Respecting each other: “We all respect him because he

Students’ comments, some explicit and others implicit, showed they feel respect to be an important facet of teacher-student relationships. Showing respect positively affected the nature of one-to-one interactions and helped develop trust. Teachers knowing about students’ successes both within and outside the classroom enabled students to feel their skills were acknowledged and affirmed.

So what’s different when your class comes to maths from how you are in other subjects? (Interviewer)

I don’t know, I guess it’s the whole environment of how he treats us. He’s really good and we all respect him because he respects us, so that’s probably the main thing. (WK student)

What do you think makes a good maths teacher? (Interviewer)

[Having] respect and making maths fun, so people want to do it. (WK student)

What did you put in the questionnaire that you’d like your teacher to know about you? (Interviewer)

My sports and stuff, like if I do well in a test or something, yes, just my successes and kind of like who I am. (UM student)

Students’ lack of respect for their teacher created challenges for teacher effectiveness:

Are there any challenges for your teacher getting on well with the class? (Interviewer)

Yes, we’re all noisy and don’t really listen most of the time, so it’s harder for him. (UM student)

Yeah, our class is quite disrespectful towards lot of our teachers. We’ll talk and they’ll try and get us to be quiet so it ends up the whole class getting detentions because we’re not quiet. (UM student)

Teachers can show respect for students in many ways; teaching well, having high expectations, giving positive feedback and encouragement, acknowledging and enabling acknowledgement of work, helping, answering questions, and sharing decision making. The following student comments indicate how these practices affected students’ thinking about their learning:

I quite enjoy maths with our teacher. (UM student)

Yeah he’s a good teacher. I suppose I did hate maths in primary, but I don’t hate it now. (UM student)

Yes, because we’re actually understanding it with him. That makes it a lot easier. (UM student)

How does your teacher encourage you in Maths? (Interviewer)

Oh she always pushes us, and she always makes us answer the questions and stuff on the board, which like puts pressure on you but then if you don’t get it she’ll explain it to you. (SS student)

Do you think your teacher believes in your ability to be successful in maths? (Interviewer)

Yes, because she’s always telling us that. If we don’t do so well in the test she says, ‘you can do better than that, I know you can’, and so you do. (SS student)

So what is it that makes a maths teacher a good maths teacher? (Interviewer) One that doesn’t mind too many questions, ‘cause if I ask Mr UM too much he gets a bit annoyed. One that’s friendly like my last teacher… she was real nice and she loved me asking questions and she always mentioned me for asking heaps of questions. She used me as an example for the other kids… I felt special. (UM student)

What does your teacher do that helps with getting on well with the class? (Interviewer)

Sometimes I think when we listen to music it just settles us down more. Because we know it’s not his responsibility to do our work, it makes us do our work. (WW student)

He’s encouraging you to make your own decisions about the work? (Interviewer)

Yeah, he’s treating us like equals, not like we’re kids. (WW student)

Students indicated that their teachers’ interpersonal skills (e.g., knowing about individuals, listening, spending time one-to-one, and encouraging personal responsibility) were important for showing their respect for individuals:

Is it important to you that your teacher shows that they care about who you are as a person? (Interviewer)

I’m not sure, as long as they know who I am and respect that it’s not about involving time and spending time as a person. (WK student)

What do you think is the most important thing that we should tell student teachers about being a good high school maths teacher? (Interviewer)

Listen to the students. Help them if they need help. (SS student)

Do you think it is important for your teacher to show they care about people’s cultural identities? (Interviewer)

Yes, because that just makes people feel good because they know they are respected. (WK student)

The students’ perceptions of their teacher’s respect for them was also explored using the student questionnaires (Figures 7.4 and 7.5).

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Always Most of the time

Sometimes Not Often Never

P e rc e n ta g e _Māori* Pasifika* NZ European* Total Figure 7.4:

Students’ responses to ‘I like the way my teacher treats me when I make a mistake’

Note: Mean % for Questionnaires 2 and 3

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Always Most of the time

Sometimes Not Often Never

P e rc e n ta g e _Māori* Pasifika* NZ European* Total

Figure 7.5: Students’ responses to ‘My teacher treats me with respect’

Note: Mean % for Questionnaires 2 and 3

The responses indicated that the Māori* and Pasifika* students were more likely than their New Zealand European* counterparts to like the way their teacher treated them when they made a mistake (Figure 7.4) and to feel treated with respect (Figure 7.5). Further exploration of how mathematics students develop feelings of teacher respect is necessary to determine possible reasons why these differences have arisen. Possible reasons could include that the Pasifika* students in this study may have been more secure in their own cultural identities than the Māori* and New Zealand European* students and may therefore be less likely to interpret teacher actions as disrespectful. Teacher behaviours could be more in tune with what constitutes ‘respect’ to Pasifika students. For New Zealand European and Māori students, respect is more likely to have to be earned than directly given in contrast

to those from many Pasifika cultures for whom respect is often given for knowledge and age. Therefore the Māori and New Zealand European students may arrive in class waiting to see if the teacher will ‘earn’ or create a respectful relationship with them rather than having an assumption this will be the case.

The giving and receiving of respect between teachers and their students was seen by many students (across ethnicities) as important for their learning. Most study students felt respected by their teachers and most indicated having some level of respect for their teacher. Respect for each other was associated with engagement with learning, teaching approach, teacher manner, and knowing and acknowledging aspects important to them of students’ lives (see Chapter Nine).

7.1.3 Being tolerant of each other: “Maybe there’s something that we won’t