Promoting Respect as a Human Value in a Public School

This is a case study report arising from a series of daily observations of the students’ behavior made in a primary public school located near to the capital city, Manizales -Colombia, where it was possible to notice the difficulties students had in order to coexist due to the lack of respect with their classmates, in group activities or actually working in pairs throughout the foreign language class. The aim of this investigative project was to counteract the daily levels of aggressiveness presented by the students among themselves, to promote good teamwork and respect as an important issue in a good coexistence. Based on the observed settings, the results revealed that it was possible to highlight the necessity of learning to live together and to enhance the value of respect for others creating new ways of working in terms of coexistence. Promoting human values in the classroom brought profit for children and was fundamental in primary school from their earliest ages, due to the school must play a leading role in the construction of integral citizens, for a better society. Some of the activities, contents and games after being applied such as bingo, lotteries, word searches, puzzles, animal behavior and others, generated a connection between meaningful language learning, good teamwork and human relations. These classroom strategies became new alternatives for a teacher training program that claimed for immediate and demanding solutions to improve children’s character development inside public schools.


Education, Human Rights, and Teaching Language Trends
Through the passing of ages, the Latin American countries have lived a series of social and ideological movements aimed to confirm the identity of the different communities recognizing the value of their cultural, ethnic, linguistic, ecological and social legacy.These countries have built a historical memory with many differences and similarities in relation to their own roots, because of the mixture among Native American, Spaniards and other foreign influences (Soto, 2005).Although the majority of them speak the Spanish tongue since the beginning of the XVI century, it is noticeable a linguistic diversity of the indigenous groups (Usma, 2009).
Education is an inalienable and fundamental statement acknowledged as a universal human right which has been translated into juridical or legal instruments of international public rights included on the constitutional principles and values, so that it is possible to construct a more just society.Therefore, several international organizations and different literature review like Boff (2008), Munévar-Quintero and Giraldo-Quintero (2015), the Political Chart (1991), Soto-Arango (2005), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] and Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO] (2003), UNESCO (2001) UNESCO (2014) and UNESCO (2015) confirm a strong oppression, illiteracy, malnutrition risks, environmental damage, infringement of the human rights and a low quality of the education systems.These studies advocate that education should be focused on harmony and peace with nature and between peoples.At the same time, they claim for new policies responses offering equal opportunities to all individuals.Nonetheless, at the moment of analyzing the accomplishment of the millennium objectives proposed in the Education for All Program and in the Regional Educational Project for Latin American and the Caribbean (UNESCO, 2001;UNESCO, 2014), the quality of the education evidences current challenges which have to be covered like: equity, coexistence, tolerance, and peace.As the above mentioned issues have set out, there is a discouraging situation due to the dissatisfaction of the basic, individual and collective needs of the population.
Historically, in Colombia, peripheral public schools receive students from the rural sectors and neighborhoods far from the urban perimeter that have the highest illiteracy rate, fewer schools, less health services and job opportunities.They have little academic support from their families because their parents work at home and other field occupations, away from libraries and poor access to internet, low level of education and disintegrated families, where the mother is head family.Their salary is low and feeding habits are deficient.Children must work after the school day and walk long distances to get to school.Inequality of opportunities compared with the private sector also affects the schooling population.This way, the aims of education cannot be reduced to preserving the interrelations between the individuals, its context and its immediate culture, but must also inculcate values that allow the coexistence of peoples belonging to different contexts, including different societies and cultures.
