Practitioner Review: Dyadic teacher-child relationships: comparing theories, empirical evidence and implications for practice

Cultural universality and specificity of teacher-student relationship: a qualitative study in Belgian, Chinese, and Italian primary school teachers

Extensive evidence highlights the significant influence of dyadic, emotional teacher-student relationship (TSR) on students' cognitive functioning, socio-emotional development, and overall well-being. However, it remains unclear whether the TSR construct and its manifestations can be generalized across cultures. This qualitative study investigated TSR among 60 primary school teachers in Belgium, China, and Italy (i.e., countries with varying positions on the collectivistic-individualistic continuum of culture). Through semi-structured interviews and metatheme analysis, the study examined the similarities and differences in TSR across these countries, revealing a nuanced and diverse picture in various cultural contexts. The findings align with the existing TSR model by including dimensions of closeness, conflict, and dependency, while also extending the model to identify additional dimensions such as authority, balance, distance, fairness, increasing student motivation, patience, and strictness. Regarding cultural perspective, teachers from these three countries exhibited similar conceptualizations of closeness, conflict, fairness, increasing student motivation, patience, and strictness, whereas the conceptualization of dependency, authority, balance, and distance may be influenced by (collectivistic versus individualistic) culture. Moreover, the manifestations of TSR varied across countries, highlighting the influence of cultural factors such as cultural norms, collectivistic versus individualistic values, and the perceived legitimacy of teacher authority. These findings shed light on the complexities of TSR across countries and emphasize the significance of culturally sensitive approaches in fostering positive TSR in education.

Supporting teachers to actively respond to bullying and to build positive relationships with their students: effects of the T-SUPPORT training

Despite the central role that teachers can have in preventing and reducing bullying, they often feel insecure about how to deal with bullying. This study evaluated a short teacher training - called the Teachers SUPporting POsitive RelaTionships (T-SUPPORT) training - that aims to reduce bullying by supporting teachers in building positive teacher-student relationships and in actively dealing with bullying. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether the T-SUPPORT training resulted in higher quality teacher-student relationships, and more active and less passive responses to bullying incidents, and whether these improvements in turn resulted in lower levels of bullying victimization. In a Randomized Controlled Trial 10 Belgian primary schools were randomly assigned to an intervention or control condition. The Grades 4-6 teachers of the five schools in the intervention condition received the three-session school-based training; control teachers received no intervention. Grade 4-6 students (N = 964; 55 classrooms) in these schools completed questionnaires at pre- and post-test. In contrast to the hypotheses, results of the two-level linear mixed model analyses revealed no significant effect of the training on teacher-student relationship quality, teachers' responses to bullying and bullying victimization. Yet, higher quality teacher-student relationships and more active teacher responses to bullying were significantly associated with less bullying victimization, whereas more passive responses were linked with more victimization. The latter findings are in line with theorizing and research on the role that teachers can play in reducing bullying.

Psychometric Validation of the Adult Prosocialness Behavior Scale in a Professional Teaching Context

For the teaching profession, prosociality is a relevant skill. From this perspective, the present study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Adult Prosocialness Behavior Scale (APBS) in a professional setting of primary school Chilean teachers (n = 1404; mean age = 41.4; SD = 10.8; 77.4% women). ESEM and CFA were applied to evaluate its factor structure, internal consistency, factorial reliability, and invariance. The results supported a bifactor ESEM model in which prosociality was represented by a general latent factor and four specific factors (helping, sharing, caring, and empathy). A predominance of the unidimensional component of the APBS was observed (general factor, ECV = 0.938; ωh = 0.945), with adequate reliability (α = 0.932; ω of the factor general = 0.968) and invariance of the measurement in terms of gender. Its adequacy was confirmed by a good level of fit (RMSEA = 0.042 90%CI [0.036-0.049]; SRMR = 0.012; CFI = 0.995; TLI = 0.988). It is concluded that the APBS is a suitable instrument to measure prosociality in the professional setting studied. Its general and specific dimensions are relevant to the prosocial behaviors currently required of teachers. Future studies could contribute evidence of the transcultural validation of the APBS in other educational contexts in order to undertake comparative studies.

The Role of Dyadic Teacher-Student Relationships for Primary School Teachers' Well-Being

Teacher well-being is not only relevant for the effectiveness of individual teaching and student learning but also for general school quality and societal functioning, because teacher well-being is related to lower burnout risks and lower attrition. Previous research identified social relationships in school as a crucial source of teacher well-being. However, studies investigating the role of teacher-student relationships as a determining factor for teacher well-being are still scarce. This study takes a qualitative approach toward investigating the role of dyadic teacher-student relationships in teacher well-being. We analyzed twenty-six semi-structured interviews with Swiss primary school teachers, using a qualitative content analysis. The results showed that dyadic teacher-student relationships played an important to a very important role in the everyday life of teachers and were a source of both positive and negative emotions, cognitions, and physical sensations. The quality of the dyadic teacher-student relationship was reflected in the social-emotional competence of both teachers and students. Conflicts were not necessarily inhibiting teacher well-being. The findings of this study can be used to inform teacher-training institutions, as well as authorities, on how to support teachers in building relationships with their students and, in turn, foster their well-being.