes of the teacher-student relationship as realized then students are likely to become more responsible and productive citizens who are better able to meet their socio-economic needs, while helping the society to meet the needs of others, and ultimately being less of a drain on the environment. Thus the attainment of the goals of schooling while dependent on the quality of relationships, which is both an issue of ethics of care and the third dimension of sustainable development has implications for the other dimensions of sustainable development.

Marzano (2003) is supportive of the arguments concerning the importance of quality relationships, pointing out, for example, that students’ attitudes to rules and the consequences of not conforming to those rules will likely be one of indifference if the foundation of a good relationship is lacking.

The sequence of impact factors, as outlined above, is striking. The quality of teacher- student relationships influences the level of student discipline, and the level of student discipline affects the quality of academic performance as well as the degree of respect that students feel that their principals and teachers have for them. This interplay of factors suggests that there is likely to be a positive correlation between students’ feeling of being respected and their attitude to school and to school authorities. These assertions are supported by the work of Knoell (2012) who conducted a study at two elementary schools, at opposite ends of the poverty spectrum, located in the Midwestern United States. The study was designed to determine the role of student-teacher relationships in the lives of fifth graders. Knoell found, among other things, that the things that students valued most included active listening, which is an act of showing respect.

Duke (1990) and Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos (2011) further suggest that effective school discipline strategies must seek to encourage responsible behaviour and to provide all students with a satisfying school experience as well as to discourage misconduct. Thus in an atmosphere in which there are high levels of indiscipline the whole purpose of teaching and learning, and the very essence of schooling are defeated.

Theoretical Review.  There is strong evidence that the underlying piece that holds the relationship between student and teacher together is respect (Ullman, 1997; Cohen, Cardillo & Pickeral, 2011; Meador, 2016). Ullman conducted a case study of an urban high school English class, in a poor community with diverse nationalities and cultures, and found that by creating a culture of respect students were more encouraged to engage in academic activity. The consequences of greater engagement in academic activity have implications for sustainable development as has been shown above. Ullman, in her experiment, allowed students to share aspects of their culture and history, which were not included in the curriculum but which gave students an opportunity to share their stories and thus be better understood by members of the class. Agenda 21 is explicit in its affirmation that the nurturing of attitudes of tolerance and respect for other people’s cultures is an important pillar in sustainable development. Ullman reports that the modality of her engagement with students was predicated on active listening to each student’s story. The result of this was that the confidence of students grew and thus their performance improved. In addition to demonstrating her own commitment to listening, Ullman was successful in teaching her students the value of the discipline of listening. Thus not only did students respect her more but they also grew to respect each other.

Meador (2016) asserts that respecting students is essential for boosting teacher effectiveness. He laments the prevalence of cases of teachers berating and disrespecting students and condemns this practice as being unacceptable. He observes that teachers expect to be respected by students but note that many fail to realize that respect is a two-way street. Meador contends that all educators should show their students respect at all times including tense moments of conflict.

Cohen et al., (2011) argue that improving school climate means measuring the level of respect and then using that information to improve the quality of school life. They suggest that respect means being  taken seriously  and that when a person acts respectfully he or she reflects appreciative feelings for another person or group. Cohen et al., emphasize what respect means noting that it involves actually listening to students, showing regard for their feelings and taking steps to make them part of the school by engaging them in helping to solve some of the problems facing the school.

Idu and Ojedapo (2011) noted that Rogers (2003) observed that if teachers ignore students’ problems and complaints whether academic or otherwise this prepares ground for indiscipline to the students. The act of ignoring is a form of lack of respect (Cohen et al., 2011). Both Valenzuela (1999) and Mendler (2001) agree that students want to be listened to and respected as human beings with wants, desires, fears, and emotions.

Empirical studies consistent with notions of the impact of teacher-pupil relationships on learning, behaviour and attendance have been conducted by Sakiz &Woolfolk-Hoy (2009) and Gorard & See (2011). These studies have shown that poor student-teacher relationships are often characteristic of those students with problems in school. Hattie (2009) conducted a meta- analysis of 50,000 studies, including studies reporting direct student appraisals of their teachers, and found strong support for the notion that quality teachers had high expectations of their students and demonstrated care for them. The communication of high expectations is an important climate-defining characteristic.

The existence of a strong supportive relationship between teacher and student (relatedness) is critical for students’ comfort with the learning environment and an important medium of that support is engaged listening (Ullman, 1997). In this regard the work of Hughes and Kwok (2007) is instructive. They conducted a study in Texas, which sought in part to examine the influence of student-teacher relationships on student achievement in the primary grades. The study involved 443 ethnically diverse 1 st  graders, of which were 52.6% males and 47.4% females. The study found that the quality of teachers’ relationships with students (served to correct and counterbalance the traditional adverse effects that normally arise in relation to children’s background and classroom engagement. The study further found that the quality of child classroom engagement served to inform the quality of student–teacher relatedness and child achievement the following year.

A further feature of the research of Hughes and Kwok was striking. The study found that the improved student-teacher and parent-teacher relationships were stronger among African American children and their parents, relative to Hispanic and Caucasian children and their parents. This difference was significant given that African American students had generally less supportive relationships with teachers. In effect what the study showed was that the need for relatedness being greater among African Americans had a greater impact on their academic achievement. It is therefore not surprising that Barrow (2015), drawing on insights from a qualitative study at the college level, would conclude that caring relations with students was effective in supporting students’ needs and ultimately success.

Commenting on the findings of their research, Hughes and Kwok (2007) note that students’ sense of social relatedness at school is a key construct in contemporary theories of academic motivation and engagement, citing Connell and Wellborn (1991) and Eccles, Wigfield, and Schiefele (1998) among others. Hughes and Kwok concluded, that when students experience a sense of belonging at school and supportive relationships with teachers and classmates, they are motivated to participate actively and appropriately in the life of the classroom, and that when deep relatedness is established in the early grades it supports academic motivation and achievement over the long term as cited by Hughes and Kwok (2007).

