To be seen as you are - respect in relationships in school

This is an on-going project with the purpose to study respect in relationships between students and between students and teachers. The theoretical frame consists of the theory of the ethical demand by the Danish theologian and philosopher K.E. Løgstrup. The basic assumption is that there is an ontologically given fundamental trust between human beings and due to that fact the ethical demand is for everyone to take care of the other person's showed trust. There are also two distinctive conceptions, sovereign and obsessive life expressions which are attitudes and actions that either unite or separate human beings from each other. Examples of sovereign life expressions are love, respect, charity, frankness, solidarity and examples of obsessive life expressions are jealousy, hatred, envy and self-righteousness. In the spring of 2007, I conducted 21 group interviews with 69 students in the age of 14. The interviews focused questions about respect and qualities of relationships between students and between students and teachers. Preliminary results indicate that basic trust functions as a condition for the students' ability to show respect towards their fellow students and teachers. Moreover, respect in the relationships mentioned concerns being truly seen as the person one really is. To be seen as a true and real person is challenged and complicated by prejudices and stereotyped ideas that the students carry in mind about each other. The students describe actions of sovereign life expressions as a way to show each other respect in good relationships in school. In contrast, they also describe actions of obsessive life expressions as a way to disrespect each other.