‘Learning to be more human’: perspectives of respect by young Irish people in prison

Abstract

Respect is a fundamental aspect of how human beings relate to each other and, arguably, is a significant factor in the relationship between student and teacher. For incarcerated adults, the relationships they foster with their teachers (and by extension the respect or disrespect cultivated within it) often have a considerable impact on their educative development. This research explores how respect, and disrespect, is perceived to be communicated within prison education by 13 students and 13 teachers in an Irish Young Offenders institution. The values at the core of prison educators’ practice and their capacity to promote self-respect within their students emerged as central to this cultivation of respect. The place of socialisation within these educative relationships also emerged as a prominent factor and is discussed in relation to MacMurray’s (2012) assertion that the primary function of education is ‘learning to be human’.