The conclusion that may be drawn is that lack of, or weak relatedness between teachers and students will likely expose students to minimal engagement and under-achievement and this places students at risk of falling into indiscipline.

The importance of relatedness in managing discipline in schools is supported by Rimm- Kaufman and Sandilos (2011). In a compelling article entitled “ Improving Students’ Relationships with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning ” the authors argued that improving students’ relationships with teachers has important, positive and long-lasting implications for both students’ academic and social development. They concede that the existence of positive relationships between teachers and students will not by itself result in academic gains, but that those students who benefit from close, positive and supportive relationships with their teachers will attain higher levels of achievement than those students with more conflict in their relationships.

It may therefore be concluded based on the submissions of Hughes and Kwok (2007); Connell and Wellborn (1991); Eccles et al., (1998); and Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos (2011), that for a relationship to be regarded mutually as positive and warm means that the parties to the relationship feel respected. Students who feel respected by their teachers are more easily swayed by their teachers to refrain from acts of indiscipline. In effect teachers have greater influence over students who feel that they are respected by their teachers.

Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos express it beautifully arguing that a student who feels a strong personal connection to his or her teacher and who talks with his or her teacher frequently and in the process receives more constructive guidance and praise rather than just criticism from his or her teacher, is likely to trust the teacher more and thus show more engagement in learning. By extension more engagement in learning will mean less interest in, and time for, inappropriate conduct and the likely result will be higher levels of academic achievement. While emphasizing that the content of learning must be attractive in order to inspire interest on the part of students, Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos reiterate that positive teacher-student relationships draw students into the process of learning and promote their desire to learn.

Down, Lambert, and McPherson-Kerr (2006) examined a “Change from Within” project. The project involved seven schools that are located in volatile inner city communities of Kingston, Jamaica and had high incidence of violence. The project was designed to enable the stakeholders acquire a better understanding of the problem of violence and its impact on their communities and on them individually. Three sets of findings stood out as causes of violence as reported by the authors. The first was that notions of disrespect ranked highly as both catalysts and manifestations of violence. This notion of being disrespected as a cause of violence (which is expressed in Jamaican parlance as ‘dissed’) was not limited to student to student, but also teacher to student. A second set of critical findings relate to students’ sense of the care that they receive as members of the community. That is, the authors found that students’ sense of the absence of care was a contributor to violence. The third area of note was that students were of the view that a contributor to violence was teachers’ perceived apathy, tardiness, and lack of commitment towards issues of violence in the classroom that affected students. Students also reported that lack of commitment and indifference on the part of teachers negatively affected the teaching and learning process.

The main objective of the “Change from Within” project, which was started in 1992, was to enable schools overcome by violence to improve relationships, having come to understand cause and impact. The findings of Down, Lambert, and McPherson-Kerr (2006) show that the issues of students’ perception being respected and cared for play a critical role in their capacity to relate to others. The capacity to relate to others in a non-violent manner has major implications for the survival, and therefore the sustainability, of communities. The relationship between students’ perceptions of being respected and feelings of being cared for, on the one hand, and the apparent value they place on teachers’ interest, enthusiasm and commitment, on the other, highlight the importance of listening as a key variable in mutually respectful student teacher relationships.

Methodology

Data used in this study were drawn from primary and secondary sources and were gathered in various years ending in 2017 with the latest set of data dated 2015. The primary data for were drawn from a study that used a sample of 160 Grades 10 and 11 students. Nine of the questionnaires were spoilt thus the analysis of the data was based on a total of 151 responses. The study was undertaken to determine students’ perceptions and expectations of their principals and teachers. The study was conducted using a self-designed instrument as shown at Appendix A. The focus of the instrument was on issues such as listening, qualities of leadership, teachers’ openness to correction, and involvement in decision-making, the extent to which teachers sought to make learning exciting, and the regard that teachers have for the views of students.

Instrument and Description of Sample.  The instrument used to collect the primary data was pilot tested twice as well as reviewed by a three-person panel. The instrument met content validity measures evidenced by the strengths of the correlations that were found among several variables, as well as possessed strong internal consistency with a C-Alpha .938. The instrument was administered in four locations with the assistance of teachers from each school. In two schools the teachers arranged to have randomly chosen students complete the instruments during a designated period of a school day and at the other two schools the teachers gave the students the instruments and invited them to complete and return by the end of a school day.

Both the sample size and its representativeness support the generalizability of the findings. Two of the schools were located in rural Jamaica and the other two in the capital city, Kingston; two schools were unisex and two co-ed. The data were analyzed using SPSS Version 17.

Research Question # 1 – Students’ Assessments of Principals’ and Teachers’ Demonstration of Respect and the Influence of Assessments on Respect for Teachers and Principals.  The study found five strong positive correlations among five sets of variables that explored the perspectives of students in relation to their principals and three moderate strength correlations in relation to students’ perspectives on teachers as shown in Table 1. Pearson’s  correlations were used, as opposed to Spearman’s, to assess the relationships given that continuous variables are thus are more effectively measured using Pearson’s.

In addition of the foregoing correlations, the variable ‘respect’ accounted for 21.489% of the variation in the data. The sub-factors listed in Table 1 were among the sub-factors that comprised the variable respect.

Research Question # 2 – Relationship between Students’ Assessment of Principals’ and Teachers’ Demonstration of Respect and Students’ Views on the Quality of the Schools Leadership and Learning Environment.  The study found that 63.6% of the 151 respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that the expression of concern shown to them by their principals influences the respect they have for their principal. The feeling of respect for leaders in an organization is a definitive climate setting factor and reflection of the assessment of the quality of leadership.

In addition to the fact that almost two-thirds of the sample felt that expressions of concern led to feelings of respect, the study found the correlations outlined in Table 2. These correlations also define the character of the school environment as perceived by students.

Table 2.  Correlations between Students’ Attitudes and Principals’ Teachers’ Behaviours

The variable ‘modeling’ accounted for 38% of the variation in the data of which the first five pairs of sub-factors were contributors.

