Making Connections: Student-Teacher Rapport in Higher Education Classrooms

Roehl Sybing

doi:10.14434/josotl.v19i5.26578

Abstract

Educational research asserts the importance of establishing rapport between teachers and their students for the sake of fostering a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. Especially given the disparities in outcomes of university students, it is imperative for educators and policy makers to look at teaching practices in the college classroom as well as policies relevant to teaching and learning in university contexts. This paper reports on an ethnographic study of a college-level academic writing class, centering on how its writing teacher seeks to establish rapport and facilitate understanding with first- and second-year undergraduate students. The findings presented in this paper highlight examples practitioners can examine to validate student knowledge and participation as well as mitigate the effects of differences in identity between teacher and student. This paper closes by inviting discussion and reflection of college-level teachers' practices in the classroom and whether they elicit engagement from students.

Highlights

Contemporary research has begun to explore the importance of establishing rapport between teachers and students in higher education contexts (Arghode et al, 2017; Estepp & Roberts, 2015; Lee, 2015)
In summarizing the findings discussed in this paper, this study of one university-level writing class identifies a teacher's strategies for establishing rapport, through valuing the participation and knowledge that students contribute to the class while de-emphasizing the expertise she brings as an authority figure
There is no shortage of literature regarding learner-centeredness, active learning, or culturally responsive pedagogy

Summary

Introduction

Contemporary research has begun to explore the importance of establishing rapport between teachers and students in higher education contexts (Arghode et al, 2017; Estepp & Roberts, 2015; Lee, 2015). Popular perceptions of higher education do not always center around images of classrooms engaged in discussion and engagement by students. Using the website Google Images, a cursory search of pictures of college classrooms yields images of lecture rooms with large numbers of students passively listening to a teacher who is presumably a master of the relevant course knowledge. Theory on teaching and learning emphasizing the importance of rapport between teacher and student clashes with the historical traditions of the academy, as well as the feasibility of pedagogies in contexts that serve massive numbers of students. With students of color and low-income students graduating at lower rates than white students and high-income students respectively (Musto, 2017; Tate, 2017), it is worth exploring, in addition to reforms of policies, how practitioners in higher education can better accommodate all students

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