Teachers Being Disrespectful To Students
While most teachers are trained professionals who respect the profession, fellow teachers, parents, and students, some teachers intentionally or unintentionally disrespect their students sometimes.
Teachers serve as role models to students and these students look up to them for advice especially since parents trust teachers enough to commit their children’s education to them.
The last thing most students expect from a teacher is disrespect but this occurs sometimes in the education field.
In most popular cases, teachers are usually on the receiving end of student disrespect making it easy to ignore the opposite.
This article will focus more on teachers disrespecting students, reasons, and consequences for teachers and most importantly the students.
Why Do Teachers Disrespect Students
While none of the reasons listed below justify any teacher disrespecting students, these are some of the common reasons.
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· Feeling That A Student Is Hopeless
No student is hopeless and it’s our job as teachers to ensure that our students are well-educated for the real world.
A topic or subject may seem easy enough to a teacher, but this isn’t the case for most students. Teachers are responsible for educating classes full of students with varying concentration and absorbing rates.
This means that some students in the class may find a topic easier to understand than others and in some cases, there may be a particular student or students with issues understanding a specific topic.
Some teachers out of frustration from unsuccessfully trying to help a student to understand a concept may simply label them negatively as hopeless.
This thinking by the teacher, when manifested in an ongoing class or in public has negative ramifications for the student and teacher as well.
· Issues With Student’s Parent
While personal issues shouldn’t be brought into a professional environment, some teachers may take out their frustration or issues with parents on their children.
This can lead to the teacher intentionally or unintentionally disrespecting a student in class or even outside class.
Indeed, children aren’t their parents and their parents’ lives shouldn’t define them. That said, any hostile behavior towards a parent could be unfairly transferred to their children.
This includes issues that may not necessarily be personal but may have been public or related to an acquaintance.
· Negative Gossip About Student
Teachers shouldn’t engage in petty gossip about their students for any reason. But this is still a popular occurrence in educational institutions.
As humans, we create impressions about people we know and meet based on the information we have about them.
Having any negative impression about a student could indirectly lead to a disrespectful action or behavior towards the student.
· Personal Problems
Teaching is a stressful job that requires a level of maturity and experience to juggle classrooms full of students of varying backgrounds, personalities, and behavior.
Not only do teachers have to deal with the stress they experience at school but life outside school for a teacher can be equally stressful.
This can lead to a teacher lashing out in frustration and anger at a student over a question or something else in the educational environment.
· Cultural Differences
In our ever-growing multicultural societies, inadequate cultural sensitivity training can lead to some unpleasant situations.
Classrooms now include a mixture of students from various nationalities with different cultures which a teacher may be unaware of.
A teacher with good intentions could unknowingly disrespect a student from a different nationality leading to a very uncomfortable situation.
What may be considered acceptable in the teacher’s culture may be considered rude and disrespectful behavior in another culture.
· Emotional Immaturity
While most teachers are seen as mature, this isn’t always the case as an immature teacher may choose to disgrace a rude or obnoxious student instead of taking a more mature route to address the student’s behavioral problem.
How Teachers Disrespect Students
· Breach Of Confidentiality
Teachers in educational institutions are considered role models and confidants to their students.
They’re able to speak with them about personal issues they’re experiencing at school and sometimes at home.
However, a student will feel betrayed and disrespected when issues with which they confided inside a teacher are revealed to another teacher, student or even becomes the subject of petty gossip.
· Embarrassment For Lack Of Understanding
While simply calling out a student at random to answer a question they may not know is not disrespectful, insulting or embarrassing a student for not understanding a topic can be seen as very disrespectful.
In the case where a student who doesn’t understand a concept approaches a teacher for further explanation only to be met with anger for not understanding, this situation can be very embarrassing and disrespectful to the student.
Another scenario is a student continually asking questions about a concept they don’t fully understand only to be informed that they’re pulling the class back, they’re asking stupid questions, or outright making fun of their questions.
Asking questions in class can be quite difficult for some students and the experience doesn’t get any easier if the teacher decides to make fun of the question.
· Discrediting Achievement
While all achievements are not the same, the worth of an achievement is relative to that individual. Teachers should therefore see its relevance as opposed to outright ignoring or even discrediting this achievement.
· Singling Out A Student For Poor Performance
While performance, in assessment, is necessary in the field of education, singling out a specific student in the midst of their classmates and chastising them is never right.
Any student in this situation would be embarrassed and feel disrespected by their teacher which would be followed by disrespect from their peers.
Whatever the reason, the teacher should be able to exercise some level of confidentiality with regard to poor academic performance.
· Calling Students Names
This may not need much emphasis as calling people names is considered morally wrong, a behavior which should not in any way be present or tolerated in the education field.
Calling students names can have a psychological impact on them and also lead to the student’s dislike of schooling and education in general.
Teachers should therefore refrain from calling students names irrespective of the situation or their emotional state.
They should endeavor to use the student’s appropriate name as a sign of respect for the student.
Consequences Of Disrespecting Students
· Lose Respect
Respect cuts both ways and disrespecting a student is a sure way to that student losing respect for the teacher. This makes it difficult for the student to see the teacher in the same light and can affect the teacher-student relationship. The teacher can lose respect in the eyes of other students.
· Affects Confidence
Disrespecting a student who considered the teacher a role model and a father or mother figure can affect their confidence. If not addressed properly this can affect their progress academically and even their relationship with parents, other teachers, and their peers.
· Creates A Hostile Environment
The school environment becomes a hostile environment for the student who finds it difficult to attend the teacher’s class. If not properly addressed the student may start missing classes and even school.
· Disciplinary Action
Irrespective of the situation any form of disrespect targeted towards a student could lead to some form of disciplinary actions in some cases. This could be as a result of the student or other students reporting the incident.
· Incentivizes Other Students
A teacher disrespecting a student is an incentive for their peers to make fun of them. It’s essentially an upvote for other students to disrespect their peers. It should be noted that teachers are seen as role models by students. A teacher’s behavior towards another student could lead to similar, if not work treatment from other students.
The Bottom Line
Disrespect should never be tolerated in the education field. While some students may not know better, it’s the job of the teacher to remain calm in all situations and serve as a role model.
A teacher intentionally or unintentionally disrespecting a student should never be condoned in any learning environment.