Research Question # 3: Relationship between Gender, School type and School Location and Students’ Assessments . Males were generally less of the view that their leaders showed interest in their concern, and thus, by extension, listened to them. Thirty-four (34) of the sixty-seven (67) males approximately 50% were either unsure about, or disagreed, or strongly disagreed that their principal showed interest in students’ concern. By comparison, 25% of females were either unsure or disagreed that their principal showed interest in students’ concerns. There were no strong disagreements among girls in relation to this question. Using the variable of location the study found that a mere 53% of students in rural areas believe that their principals show interest in their concerns. On the other hand 68% of students at urban schools hold the view that their principals show interest in their concerns. The variable of school type disclose major contrasts wherein a mere 35% of students at traditional schools express the view that their principals show interest in their concerns with 17% being unsure and 41% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. A very different picture is found with non-traditional schools with 93% agreeing or strongly agreeing that their principals show interest in their concerns and a mere 5% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. Five per cent said they were unsure.

A stark picture was found in relation to students’ respect for principal, wherein 92% of females say they respect their principals compared to 68% of males. When the variable of location is examined it was found that 92% of students from urban areas say they respect their principals; this compares to 72% of students from rural areas that are of the same view. The school type variable showed that 95% of students at non-traditional schools say they respect their principals compared to 68% of students at traditional schools.

Research Question # 4: Support in the Literature for the Relationship between Respect and Ethics of Care and Sustainable Development.  The final research question sought to explore whether there is support in the scientific literature for characterizing teachers’ and  principals’ display of respect as being related to the ethics of care and sustainable development. The scientific literature is unequivocal that respect is an important and indispensible component of the ethics of care and that the most vital expression of the ethics of care is the show of respect. It is perhaps even trite logic to argue that the act of caring and the ethics of care require, as a foundation, the act of showing respect. The scientific literature is replete with findings that support the existence of a relationship between students’ perceptions of being listened to, and their feelings of being respected. Among the authorities who have found such a relationship are Burton and Dunn (1996), Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos (2011), Held (2006), Down et al., (2006), Eccles et al., (1998), and Ullman (1997).

The element of respect is a critical requirement of caring teacher-student relationships as well as sustainable and productive student to student relationships (Down et al., 2006; Held, 2006; Burton & Dunn, 1996). When students perceive that they are respected by their teachers there are positive consequences for the quality of teacher-student relationships (Zehm & Kotter, 1993; Thompson, 1998; Marzano, 2003). A foundational respect-producing behavior in teacher- student relationships is listening according to Kohn (1996) and Boynton and Boynton (2005).

The foregoing positions are consistent with the findings of this paper which has found that respectful and caring teacher-student and student-student relationships also result in improved academic performance and discipline (Ullman, 1997; Marzano, 2003; Duckworth and Seligman, 2006; Rimm-Kaufman and Sandilos, 2011; Zhao and Kuo, 2015; Simba et al., 2016).

Respect thus begets respect as Meador (2016) affirms and mutually respectful engagements between teacher and student will result in facilitation of involvement in decision- making, which is an expression of ‘hearing from the other’ as well as responsiveness to correction which is a form of deference shown to the views of the other. This practice of involving others in decision-making is major pillar of sustainable according to the OECD (2013).

This research has, however, uncovered some imbalances in the practices of decision- making, and attention to the concern of some students when perceptions are examined from perspectives of gender, school location, and school type. That five times as many boys than girls disagreed or strongly disagreed that their principal showed concern for them was 39% versus 9% provides an interpretive perspective on the comparatively higher levels of indiscipline among boys compared to girls. It is perhaps noteworthy that there were no strong disagreements among girls. Similarly that 92% of females say they respect their principals compared to 68% of males probably points to the need for improved relationships between males and their principals.

It also appears to be that case that relationships between teachers and students in rural areas are less respectful than those in urban areas given that 92% of students from urban areas say they respect their principals compared to 72% of students from rural areas. By contrast students at non-traditional schools seem to enjoy better relationships with their teachers with 95% of students at non-traditional high schools saying they respect their principals compared to 68% of students at traditional high schools.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The findings of this study show that showing respect is a central or dominant element of the ethics of care and a vital contributor to sustainable teacher-student and student-student relationships. The quality of such relationships has implications for both students’ discipline and academic performance. The act of showing respect, and the expectations students have of it, inform the degree of respect that students have for their principals and teachers. Students’ expectations of what respect involves includes their being allowed to participate in some decision-making processes, attention being shown to their concerns, and care being extended to students who are underperforming.

The facilitation of involvement in decision-making, attention to others’ concerns (particularly when those others have less organizational power) and reaching out to vulnerable or at-risk members of the community are actions which are not only likely to result in improved cooperation and performance but increase the probability of sustainable development. The increased probability of sustainable development is predicated on the fact that decisions will more likely reflect the will and wish of the majority.

In light of the foregoing the following recommendations are made for the consideration of policy makers, institutions that are involved in the training of principals and teachers, as well as practitioners and researchers.

• Having regard to the established relationship between listening and respect, the curriculum for the training of teachers and continuing professional development of teachers and principals should include practice and simulation exercises on effective listening.
• Given the established relationship between the quality of relationships, generally, and teacher-student relationships specifically, on the one hand, and sustainable development, on the other, it is recommended that teacher training programmes include courses and other competence-building activities related to sustainable development.
• Having regard to some of the pragmatic elements and implications of showing respect, and given the relationship between listening, on the one hand, and respect and sustainable development, respectively – on the other hand, it is recommended that schools be mandated to put in place or review internal structures for student participation in decision-making and the facilitation of student feedback on the processes of management of the school.
• Given the disparity between boys and girls assessment of the quality of their relationships with teachers and principals, wherein boys report feeling lower levels of inclusion; policy makers, trainers, and practitioners are encouraged to explore new strategies that give greater space to giving boys a voice.
• Given the disparities between how students at rural versus urban, and traditional versus non-traditional high schools relate their experience of respect and related constructs, further study is required to examine what factors may account for these disparities.