Becoming a new educator in real contexts such as it is described above, means a high quality and complex profession.It implies the direct design and development of the systematic processes about teaching, learning and assessment, and other functions inside the framework of the Institutional Educational Project (IEP).Beyond the development of lessons, the teacher' academic assignment also includes the improvement of curricular activities, the student orientation service, the attention to the family expanded to the academic community, the continuous updating of renewing pedagogical trends, institution policies management, planning, and evaluation strategies.Furthermore, other cultural and sport events contemplated in the IEP are also included in the long list of the teachers' accountabilities.
Concerning the students' behavior and coexistence, Colombian educators play an important role in this difficult responsibility because they become models, examples and for some children, teachers can even be considered their heroes.Then, pre-service and in-service teachers must totally understand and appropriate fundamental values, so that children can learn such good manners, attitudes and respect habits from themselves.
According with the Colombian education policies, the Ministry of Education (Law 115/1994), universities devote much of its efforts to prepare new generations of teachers able to improve the quality of education, as well as encourage values and moral principles.It is for each of these reasons that most schools adopt the humanist approach, inspired by powerful emotions, national symbols representing idealistic desires, nature care, freedom, peace and coexistence.
One of the most recent curriculum reforms at the university level, probes for endowing a new educator with scientific, ethical and pedagogical competences identifying them as reflective and transformative professionals.An innovative strategy consists of linking the gap between research process and teaching skills on the part of those students who decided to become educators, taking into account that classrooms' reality has to turn its pedagogical practices in order to apply the most effective research trends.According to the university regulations, it is mandatory and necessary to do research processes as a requirement to obtain the graduate title in the teacher education programs.That is why the teaching practicum is the last year curriculum stage where the teacher trainees (it means new teachers or pre-service teachers) are located in a public or private educational institution.
Concerning the language teaching and learning process, it is necessary to introduce research competences in order to transform traditional and outdated practices, as well as overcome severe difficulties.Updated studies in the country (Fandiño, 2013;Macías & Sánchez, 2015;MEN, 1999;MEN, 2006;McNulty & Usma, 2005;Ramírez, 2008;Usma, 2009) have found that the English classroom is extremely focused on the teacher who decides what to do, when and how to do it, the activities are repetitive and isolated, evaluation is mechanical and irrelevant, skills are not related nor integrated, poor opportunity of communication, lack of autonomy due to the student's passive role, and so on.
Nowadays, in a society with cultural mobility, the role of foreign languages should be a primordial tool to construct a world's representation, to build knowledge, and to reach a full social, cultural, scientific, and technological integration among peoples.Apart from stimulating to great educators, Colombian education policies (1999) have devoted much of its efforts to reinforce those curriculum subjects that are very useful for the development of meaningful teaching and proper learning implemented by both public and private institutions.
Specifically, the Universidad de Caldas located in the Colombian Coffee Region, has institutionalized research lines as an indicator of high quality accreditation according to the social mission and goals established in its Development Plan (2009Plan ( -2018)).The most relevant for this project is the action-research line centered on strategies and methods for teaching and learning foreign languages.English is one of the basic and most important curriculum subjects to be taught and learnt in the Colombian education system (Law 115, 1994), along with Spanish, Nature Sciences, Maths, Social Studies, Technology, Sports, Arts and Humanities, among others.

