Teachers report feeling most connected to children from professional, managerial, or other non-manual backgrounds, while feeling least close to pupils from families where no one is employed, according to a new study.
The ESRI conducted research into the relationship between teachers and their five-year-old students in Ireland, reports RTE.
The study highlighted that the quality of teacher-student interactions has a strong impact on student engagement, academic success, and overall wellbeing.
Drawing on data from the Growing Up in Ireland study, which has tracked a sample of children since they were nine months old, reports RTE.
The research concentrated on information collected when the more than 7,000 children were five years old and on teacher responses regarding closeness and conflict.
Teachers also reported lower levels of conflict with middle-class pupils, while the highest conflict levels were observed among children from non-employed households, reports RTE.
The study identified a notable difference in attitudes between newly qualified teachers and those with over five years of experience.
Newly qualified teachers did not show significant differences in closeness or conflict levels with students based on social class, reports RTE.
However, the analysis revealed “a clear link” between a student’s social class and the degree of closeness or conflict reported by teachers with more than five years of experience.
“It is not clear from available evidence whether this relates to a greater awareness of educational disadvantage fostered in initial teacher education in recent years and/or the fact that these teachers have not yet been fully socialised into the classed assumptions of their more experienced counterparts,” reports RTE.
The research was conducted by Emer Smyth, Katherin Barg, and Valentina Perinetti Casoni.
They propose that initial and ongoing teacher training “could usefully enhance teachers’ ability to work with parents from a range of backgrounds and help counter deficit perspectives on working-class students,” reports RTE.
“Promoting greater social class diversity in the teaching profession would also help reduce the cultural distance between teachers and students, as would support for adopting more inclusive practices around dealing with student behaviour,” reports RTE.
The ESRI noted that these findings underscore the significance of factors outside the school in shaping in-school relationships, with poverty and deprivation affecting a child’s capacity to engage in learning.
“This highlights the importance of family income support and measures to help low-income families cope with the cost of living,” reports RTE.
The study also cautioned that, given the increase in school absences in recent post-pandemic years, “this pattern has the potential to put further social and cultural distance between teachers and students unless measures are taken to address it,” reports RTE.
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