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Author Biography

Dr. Canute Thompson is Lecturer in the School of Education, Mona Campus of The University of the West Indies. He is a co-founder of the  Caribbean Leadership Re-Imagination Initiative . His publications include:  Locating the Epicentre of Effective (Educational) Leadership in the 21 st  Century (2015)  and  Leadership Re-Imagination: A Primer of Principles and Practices (2013.)  [email protected]  or  [email protected]

Is respect for teachers beneficial or harmful to students? The predictive effects of dual dimensions of respect-for-teachers on teacher-student relationships and academic engagement in a Confucian cultural context

• Published: 05 April 2024

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• Chin-Lung Chien   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4662-9918 1 ,
• Shih-Chi Hsu 2 &
• Tzu-Hsiang Lin 3  

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Respect for teachers is a globally recognized educational issue. Compared with Western “equality-based” respect, the traditional Confucian “respect for teachers” is a kind of “hierarchical” or “reverential” respect. In the past, respect for teachers was an unquestioned ethical value in Confucian cultural contexts, and was considered beneficial for students. However, respect for teachers has been criticized as a symbol of authority and detrimental to learning and teacher-student relationships nowadays. To resolve the “controversy regarding respect for teachers,” we used the conceptual framework of respect for teachers to investigate the predictive effects of respect-for-teachers’ dual dimensions on teacher-student relationship and students’ academic engagement. In Study 1, a scale for respect-for-teachers was developed. Two factors, reverence for teachers (RFT) and fear of teachers (FOT) were obtained, through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Study 1 (a cross-sectional design) also shows that RFT is positively associated with good teacher-student relationships and students’ academic engagement, while FOT is negatively associated these outcomes. Study 2 (a two-wave longitudinal design) reveals that controlling for social desirability, RFT at time 1 has a positive relationship with good teacher-student relationships and academic engagement at time 2, while FOT at time 1 has a negative relationship with good teacher-student relationships and academic engagement at time 2. Overall, this paper provides a solution to the “controversy regarding respect for teachers,” that is, whether respect for teachers is beneficial or harmful depends on its dimensions. This paper also contributes to a broader understanding of the concept of “respect” and offers insights into educational issues within East Asia and across different cultures.

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Appendix: Items in the respect-for-teachers scale

• *represents items retained from the factor analysis. Items 1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, and 20 correspond to RFT; items 3, 4, 7, 11, 15, 16, 18, and 19 correspond to FOT. The means and standard deviations were derived from the calibration sample in Study 1

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Chien, CL., Hsu, SC. & Lin, TH. Is respect for teachers beneficial or harmful to students? The predictive effects of dual dimensions of respect-for-teachers on teacher-student relationships and academic engagement in a Confucian cultural context. Soc Psychol Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-024-09905-3

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Published : 05 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-024-09905-3

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Why Respecting Students Is Essential for Teacher Effectiveness

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Respecting students is essential for boosting teacher effectiveness. It seems today that the media jumps at every opportunity to showcase an educator who has made a poor decision in judgment. One of the most prevalent issues highlighted is that of a teacher continuously berating or disrespecting a student or group of students. This type of behavior is unacceptable. All educators expect their students to be respectful to them, but some fail to realize that this is a two-way street. All educators should show their students respect at all times including tense moments of conflict.

Conduct a search on Google or YouTube for “teacher abuse” and the number of examples you will find of such unprofessional conduct is embarrassing to the profession. Educators should be adult enough, professional enough, and smart enough not to conduct themselves in this manner. In an age where every student has a cell phone , it only takes one time to find yourself on YouTube, embarrassed, and out of a job. Teachers must think before they react and choose their words carefully.

How to Build Strong, Trusting Student-Teacher Relationships

Sometimes we forget where many of these students come from and the situations that they deal with on a daily basis. School should be a safe haven and kids should trust all of their administrators, teachers, and staff members. Every kid is different and these differences should be embraced. If all kids were the same our jobs would be boring. It is important to realize that there are tremendous differences between each individual student and with each individual class. A 3rd grader cannot handle what a 6th grader can handle and so on.

Try to have patience and understanding when dealing with a student. Before you say anything, take a deep breath, think about your response, and choose your words carefully. Your tone matters as much as what you say.

We expect our students to be respectful to us and we should, in turn, be respectful to them at all times. This isn’t always easy, but you must always handle interactions with students in a positive manner. You should never berate or embarrass a student. It is best to address them separately from the class. The key is to talk to them, not down to them.

Kids are going to make mistakes. It would be ignorant to think that they won’t. You are setting yourself and them up for failure if you do. There is a difference between having high expectations and having unrealistic expectations. Preconceived notions can and will destroy a relationship with a student. Everyone deserves a second chance. Allow someone this chance and you will find that they will surprise you more often than not.

Educators should always strive to build positive, trusting relationships with their students . Some of these relationships take time to build and others are relatively easy. Respect is always the key. A teacher becomes so much more effective when they can earn a classes respect.

Reasons Why Teachers Lose the Respect of Their Students

There are several things that a teacher can do to lose their students’ respect. Doing any of these things can lead you on a path towards disaster. It is best to avoid the following practices:

• Never treat students differently based on personal interests.
• Do not create rules that can be perceived as unfair.
• Never misuse your authority.
• Do not ignore a student.
• Never avoid smiling and being friendly with your students.
• Do not yell or scream.
• Do not have a negative attitude on a consistent basis.
• Do not be afraid to apologize or admit when you make a mistake.
• Never become friends with students when they are in your class.
• Never give control over to your students.
• Do not be hypocritical.
• Do not say anything that you would not want to be recorded and played back.
• Do not humiliate or berate students in an attempt to get them to behave.
• Never use sarcasm.
• Do not use profanity.
• Do not violate a student’s personal space.
• Do not gossip , discuss, or complain about other teachers in front of your students.
• Never issue vindictive or counterproductive threats.
• Do not hold things against a student that is beyond their control.

