Abstract
Building relationships with students and their families is essential to being an effective teacher. Learning to build relationships should be taught in teacher preparation courses and allow for practicing these skills in classroom field experiences. Developing positive relationships leads to students feeling a greater sense of school connectedness and increased positive peer relationships. Relationship building is especially important when working with vulnerable populations such as students with disabilities and their families. Positive relationships with teachers are associated with positive academic and social outcomes for students with and without disabilities. This chapter will discuss building positive student-teacher-family relationships and will provide ideas for how pre-service and in-service teachers can develop those positive relationships.
TopRelationship Building In Schools
Teachers building relationships with students and families is a cornerstone of teaching. Relationship building in schools is the process of creating positive and meaningful connections between teachers and their students. When teachers build relationships with their students, they create a “sense of stability, belonging, and trust that enable students to engage in learning” (Knudson and Cantor, 2020). Through relationship building, teachers can create a safe and supportive learning environment for their students. It is important for students to feel comfortable in their classroom and have a sense of belonging so they can be successful socially and academically. Relationship building is two-way and can include activities that ask students to introduce themselves, get to know peers and teachers, as well as opportunities for teachers to show their own identity and get to know their students. Relationship building can also involve getting familiar with a community context, as well as respecting and valuing individual cultures and perspectives. Building strong relationships in the classroom can help create an environment where students feel safe to learn and express themselves.
Effective communication with families is key when it comes to building relationships in schools. By developing a connection with each student’s family, teachers can create a safe and nurturing space for learning where culture and experience are honored and viewed as an asset. Relationship building with families can involve activities that communicate praise, concern, or information. Communicating with families about students’ needs and abilities, creates a sense of shared responsibility for student learning and success. When teacher-family communication is two-way, it invites families to participate as partners rather than just passively accepting teacher communications. In this chapter we will discuss the importance of building positive student-teacher-family relationships and will provide strategies for how pre-service and in-service teachers can develop those positive relationships.
The Importance of Relationship Building in Teacher Preparation
Positive teacher-student relationships are associated with positive longitudinal outcomes for students, such as better academic and social-behavioral outcomes (Ansari et al., 2020). Teacher preparation programs may play a vital role in preparing future teachers to develop relationship building skills. When incorporated into the curriculum, teacher preparation programs can provide opportunities for the pre-service teacher to learn about and develop the skills to build relationships with students and families (Ratcliff & Hunt, 2009). Teacher preparation programs are strategically beneficial as pre-service teachers have access to professors and mentor teachers who can provide feedback, support, and advice for effective relationship building with families (Ratcliff & Hunt, 2009). These supports may better prepare new teachers to build positive relationships.
Teachers also benefit from positive relationships with their students. Teachers are more likely to feel a greater sense of professional worth and are less likely to experience relational conflicts that lead to emotional burnout and teacher turnover (Corbin et al., 2019). These protective factors may help to improve teacher retention, especially among newly certified teachers. Although relationship building has been associated with positive benefits, there is still a great need for professional development in relationship building, especially when working with students with disabilities and/or students from diverse communities as well as their families (Willemse et al., 2018; Ratcliff & Hunt, 2009). The need for this professional development is reiterated by teachers who report minimal training on how to develop relationships with students and families and a lack of training on how to connect with and develop relationships with students with disabilities and their families, as well as work with diverse families (Doran, 2020).
Key Terms in this Chapter
School Connectedness: A positive sense of membership in the school community.
Relationship Building: Interactions that allow a person to become familiar with another person, their home life, family life, culture, and/or community.
School Community: The greater community in which a school is situated.
Teacher-Family Relationships: How teachers and families interact, communicate, and relate to one another.
Families: Members of the student’s home life, such as parents, siblings, and grandparents who live within the same household; Compositions of families may vary from household to household.
Teacher-Student Relationships: How teachers and students interact, communicate, and relate to one another.
Intersectionality: The intersection of identities that may compound discrimination or marginalization such as gender identity and expression, SES, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability status, and physical attributes.
Two-way communication: Active communication from both parties in a conversation.
Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Teaching Practices: Teaching practices that draw on cultural differences as an asset in teaching and learning.
Caregivers: Adults in the student’s home life, such parents, guardians, or grandparents, who support in raising the student.