RELATIONSHIPS WITH TEACHERS

RELATIONSHIPS WITH TEACHERS

From the responses provided by students in this study, the one element that appears to most strongly influence whether school is a place they enjoy is the perceived presence or absence of caring. The nature of students’ relationships with teachers is central to what makes school appealing or distasteful, inviting or uninviting. What students say they want is “authentic relationships where they are trusted, given responsibility, spoken to honestly and warmly, and treated with dignity and respect. They feel adults inside schools are too busy, don’t understand or just don’t care about them”

Both teachers and caring somewhat more personally and more tangibly than did teachers. Students experienced teachers as caring when they directly stated that they cared, “when they laughed with them, trusted them, asked them or told them personal things, were honest, wrote them letters, called home to say nice things, touched them with pats, hugs, hand shakes or gave them the ‘high five,’ or otherwise recognized them as individuals”

As Poplin and weeres note, “The relationship between students and their teachers seems to dominate students’ feelings about school.” When students who were interviewed made positive comments about school, “they usually involved reports of individuals who care, listen, understand, respect others and are honest, open and sensitive.”

Students repeatedly “raised the issue of care” when asked about their school experience, stating that “what they liked best about school was when people, particularly teachers, cared about them or did special things for them.” Conversely, students were vociferous about “being ignored, not being cared for, and receiving negative treatment.”