How Teacher Can Earn Their Students' Respect

There are several things that a teacher can do to earn their students’ respect. Doing these things will lead you on a path toward mutual respect and it will maximize a teacher’s overall effectiveness. It is best to engage in the following practices:

• Have a Positive Attitude: An educator who has a positive attitude toward their students and their job will be more effective. All of us have bad days, but we should still strive to remain positive even on our worst days.
• Be Consistent: Students must know what your expectations are on a daily basis. Be inconsistent will lose their respect and attention faster than just about anything.
• Be Fair: Treat every student the same when dealing with the same situation. Giving out a different set of consequences for the same actions will undermine your authority.
• Have a Sense of Humor: Having a sense of humor can be disarming. Students will naturally look forward to coming to your class and learning if they know that you aren’t uptight and rigid.
• Be Flexible: Teachers that aren’t flexible are setting themselves and their students up for failure. Things happen in life that is beyond anyone’s control. Be sensitive to every situation and be willing to adapt and veer from your scheduled plans when necessary.
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• 10 Essential Policies for Your Student Handbook
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• Strategies for Building Rapport With Students
• How Teachers Can Build a Trusting Relationship With Their Principal
• Strategies for Teachers to Maximize Student Learning Time
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• Strategies to Handle a Disruptive Student
• The 10 Worst Things a Teacher Can Do
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Why To Respect Our Teachers?

Firstly, Why should we respect our teachers? I would like to quote – “IF YOU CAN READ THIS, THANK YOUR TEACHER”.

There is an old saying, KI MAIN BHAGWAAN SE PEHLE  APNE TEACHER KO PRANAAM KARUNGA, KYUNKI USI NE MUJHE BHAGWAAN KE BAARE MEIN BATAYA HAI.

Who is a teacher?

A Teacher is a person who teaches, especially in a school. A teacher is called by different names more popularly as Guru, Madam, Sir. Especially, a teacher is a mentor , guide who teaches us, educate us and provide us with knowledge. The teacher makes all the efforts to educate us and provide knowledge to us.

Not to mention, a teacher is our second parent . The teacher nurtures in the same way our parents do. Only a teacher can love and care like a parent. He/She raises the children like their own and goes the extra mile to educate us. They are the providers of knowledge to us.

The word teacher is very synonymous with everyone’s lives. We all have been taught by teachers. We all value our teachers and know their importance in our lives. Does everyone agree with this statement?

The reason we are today, what all we have gained in the passing years, all the knowledge, values, teachings have been propagated by our teachers. They taught us not only how to read and write, but also to be able to distinguish between right and wrong. Further, they taught us the way of life, the path to follow and how to succeed in our lives.

The teachings of a teacher are valuable and are nourished although our lives.

It remains with us forever and become lessons to apply. The great saints and people were teachers, be it Lord Mahavira or Lord Buddha. They all taught and preached good values that have become principles of our lives.

We do follow them. Shri Krishna acted as a teacher to Arjun and gives him gyaan that made him succeed in the battle of Mahabharata. That is the impact of a teacher in our lives.

What makes a teacher a good teacher?

It takes a lot of effort, patience to teach. Not every teacher is a great teacher, Only a few are. Have you wondered what makes a teacher a good teacher? Every teacher teaches, educates and imparts knowledge. Yes, every teacher teaches us, but a good teacher makes you understand, makes you a skilled person and not just knowledgeable.

Indeed, a good teacher sees the potential in you and tries to refine it and make you shine like a bright star.  It is not easy to be a teacher and it is not at all easy to be a good teacher. Every one of us has our own set of good and favorite teachers, what makes them so special to you is not just their teachings, but their qualities, their uniqueness that captured your hearts.

A teacher tries to mold you into a better person. It shapes your career, thinking, life everything. Remember the first day of school?

Those apprehensions, fear of parting ways from our parents, crying for not going to school. But soon those four walls and a huge building become our second home.

The reason it becomes so lovable to all is because of the presence of the teacher. A Teacher likes a figure who accepted us and welcomed us with both the arms, who made us feel comfortable like our own home, loved and cared for us like our parents. Soon Teachers turn into friends that are precious to us.

I can never thank enough to all my teachers for their constant support and guidance. What I am today is because of the teachings of my teacher. I can write a thesis on their importance in our lives.

This is the reason, they earn our respect.

The reasons why to respect teachers

1. they are elder to us.

Firstly, our teachers are elder to us. They are like our parents. We must respect them as we do for our parents.

2. They educate us

Secondly, the teacher educates us, provide knowledge to us as no one else does. They taught us how to read and write.

3. They guide you

Thirdly, teachers are also mentors, who always guide what is right and wrong. They are the best guide for our lives.

4. They love and Care for you

Fourthly, Teachers love and care for us like our parents. There love is unconditional and cannot be reciprocated.

5. They always think good for you

Lastly, After your parents, Your teachers are the one who always thinks good for you, they always want their students to be happy and successful.

The list to respect your teachers is endless. Please value and respect them.

For any career counselling need, drop us an email at [email protected] / call at 95.5511.5533.

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Every teacher teaches, educates and imparts knowledge. Yes, every teacher teaches us, but a good teacher makes you understand, makes you a skilled person and not just knowledgeable. Indeed, a good teacher sees the potential in you and tries to refine it and make you shine like a bright star.

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Respecting Teachers: Cultural Differences in China and America

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Essay on Respect: Best Samples Available for Students

• Updated on  
• Nov 7, 2023

Essay on Respect: Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘I cannot conceive of a greater loss than the loss of one’s self-respect.’ We all deserve respect from others when they interact with us, regardless of how we are as individuals. Polite, considerate and courteous behaviour are all part of respect. Respect is a larger concept which encompasses treating others the way you would like to be treated, listening to different viewpoints with an open mind, and refraining from causing harm or offence to others. It is considered a fundamental aspect of healthy relationships, effective communication, and a harmonious society. Let’s discuss more through some samples in the essay on respect.

