Respect as a critical reflexive practice during induction: exploring mentor teachers’ conceptions of respect

Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) are often required to place a high priority on the value of respect within their first year as a beginning teacher. The practice of respect is a central issue within the educational discourse (Mills 2020) and mentor teachers of NQTs have a vital role in cultivating and problematising their understanding of respect. This study focuses on how experienced mentor teachers (n = 54) conceive the practice of respect within the complex, assumed, and often subtle dynamics of differential power relations in school settings. Mentor teachers’ responses were analysed through a critical Habermasian perspective and further developed within this article as a productive taxonomy. The critical reflexive stance adopted offers teacher educators and mentor teachers an explanatory and sensitised framework to highlight for NQTs the recondite nature of power relations and the centrality of discourses for co-inquiry, care, and critique within the practice of respect.