The Institutional Setting
The setting of this case study work is a peripheral public school located just in the Coffee Region which is a country zone dedicated to the collection of coffee, farming and livestock.Although it is a rural school, placed in areas remote from urban populations, is just 10 minutes from Manizales downtown.The metropolitan municipality reaches a population close to 557,060 habitants according to the official demographic projections for the year 2017.Of its cultural activity Manizales is very recognized for its regional fairs, national and international theater festivals, artistic events, and the most important musical genres ever heard along the history of Colombia stand out here.This municipality is the so-called "City of Open Doors" thanks to the cordiality of its people.
The beautiful Coffee Region is situated between the western center of Colombia and the Central Mountain Range of the Andes.The history of this region is perhaps one of the best examples of recent national industry's push and storage of agricultural production which means a large economic presence for the country.It is one of the most visited landscapes for tourists from everywhere, both Colombians and foreigners.It is also very recognized as a gastronomic place where people use to come on weekends to try typical food.The region is surrounded by mighty rivers, marvellous snow mountains and a variety of climates.Due to these geographic, ecologic, historical and cultural characteristics, the coffee landscape was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2011.

The Problem Area
When a new teacher arrives to a classroom, the first idea spread in his/her mind is that it will be a great class played in a comfortable place, different from all others.In fact, when working with children, he/she must handle a conceptual order and prepare creative instructional materials.In addition, he/she must use a simple language to communicate with students, so that they can understand.Nevertheless, how could a new foreign language teacher react to a situation of aggression in the classroom?Or what if in the middle of the class topic, an episode of this type is presented?For many people it is a very difficult situation, authorities and experts do not even know what to do, so the main idea of this work is to learn how to handle affairs like this in the English classroom.
In his diary, the teacher trainee wrote: At the beginning of the school year, everything seemed like a game.The students met again after their vacations, they played and had fun as they used to, but with the passing of days, reality began to become a little dark.A chain of games and activities of friendship began to get deteriorated by screams, fights and blows.As a trainee teacher in English subject, I started to worry and at the same time I started to do two things: First, I began to make an analysis about the students' behavior in class and out of class, with or without their parents and with or without their partners.Secondly, I began to think about how I could solve this problem, considering that I am their English teacher, a naïve teacher.
As time went by, the teacher trainee was analyzing the attitude of the students, and came to the conclusion that it was necessary to talk more of human values than masterful grammar.So, he began to integrate English subjects with principles and values of the human being.Of course, he was not going to leave the English language aside, but rather he looked for the way to integrate two of the most important things that can have the human being: knowledge and to live in community.
In his diary, the teacher trainee wrote once again: Faced with a disruptive behavior such as this, which my students had, especially those in the second and fifth grades, I asked myself what was wrong and where this behavior came from.I assumed that a person receives his first formation at home.However for a beginning English teacher like me, it was very difficult to go to each of my students' house to see how they live or how they behave at their homes.That was impossible!But what I could do (very discreet and respectfully) was to talk to them, and let them tell me things like: why did they like to come to school?What did they like to learn?Who came to pick them up?And, who took them home again?Who did they live with?Who helped them with their tasks?Etc.
Sincerely, the teacher trainee was surprised with some students' answers like these: "teacher, really, nobody picks me up and my parents do not even help me with my tasks"."Teacher, I come here because I like to play with my friends and no more"."I stay alone at home and my parents do not look at my notebooks nor help me".
That's why the teacher trainee realized that some children needed significant support from their parents throughout their learning process.He also noticed that children who their parents took them to the school, who checked their notebooks and homework, and those who received more care and attention, were the most studious children in class.Unfortunately, after having done this analysis and diagnosis, it was evident that the children, who needed this support from their family, were also the most undisciplined, rude and hyperactive.It is supremely important that a child be properly accompanied by their parents in both personal and academic processes.Schools and families must be able to correct students' problems of behavior that may later become problems of social violence and aggression.
After analyzing the institutional context, and also the role of parents and new teachers in the process of learning, a series of questions such as, are posed: Why do some children find it so difficult to work as a team?Why do some of them prefer to be alone?Why do they sometimes physically and verbally attack?
Although some of the children present problems of isolation and aggressiveness, there are others who play an excellent role as students.It means that they have a proper accompaniment from their parents and maybe, this fact facilitates learning and allows the development of students' emotions and affections.Contrary to those students whose parents do not even check their notebooks to look at their homework.The teacher trainee wrote in his diary: I am afraid.If we talk about the reality we live today, not only in the streets (which are full of evil and danger) but also in some public institutions, the value of respect and healthy coexistence have been lost in a scandalous way.
Below, there is a complementary list of the attitudes of daily aggressiveness and lack of coexistence observed by the teacher trainee and written down in his diary: -Children of second grade do not integrate among themselves -I organize pairs to perform an activity and a second child says: "No, I do not work with her, "I just don´t want to" -A fifth grader passes and throws a ball to another classmate hurting his face -Pass a second grade child and without reason hits one of his classmates on the head -A third grade girl lets fall a pencil, a fifth grade passes and throws it away -A third-grader shouted me -Second grade children try to put pressure on the teacher at the same time because he does not let them go to the bathroom together -A third grade child passes and pulls a partner's hair.