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on Respect in 100 Words
• 2 Essay on Respect in 200 Words
• 3 Essay on Respect in 300 Words

Also Read: World Sight Day Activities to Plan for Your School

Essay on Respect in 100 Words

Respect is a two-way concept; you receive respect when you show respect to others. Whether you are in a professional or a personal environment, talking respectfully is always appreciated. Respect is not just talking politely but a profound acknowledgement of the dignity of others. 

Respect involves listening to others with an open mind, appreciating the uniqueness of everyone, and refraining from actions that cause harm or undermine the well-being of others. We can consider respect as a timeless virtue. It is necessary for maintaining healthy relationships, communities, and societies. From the way we talk to the way we behave, respect is highlighted in our every move.

Also Read: Essay on Parents

Essay on Respect in 200 Words

‘Respect is what we owe; love, is what we give.’ – Philip James Bailey

How can you expect others to respect you when you cannot serve it to others? We never disrespect people whom we care about. Neither do they. As humans when interacting with others, we expect respectful behaviour from others. It is considered the fundamental aspect of binding human interactions and enabling us to live in harmony with others. 

We can acknowledge and appreciate people, which is one of the most important parts of respectful behaviour. At its essence, respect transcends cultural barriers and fosters empathy, understanding, and kindness among individuals.

Respect is shown via thoughtful actions and considerate behaviour. It involves treating others with courtesy, refraining from causing harm and valuing diverse perspectives. When one respects another person, one listens attentively, seeking to understand rather than to judge. This practice nurtures a culture of open communication and mutual understanding, facilitating the resolution of conflicts and the forging of strong, enduring relationships.

Our respectful attitude and behaviour cultivate a sense of belonging and safety in social settings. In school, respect forms the basis for effective learning and growth. The respectful behaviour of teachers and students fosters an atmosphere of trust and collaboration, nurturing an environment where knowledge is shared, and intellectual curiosity is encouraged.

Essay on Respect in 300 Words

‘Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.’ – Clint Eastwood

Respect functions as the cornerstone of considerate and empathetic human interaction, forming the basis for a harmonious and equitable society. What we learn is what we say to others. Our respectful behaviour shows our inherent value and dignity. It also fosters empathy, understanding, and compassion, nurturing relationships that are founded on mutual admiration and consideration.

Showing a passive attitude that reflects in one’s behaviour and treatment of others shows who we really are. It entails treating individuals with dignity and kindness, valuing their perspectives, and honouring their rights and boundaries. When one demonstrates respect, they engage in thoughtful communication, listen attentively, and seek to understand differing viewpoints. Such actions lay the groundwork for trust and cooperation, facilitating the resolution of conflicts and the cultivation of strong, enduring bonds.

There are three types of respect: Respect for Personhood; Respect for Authority; and Respect for Honour.

• Respect for personhood is the recognition and acknowledgement of the inherent dignity, autonomy, and worth of every individual. This concept emphasizes the importance of treating each person as a unique and valuable being, deserving of ethical consideration and moral regard.
• Respect for authority acknowledges the legitimacy and position of individuals or institutions that hold power or influence in a particular context. It involves recognizing the roles and responsibilities of those in positions of authority and adhering to their directives or decisions within the boundaries of ethical and legal standards.
• Respect for honour upholding the principles of integrity, dignity, and moral uprightness in both oneself and others

Respect is not confined to personal relationships and educational institutions; it is a fundamental element that shapes the fabric of society.

Ans: Here are some best tips for respecting people: act responsibly, be empathetic, accept mistakes, listen to others, be relentlessly proactive, pay attention to non-verbal communication, keep your promises, etc.

Ans: To write an essay you need to highlight what respect means to you and how it can serve as an effective tool for coexisting with others. The concept of respect goes beyond talking politely and actively listening. It is considered a fundamental aspect of healthy relationships, effective communication, and a harmonious society. 

Ans: Here are three types of respect: Respect for Personhood, Respect for authority and Respect for honour.

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With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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Respect Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on respect.

Respect is a broad term. Experts interpret it in different ways. Generally speaking, it is a positive feeling or action expressed towards something. Furthermore, it could also refer to something held in high esteem or regard. Showing Respect is a sign of ethical behavior . Unfortunately, in the contemporary era, there has been undermining of the value of Respect. Most noteworthy, there are two essential aspects of Respect. These aspects are self-respect and respect for others.

Self-Respect

Self-Respect refers to loving oneself and behaving with honour and dignity. It reflects Respect for oneself. An individual who has Self-Respect would treat himself with honour. Furthermore, lacking Self-Respect is a matter of disgrace. An individual who does not respect himself, should certainly not expect Respect from others. This is because nobody likes to treat such an individual with Respect.

Self-Respect is the foundation of a healthy relationship . In relationships, it is important to respect your partner. Similarly, it is equally important to Respect yourself. A Self-Respecting person accepts himself with his flaws. This changes the way how others perceive the individual. An individual, who honours himself, would prevent others from disrespecting him. This certainly increases the value of the individual in the eyes of their partner.

Lacking Self-Respect brings negative consequences. An individual who lacks Self-Respect is treated like a doormat by others. Furthermore, such an individual may engage in bad habits . Also, there is a serious lack of self-confidence in such a person. Such a person is likely to suffer verbal or mental abuse. The lifestyle of such an individual also becomes sloppy and untidy.

Self-Respect is a reflection of toughness and confidence. Self-Respect makes a person accept more responsibility. Furthermore, the character of such a person would be strong. Also, such a person always stands for his rights, values, and opinions.

Self-Respect improves the morality of the individual. Such an individual has a good ethical nature. Hence, Self-Respect makes you a better person.

Self-Respect eliminates the need to make comparisons. This means that individuals don’t need to make comparisons with others. Some people certainly compare themselves with others on various attributes. Most noteworthy, they do this to seek validation of others. Gaining Self-Respect ends all that.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Respect of Others

Everyone must Respect fellow human beings. This is an essential requirement of living in a society. We certainly owe a basic level of Respect to others. Furthermore, appropriate Respect must be shown to people who impact our lives. This includes our parents, relatives, teachers, friends, fellow workers, authority figures, etc.

