The project “Authoritarian patterns in school education: pedagogical attitudes, communicative practices, and emotional regimes” examined how authoritarian models are formed, normalised and reproduced in Belarusian schools — and what possibilities exist for overcoming them.
Research project · 2023—2024
Authoritarian Patterns in Belarusian School Education
How schools reproduce models of power — and whether educators can resist them
European Humanities University Iryna Sidorskaya — member of the research team
About the research
Schools do not exist in isolation from the political and social system
The project treated them not as traits of individual administrators or educators, but as enduring institutional rules and patterns of interaction: rigid hierarchy, the primacy of vertical relationships and restrictions on horizontal ties. An important aspect was the unaddressed legacy of the Soviet school system.
The potential of schools
They can foster independence, critical thinking, dialogue and cooperation — or reproduce rigid hierarchy and weak feedback
Research focus
01
Educators in an authoritarian system
To what extent can educators create alternative models of action and communication?
Within the broader project, Iryna Sidorskaya examined the role and potential of educators in resisting the formation and manifestation of authoritarian patterns.
This perspective makes it possible to see educators not only as people working under conditions imposed by the system, but also as agents capable, under certain conditions, of acting differently
Methodology
How the research was conducted
8
in-depth expert interviews
with Belarusian educators from different professional backgrounds and positions
within the school system
The project ran in 2023–2024 and included the development of a theoretical and methodological framework, research seminars, the collection and analysis of empirical data, the preparation of interim and final materials, and the presentation of findings in academic settings.
What the interviews revealed
The extensive professional experience of some participants made it possible to trace changes in Belarusian schools across much of Belarus’s post-independence period
Findings
What the study revealed about the role of educators
Personal stance matters, but the ability to act differently depends on the institutional environment
Educators’ capacity to act is structurally constrained
When the system itself reproduces authoritarian models, acting according to its rules is easier than consistently resisting them. Much depends on school administration, the professional environment and the presence of horizontal ties.
Authoritarian practices constrain professional agency
They affect not only relationships between teachers and students, but also reduce educators’ own autonomy, opportunities for professional fulfilment, decision-making and influence over the educational process. The short-term organisational effectiveness of such practices also contributes to their reproduction.
Resistance is possible
It is supported by a strong professional stance, supportive school leadership, horizontal professional ties and an environment in which alternative models of relationships are encouraged.
Of particular importance are “islands of freedom” — local environments in which autonomous and horizontal relationships can exist as more than individual exceptions
The system has a gender dimension
Belarusian schools have a predominantly female workforce. Informal organisational rules, expectations of loyalty and mechanisms of pressure within such workplaces affect educators’ ability to resist authoritarian practices.
From the educator to the system
The problem cannot be reduced to “authoritarian teachers”
Individual behaviour is shaped by an environment that encourages some patterns of action while making others more difficult and risky
Belarusian schools are not only influenced by an authoritarian state. Through everyday educational, managerial and communication practices, they can themselves become a mechanism for reproducing authoritarian order.
Overcoming authoritarian structures in education therefore requires not only changing the behaviour of individual educators, but also restructuring the institutional conditions in which they work.
Practical outcome
12
recommendations for overcoming authoritarian patterns
What needs to change
The recommendations concern decentralising the education system, increasing school autonomy, changing the principles of educational management, developing horizontal professional ties and educators’ agency, and fostering a culture of dialogue, self-respect, mutual respect and critical thinking.
Full article and 12 recommendations ↗
Project
Research team and support
European Humanities University
The research was conducted at the EHU Center for Research of Intersubjectivity and Interpersonal Communication
Tatiana Shchyttsova
Research project lead
Iryna Sidorskaya
Contributed to developing the research framework and methodology, collecting and analysing empirical data, participating in seminars and preparing the final materials
Civil Society Support Foundation
Supported the implementation of the research project
Presentation of findings
September
2024
Conference “Overcoming Authoritarian Patterns in School Education: pedagogical attitudes, communicative practices, emotional regimes” at European Humanities University in Vilnius.
Presentation by Iryna Sidorskaya: “The role and potential of educators in resisting the formation and manifestation of authoritarian patterns.”
Rola i potencjał nauczycieli w oporze przeciwko formowaniu i przejawom autorytarnych wzorców w białoruskiej edukacji szkolnej
Iryna Sidorskaya
Wschodnioznawstwo, vol. 19, pp. 45–56.
The article develops one of the central themes of the research: the educator as a potential agent of resistance to the norms and practices of an authoritarian education system.
Read the article ↗