Words May Come Back to You When You Need Them

Author(s)	Prof. Murthy B M
Country	India
Abstract	The effects of teacher language and labelling on children's motivation and self-esteem. This paper uses the findings of a classroom intervention carried out in a middle school setting to illustrate how repeated negative labels issued by the teacher can be 'becoming' and internalised into the student's sense of self, thus resulting in disengagement and a fall in self-esteem. In carrying out the intervention, the 'dignity-affirming' classroom management skills of restorative questioning and belief-based language were piloted in a high-disruption classroom. The author took a reflective practitioner role, facilitating students' perceptions as written responses to their input into the process, signalling that most students had been 'becoming' their teacher's negative labels as part of their personal story. It is argued that 'becoming' is at the heart of the challenges teachers face with children who 'act out', and that teachers need to reach the child behind the behaviour and get to know that child.
Keywords	The Core Observation, The Turning Point, What Students Actually Said, The Central Insight, The Balance You Struck, The Bigger Question You Raised, The Call to Action
Field	Sociology > Education
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 5, September-October 2026
Published On	2026-10-12

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