Research Question
How can the value of respect be promoted inside the foreign language classroom as a curriculum subject in a public school?

Objectives
-To promote the value of respect as the basis of human coexistence during the teaching and learning process of English as a curriculum subject in a primary public school.
-To counteract the daily levels of aggressiveness presented by the students among themselves as necessary in a good coexistence -To innovate in a way of team work in terms of coexistence and respect towards the others.
-To create a pleasant atmosphere simultaneously with the integral, personal and academic formation in children at the school.

Case study
This case study project was developed in a public education institution where a language teacher trainee from the Universidad de Caldas in Manizales -Colombia, carried out his teaching practicum as a requirement of graduation.Researchers such as Angrosino (1989), Creswell (1998), Nunan (1997), Stake (1995), Wallace (1998) and Yin (1984) have probed that case study is an empirical enquiry carefully planned and crafted that produces relevant evidence leading to understand in depth a real life situation of a small number of events, individuals or problems.This research method is useful to prepare new educators identifying them as reflective and transformative professionals.It also offers contributions to link the gap between human inquiry and teaching skills on the part of those who decided to become educators, taking into account that classrooms' reality has to turn its traditional practices into the most effective trends (Schön, 1983;Schön, 1987).

Participants
The case study process took place in a peripheral public education institution and was made by a foreign languages trainee teacher and his assessor.The average number of elementary students, girls and boys, attending the English classes (first, second, third, fourth and fifth grade respectively) was sixty-two, and their ages were between seven (7) and thirteen (13) years old.Bearing in mind that it is a public school, most of the students do not have enough resources, even many of them come to school walking.

Data Collection, Instruments and Analysis
To collect as much data as possible, guided by the initial research question concerning the lack of respect in the English classroom, several tools served as means of accompaniment during the analytical process.Records, diary entries, observations, notes, and workshops were the tools used in gathering the information needed.The purpose of the diary was to record each one of the experiences lived in class and to take notes about students' behavior, development and progress.Besides, many of the school's visual and physical materials were accessible to work with children at the time of the classes.The school was provided with work aids such as flashcards, books, lassos, booklets, board games, posters, video beams, television sets and some other primers from which work materials were extracted for the proper class approach.
Once information was available, the analysis was carried out, considering what the students produced on their own and what was intended to achieve "a better coexistence among students and teamwork development", so it was observed if the value of respect promoted in the English classes was yielding satisfactory results.

Action Stage
This stage consists on preparing a set of classroom activities aimed at generating a connection between meaningful language learning and human values, such as: respect, honesty, love for others, the importance of teamwork and friendship.Fifteen (15) English classes were oriented by the teacher trainee, who played the role of a new teacher at a public school, following the curriculum standards established by the National Ministry of Education and adopted by the IEP through the syllabus.Some strategies, contents and games such as bingo, lotteries, word searches, puzzles, animal behavior and others, were planned and applied during the first academic period, from January to June in 2017.For the purpose of this article, a sample of five (5) activities was selected and presented below.

