Relational (Re)Organization: A Case for a Relational Reading of Relational Pedagogy

Abstract

Consider Bailey STEM Magnet Middle School in Nashville, TN – a school (re)designed a decade ago to attend to the quality of relation and interaction between and among teachers and students and cultivate the capacity for response-ability: the situated ability to respond rather than react to challenges as opportunities for growth. Bailey was not “turned around” to use the language of educational efficiency and accountability. Rather, it was altered at its core by replacing an organization set up hierarchically and designed to “produce results” (e.g., higher test scores) with a structure designed to enable relationality and response-ability. What follows is a theory-generating, practice-based, and empirically-grounded representation of Bailey’s relationally-focused organizational transformation, arguing that relational pedagogy is not only interpersonal but also structural and institutional. We begin with a brief history of Relational Pedagogy. This article then pursues two intertwined aims: first, to challenge the conventional divide between philosophical and empirical research in education when relationality is central, relying on narrative to illustrate how knowledge and understanding emerge through relational dynamics; and second, to show that this integrated understanding of relationality is essential for capturing its concrete impacts on schools, where relational organizational structures shape the possibilities for both theory and practice by documenting, describing, and finding meaning within the lived experiences at Bailey.