One of the best ways of showing respect to others is listening. Listening to another person’s point of view is an excellent way of Respect. Most noteworthy, we must allow a person to express his views even if we disagree with them.

Another important aspect of respecting others is religious/political views. Religious and cultural beliefs of others should be given a lot of consideration. Respecting other people’s Religions is certainly a sign of showing mature Respect.

Everyone must Respect those who are in authority. Almost everyone deals with people in their lives that hold authority. So, a healthy amount of Respect should be given to such people. People of authority can be of various categories. These are boss, police officer, religious leader, teacher, etc.

In conclusion, Respect is a major aspect of human socialization. It is certainly a precious value that must be preserved. Respectful behaviour is vital for human survival.

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Sample toefl agree/disagree essay – respecting teachers, the question.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?  Students do not respect their teachers as much as they did in the past . Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. Note :  This essay uses our new TOEFL essay templates .

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The Sample Essay

It is critically important that  students learn  as much as possible and thrive in all of their classes.   Personally, I believe  that  young people do not have as much respect for their teachers as in the past.   I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay .

To begin with , there are many more ways for students to learn nowadays, which means they are less reliant on teachers than in the past. A few years ago, children could only  acquire new skills  by going to school and attending classes , so  they respected their teachers a lot.  In contrast , now they can easily use technology to learn independently.  My personal experience is a compelling illustration of this .  For the past five years,  I have studied  English almost every single day.  Although  my native language is Korean, I am able to easily communicate in English without feeling any anxiety.  I expand my vocabulary by using a smartphone application that teaches me new phrases twice per day,  and  I practice pronunciation by watching videos on the Internet.   Consequently , I feel like old-fashioned classes with a teacher are not as important as they used to be.   If I had tried  to  become proficient in  English twenty years ago, I would have  depended  on a teacher and respected her a lot.

Furthermore , teachers are no longer strict, which means children  don’t  fear them at all.  If   teachers fail to discipline students when they misbehave, they do not feel obligated to respect them.   This problem is very common nowadays.  For instance,  a few months ago my little brother used profanity when addressing his math teacher.  Surprisingly, he wasn’t punished for this terrible behavior.   His teacher was afraid of how our parents would react to my brother being punished,  so  he just ignored it.   Since then , my brother  hasn’t respected that teacher at all , and is often quite rude.  In addition , a lot of his classmates have picked up on the fact that they can get away with impolite behavior and have started acting up as well.   Based on this experience , I strongly feel that young people do not respect  educators  like they did in the past.

In conclusion, I strongly feel that   children  do not respect their teachers as much as they used to.   This is because teachers  are not as essential as they were a few decades ago,  and   they  are too nervous to  enforce rules . (406 Words)

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Essay on Respect

Respect is a fundamental value that forms the cornerstone of harmonious and empathetic societies. It is a concept deeply ingrained in human interactions and has far-reaching implications for relationships, communities, and the world at large. In this essay, we will explore the significance of respect, its various dimensions, and the profound impact it has on individuals and society. Understanding respect is crucial for fostering unity, empathy, and a more compassionate world.

Respect can be defined as a positive regard for the inherent worth, dignity, and rights of all individuals, regardless of their background, beliefs, or differences. It involves treating others with consideration, courtesy, and empathy, acknowledging their humanity, and valuing their perspectives and boundaries.

The Dimensions of Respect

• Respect for Individual Rights: This dimension emphasizes recognizing and upholding the rights and freedoms of every person. It encompasses freedom of expression, religion, and personal choices, as well as the right to live free from discrimination and harm.
• Respect for Diversity: Respect goes beyond mere tolerance; it celebrates the rich tapestry of human diversity. Embracing differences in culture, ethnicity, gender, and beliefs enriches our collective experience.
• Respect for Personal Boundaries: Respecting personal boundaries means honoring the physical and emotional space of others. It involves seeking consent, refraining from invasive actions, and allowing individuals to express their feelings without judgment.
• Respect for Nature: Showing respect extends to the environment and all living beings. It entails responsible stewardship of the planet, recognizing the interconnectedness of all life forms.

The Significance of Respect

• Fostering Empathy: Respect fosters empathy by encouraging individuals to put themselves in others’ shoes, understand their perspectives, and relate to their experiences. Empathy is the foundation of compassion and cooperation.
• Building Trust: Respect is the cornerstone of trust in any relationship, whether personal or professional. When people feel respected, they are more likely to trust one another, communicate openly, and collaborate effectively.
• Conflict Resolution: Respect plays a pivotal role in resolving conflicts peacefully. It enables individuals to engage in constructive dialogue, find common ground, and reach compromises without resorting to aggression or hostility.
• Promoting Inclusivity: Respect creates an inclusive environment where all voices are heard and valued. In such spaces, individuals from diverse backgrounds feel safe to express themselves and contribute to society’s growth.
• Enhancing Personal Well-being: Experiencing respect has a positive impact on one’s mental and emotional well-being. It fosters a sense of self-worth, belonging, and overall life satisfaction.
• Global Harmony: On a global scale, respect is a powerful tool for promoting peace and international cooperation. Mutual respect among nations can lead to diplomacy, conflict resolution, and the pursuit of common goals, ultimately contributing to a more peaceful world.