The Phrase of the Week
First of all, to promote the use of principles and values of the human being the teacher trainee decided to use a strategy called 'the phrase of the week', which consists of working in each class a sentence focused on a specific value, with the intention of allowing a better coexistence.Some of the phrases worked throughout the classroom research project were: -Respect is necessary for a good coexistence -I love my classmates and I like to work with them -Together we will do it!-We are all different and we must respect those differences -I must raise my hand to speak -If I do not know the answer, my partner can help me -The school is for everyone, so I will take care of it -In my school I educate myself but also I form myself as a human being -Dialogue helps me to solve problems -I should not argue, on the contrary I must share with my classmates and be humble.important it is to respect and be respected, since this human value works as a motor in a good coexistence.Therefore as a new teacher, he tried to be an example to his students respecting them always, both in class, and out of class.And thirdly, he served as a monitor for his students, so that if they had any kind of questions concerning or not with the classes, they could consult him, and he did this with the intention of generating an atmosphere of trust, friendship and collaborative work, so that they can observe the importance of helping others and a good teamwork.
Likewise, observations and self-observations were made jointly with the Principal, the school teachers, the university advisor and the trainee teacher, allowing to analyze the weaknesses and strengths manifested throughout this project and from which it was possible to probe that the objectives are fulfilled as the project was executed.
It was crucial to emphasize on the importance of oral activities conducted in class that involve students, but simultaneously make them conscious of the meaning of respect for their classmates.These activities were: debates, questions and answers in groups, weekly phrases with a specific message, group sentences, role plays, animal behavior, etc.Finally, it is necessary to highlight the importance of the pedagogical diary, which has been keeping through the whole classroom research process.

Results
Through the integration of human principles and values in the English classroom, the following results obtained are highlighted: Through the class activities, workshops and oral exercises, it was evident that children used words and expressions such as "please, thank you, you're welcome…" whenever they needed something.Likewise, attitudes of respect increased when they communicate ideas or during different interaction events inside and outside the classroom.An atmosphere of cordiality and a due treatment in class at the end of the semester was different from those episodes observed at the very beginning.
One of the most satisfactory accomplished objectives was the apprehension of rules related with teamwork.This was a notorious aspect throughout the project allowing them to form integrated working groups not only by students of the same course, but also of different grades.
The frequent development of joint activities (which aim was to generate a collective integration among the students of the school, inculcating values such as affection, empathy, friendship, joy and a healthy coexistence), allowed them to generate a better teamwork.At the moment students were working in teams, it was possible to observe that this work was unanimous and collaborative, so that each one of the members of the group participated in the proposed activities.Students understood the thematic contents and there was a higher participation expressing interest and good manners.
Thus, the project called "Promoting Respect as a Human Value in a Public School" yielded the expected results in support of the desired goal and the initial research question.The majority of teachers of the institution expressed to remark a change in the attitude of children in terms of coexistence and teamwork, allowing them to understand the importance of promoting human values in the personal and integral development from early ages.
Finally, the teacher trainee wrote in his diary: From my appreciative point of view as a trainee teacher, I have to say that the change experienced in the attitude of my primary students at the school has been significant and more than rewarding, making me learn from a wonderful experience and likewise making me feel more than proud of the results obtained throughout this last semester of my career.
In order to achieve the results, as a trainee teacher I had to take into account several aspects, which I had to analyze and modify in order to allow the project to develop correctly and to have these results.
The diary has been a wonderful and very important experience, so as a teacher trainee, I advise the use of the pedagogical diary in the teaching and training processes.For which, we can use important tools as the pedagogical diary and gliders.

