Essential and Neglected: Transforming Classroom Learning through Relationship

Abstract

ABSTRACTFeatures of the academic context of social work education threaten the loss of traditional educational attention to relational capacity, an indispensable condition for all forms of social work practice and thus a necessary priority for professional education. We argue that the development of relational capacity should occur in classroom as well as in field settings. We propose a conceptual framework for relational classroom teaching that draws on theories of attachment, concepts of empathy and positive regard, relational-cultural theory, recent neuroscience research, and interpersonal neurobiology. Finally, we identify constituent core relational classroom practices that support the development of these competencies.