Importance of Respect

• Cultural Understanding: Respect for cultural diversity is essential in today’s interconnected world. By respecting and learning about different cultures, we can break down stereotypes, reduce prejudice, and build bridges between communities. This promotes a global perspective and encourages tolerance.
• Respect for Authority: Respecting authority figures, such as teachers, parents, and leaders, is crucial for maintaining order and fostering a sense of responsibility. It sets a positive example for others and creates a culture of obedience to rules and regulations.
• Role in Education: In educational settings, respect is the foundation for effective teaching and learning. When teachers and students respect each other, the classroom becomes an environment where ideas can be freely shared, questions are encouraged, and intellectual growth flourishes.
• Respect for Self: Self-respect is equally important. It involves valuing your own worth, setting healthy boundaries, and making choices that align with your values and goals. When you respect yourself, you are better equipped to demand respect from others.
• Respect in Leadership: Leaders who lead with respect rather than fear tend to inspire loyalty and commitment among their followers. They encourage teamwork, inclusivity, and innovation by valuing the contributions of each team member.
• Resolving Conflicts: Respect is a powerful tool in resolving conflicts peacefully. It involves active listening, empathy, and a willingness to compromise. When individuals approach conflicts with respect, they are more likely to find mutually beneficial solutions.
• Impact on Mental Health: A lack of respect can lead to feelings of isolation, low self-esteem, and anxiety. On the other hand, experiencing respect can improve mental health by creating a supportive and nurturing environment.
• Respect for Future Generations: Practicing respect today has a lasting impact on future generations. By teaching children and young people about respect, we pass on the values and behaviors that can create a better world for them to inherit.
• Respect for Animals: Respect extends to the treatment of animals. Treating animals with kindness and ensuring their well-being is not only an ethical responsibility but also reflects our commitment to a compassionate society.

In conclusion, understanding and practicing respect is not just a moral duty but a vital element in building harmonious societies. Respect transcends boundaries, fosters empathy, and fuels positive interactions. By valuing the dignity and rights of individuals, we create an atmosphere where cooperation, tolerance, and personal growth can thrive. As we embark on our journey of learning and growth, let respect be our guiding principle, shaping a better world for all

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An Octopus Took My Camera, and the Images Changed the Way I See the World

By Craig Foster

Mr. Foster’s film, “My Octopus Teacher,” won the Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2021. He wrote from Simon’s Town, South Africa.

I was gifted with a new way of seeing the day I got mugged underwater. I had been filming creatures living in the Great African Sea Forest off the coast of South Africa about a year ago when my camera was grabbed straight out of my hands by a young octopus thief. Wrapping her arms around her bounty, she zoomed backward across the ocean floor.

This was not the first time I’d found myself at the mercy of an eight-armed robber. A couple of years earlier, another curious octopus stole the wedding ring off my wife’s finger, never to be recovered. Octopuses love novel shiny things. Peering into their dens, I’ve found earrings, bracelets, spark plugs, sunglasses and a toy car with a revolving cylinder that the octopus spun round and round with its suckers.

As I wondered how to get my camera back without alarming my young friend, something surprising happened. She turned the camera around and began to film my diving partner and me.

The intriguing images she captured — videos of her own arms draped over the camera lens with our bodies in the background — had a profound effect on me. After many years filming octopuses and hundreds of other animals that call the Sea Forest home, for the first time I was seeing the world — and myself — from her perspective.

We must have looked strange to her in our masks and with our underwater flashlights. But in that moment I remembered that despite all our technology, we are not so different from our animal kin. Every breath of air, every drop of water, every bite of food comes from the living planet we share.

Monday is Earth Day, and I am tempted to ask myself how humanity can save our wild planet and undo the devastation we have unleashed upon the natural world. Where I live, in the Cape of Good Hope, I am privileged to be surrounded by nature, but we are grappling with pollution and dwindling numbers of shellfish, fish, raptors and insect species. Worldwide, we are at a tipping point with an estimated 69 percent decline in wildlife populations.

When I consider the vast network of living creatures on earth, it’s clear that “saving the planet” is the wrong goal. Unless earth gets obliterated by an asteroid or experiences some similar catastrophic event, the planet could go on for several billion years. But without the biosphere that makes it possible for us to eat and breathe, humanity could not survive.

The question we should be asking is what caused the precipitous increase in species loss and what can we do to reverse it. To me, it all started when we disconnected from our wild origins. While agricultural and technological revolutions have enabled massive population growth and innovation , they have also instilled the belief that we can control nature, that our planet is an infinite resource to be mined for our advancement, comfort and entertainment.

Today 56 percent of the world population lives in urban areas, a percentage expected to grow to nearly 70 percent by 2050 . That means that more than half of us are cut off from reminders that we are still part of nature and utterly dependent on its health. It’s only when something truly devastating happens, like the recent flooding in Dubai, that we remember that even the greatest human advancements can be brought to a standstill by nature’s power.

I am not calling for us to leave all modern comforts behind, just pleading for us to get to know nature better, rather than try to “save” her.

In the past decade I have taken more than 4,000 dives in the Sea Forest. My encounters with mollusks, sharks and jellyfish there have convinced me that there is much we will lose if we do not value the tremendous abundance of life on earth.

We do this first by protecting biodiversity hot spots and by restoring degraded ecosystems; the enormous regenerative power I see every day in nature is what gives me hope for the future. It also means learning from and supporting Indigenous people who protect 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity and who have, over millenniums, developed many innovative ways to live with the land and sea. One promising example of partnership is a recent grant from the National Science Foundation to support collaboration between Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science.

Activities that cause long-term destruction of the sea and earth, such as strip mining , deep sea mining and industrial trawling, need to be halted immediately. Farming methods have to change, with greater emphasis on soil recovery and regeneration . We must continue to find alternatives to fossil fuels and push for a worldwide reduction in the production and use of plastics.

But each of us has a role to play, too; it starts with challenging ourselves to reconnect with the wild. So much of our modern world seems designed to tame us: to dull our minds, to separate us from the natural world, to convince us that what will help us survive is more consumption.

Like my octopus friends, we fill our houses with shiny new things. But our piles of stuff are much bigger and the cost of acquisition much greater.

We can break free of this tame conditioning. When we dedicate even just a few minutes per day to observing wild creatures on their own terms, in their own homes, regardless of where we live, we connect with the concept of biodiversity not simply on an intellectual level but also on an emotional level. We see the world differently — and ourselves, too.

How strange it is that one silly primate can see itself as separate from all those it shares this world with. What might happen if we remembered we are a part of this wild world — and let that understanding and humility guide every choice we make?

Craig Foster is a co-founder of the Sea Change Project and the author of the forthcoming “Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World.” His film “My Octopus Teacher” won the Academy Award for best documentary feature in 2021.

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