Discussion
This classroom case study discusses how the so-called school is a space of social and cultural relationship where the citizen in training process should be guaranteed the normal development and enjoyment of fundamental rights (Boff, 2008, Munévar-Quintero & Giraldo-Quintero, 2015;UNESCO, 2015).However, the educational institution has been blamed for problems of violence, terrorism, punishment, juvenile delinquency, wrongdoing, lack of values and all the ills that afflict the current society.Same way, according to Boff (2008) Many occasions, both pre-service and in-service teachers do not discern how to deal with the different situations that can be presented in the classroom, so, it is necessary to record each of the events experienced in these classrooms.As teacher trainees, a diagnosis about the possible problems of coexistence that can be presented in classrooms and based on that look for different and possible solutions is urgent and necessary.What they must do as new teachers is to show their students that the classroom is a space to learn and to train as a human being and not to foment violence.
According to new pedagogical models specially the active learning and the humanistic approach (Colbert, 2006;Gregory, Clawson, Davis & Gerewitz, 2016;Ramírez, 2008), students can be oriented to work as a team.It is also possible to develop a sense of shared authority or ownership on the part of teachers because the aim is to promote a pleasant classroom atmosphere based on healthy coexistence and human values.Gregory et al. (2016) add that as students interact about one another, they are able to exchange opinions, accept feelings, identify causes and consequences, prepare action plans to restore damages and prevent future conflicts among groups.
The spiritual value of respect is maybe one of the most imperative actions to be promoted at school daily life, because it is the base of human relationships and allows a good coexistence between groups.It matches the thesis supported by Martínez-Scott et al. (2017) warning on the "defense and promotion of all people's human rights" as an indicator of development education.
It is not possible to talk of respect at school without talking about others.Respect is a form of recognition and appreciation of the qualities and differences of others.It is essential because that exemplifies the act by which human beings have consideration for another bearing in mind their interests, abilities, preferences, fears or feelings.No doubt, respect is one of the most important and primary actions that students can have among themselves and that let them know that each classmate is different in order to live in a better community.It is necessary to establish limits of manners and habits of what the whole academic community can and cannot do and where others' limits start.
The integration of principles and values in conjunction with the learning process is an approach that all teachers should put into practice, because it should not simply be about generating content learning, but perfect human formation that is the starting point of a good coexistence.Thus, human beings become integral and trained, both professionally and humanly, so that they can develop without any problem in the world of today.As the teacher trainee stated in his diary, exercising the value of respect inside the English classroom allows both society and families to live in peace, in a healthy coexistence based on norms and institutional regulations: By the above, I refer to the advances manifested in terms of coexistence in the classroom, but at the same time, the problems and impasses that can be presented, which are used as information to develop our work strategies.

Conclusions
The first idea that can be concluded is that this has been an empirical enquiry case study useful for both students and teacher trainees who need relevant evidence leading to a deeper understanding of misbehavior of students in the English class.Results allowed to realize that different activities can be organized in an orderly way to achieve particular objectives concerning the value of respect.
It is important to highlight the fact that the objectives were achieved, since the students, have been involved with a series of principles and fundamental values for the coexistence as human beings.Students have changed some of the attitudes that appeared at the beginning of the process, concluding that the promotion of values and principles brings positive consequences to favor healthy coexistence inside the classroom.
It is also concluded that the participants in this case study worked too much in teams, when previously it caused them many difficulties to interact with their classmates due to the series of differences that existed among them.Although some differences persist, the coexistence in the group has improved and the foreign languages classes worked according to the established plan.
It is important to foreground that nowadays more importance is given to values as part of the school mission.So that, it is necessary and possible to motivate future citizens leaving behind isolated curriculum topics and rescuing the role of the teacher.The project fulfills this purpose, highlighting the importance of aspects such as: teamwork, respect for peers and learning to live together in a social environment, and as it was said before, serving as an example to future generations.
Finally, it is very gratifying to observe that the relationships among students have evolved in a notable way.Teacher trainee has changed the complaints, problems and discussions, for sharing among the school members, for enjoying a healthy environment and for a better coexistence, which was the purpose of this project.
This finished classroom case study takes strength and validity to carry out, becoming an effective teaching and learning experience, and bringing relevant evidence to improve real life situations and problems at a public school.
Mission accomplished!
, today's society requires new pathways and constant care in order to counteract the increasing devastations of nature resources affecting the humankind such as poverty, exclusion and lack of spiritual values.Nonetheless, authors such asCollins (2017, p. 1)found out that the value of 'Respect' has been adopted as a new concept added to 'Courage, Initiative and Teamwork' in an army or military context.This work presents a training model to instill such a value as respect.The results also endorse Martínez-Scott, Monjas-Aguado and Torrego-Egido's argument (2017) in teachers training, supporting the social mission of universities to underpin attitudes and moral values, including justice, solidarity and respect.