Teacher-learner Relationships Research Articles

Exploring causes of bullying among grade eight and nine learners in a South African education district

Bullying is a social phenomenon that has become a complex problem worldwide due to the complications that arise from its persistence among school-going adolescents. This study explored the causes of bullying among grades 8 and 9 in one secondary school in Amatole East District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. This qualitative study employed constructivist paradigm and a case study design. It utilised interviews to elicit data from 15 purposefully sampled participants. This study was informed by Travis Hirschi's 1968 Social Control Theory, and I used Braun and Clark's thematic analysis steps to analyse and interpret the data. The study found that bullying is triggered by jealousy and envy among learners, inadequate school furniture, family environment, physical attributes, lack of moral education, lack of sexual orientation education, and age differences among learners. Therefore, the study concluded that in order to detect the causes of bullying among grade 8 and 9 learners, teachers must apply Social Control Theory in the school environment by establishing consistent and supportive teacher-learner relationships to easily identify learners' behavioural changes and promote support, peer relationships, and unity among learners. This will reduce internal motivation that leads them to initiate bullying and violate other learners' rights. Additionally, the findings of this study will enable school stakeholders to develop intervention strategies, including disciplinary measures for learners, providing sexual orientation education, and involving parents in their efforts to manage bullying among grades 8 and 9 learners.

Understanding Translanguaging in Multilingual Education

Translanguaging" has now become a buzzword in every multilingual educational setting, and everybody is eager to exhibit their understanding of it. This paper critically examines the concept of "translanguaging," whereby it identifies the two principal research approaches: "the fixed language approach" and "the fluid languaging approach." Its intention is to clarify the various readings accordingly. This review is helpful in the classification of how 'translanguaging' has been conceptualised within the pedagogy and as a practical theory of language. It classifies studies within the two using conceptual and empirical literature, offering a comprehensive understanding of the approaches. The findings reported here clearly indicate that "translanguaging" is unfolding as part of the meaning-making practices across multilingual classrooms in the Global North and South. Research shows that strategic use of the translanguaging pedagogy enhances learners' curriculum access by leveraging their linguistic repertoires. This review has implications for challenging monolingual ideologies, fostering social justice for marginalised communities, and sustaining teacher-learner relationships. Its review encourages further exploration in diverse linguistic settings while building on translanguaging's strengths as an extremely promising research and practice area for reshaping future language education.

When we came back the ball was just not rolling: Special needs educators' perspectives of improvisation through the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractWhile the COVID‐19 pandemic disrupted education across the globe, special needs schools in middle‐ and low‐income countries were particularly affected. Learners in these contexts often did not have access to assistive technologies and individualised adaptations of materials in their home environment. This study aimed to explore the experiences of special needs educators regarding how lockdown restrictions had impacted their educational practices. In‐depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 special needs educators across the Gauteng and Western Cape provinces of South Africa and were analysed through the lens of interpretive phenomenological analysis. Three themes emerged from the interviews. First, the teachers discussed the ways in which they ensured that the curriculum continued during the period of hard lockdown. Second, they discussed the challenges of remote teaching, and lastly, they addressed the challenges when the learners returned to face‐to‐face learning. These themes shed light on the teachers' flexibility, creativity and ability to improvise within uncertain, unpredictable and unfamiliar educational terrains. We draw the conclusion that it was largely due to positive teacher–learner relationships and the commitment by teachers that improvisation and creativity were possible and effective.

THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES ON THE TEACHER-LEARNER INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE QUALIFYING SECONDARY CYCLE

Our study focuses on the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on interpersonal relationships within the educational context, particularly between teachers and learners. In the era of the digital revolution, we explore how these technologies alter the quality of these relationships, which can be both beneficial (encouraging mutual assistance, empathy, and motivation) and problematic (risks of cyber-violence and harassment). Utilizing a mixedmethodology approach, combining semi-structured interviews with secondary school teachers and an online questionnaire for high school students in Agadir, our research aims to assess the extent to which ICT influences these interpersonal dynamics. The findings suggest that, despite the challenges, social networks and other digital platforms can enhance teacherlearner relationships through positive interactions, while highlighting the need to navigate cautiously in the face of negative aspects

Human Rights Education: Exploring the Safety of Teachers in South African Secondary Public Schools

This paper examined the extent and nature of safety for teachers in their different school settings and further underscored the importance of safety for teachers in the school context. The current school environment is violent owing to the increasing lack of teachers’ ability to maintain order in schools due to the uncertain alternatives to corporal punishment. This creates a hostile learning environment that weakens the teachers’ position of power and prohibits them from using their authority and fulfilling their duty to provide learners with compassionate monitoring. A qualitative interpretivist research paradigm was used in this study employing Critical Emancipatory Research (CER) as a research framework. A CER framework aims to strengthen the liberating, enlightening, emancipating, and empowering democratic values of equality and justice among the researcher and the participants in the research setting. A team of four teachers, a principal, and the School Governing Body (SGB) member from each school were purposively sampled to apply the principles of PAR in Lejweleputswa District in the Free State Province in South Africa. A focused group was employed to answer the following questions: What are the perceptions of secondary school teachers regarding their safety in the school setting? To what extent does learners’ violent behaviour threaten teachers’ safety at schools? And, how can teachers be assisted to change their minds regarding Human Rights Education as a tool for peaceful education? Data was analysed thematically. The findings of this research showed that teachers do not feel safe at their workplace, they fear both learners and parents who most of the time come to humiliate them physically and emotionally in front of their learners. The study contributes to a debate on the safety of teachers in schools for professional development. Keywords: Human Rights Education, Teacher-Learner Relationships, Teachers’ Safety, Parental Involvement.

Embracing uncertainty: A narrative case study on teacher-learner relationships through restorative justice practices in education

Embracing uncertainty: A narrative case study on teacher-learner relationships through restorative justice practices in education

It Takes a Village: Optimal Graduate Medical Education Requires a Deliberately Developmental Organization.

Coaching is proposed as a means of improving the learning culture of medicine. By fostering trusting teacher-learner relationships, learners are encouraged to embrace feedback and make the most of failure. This paper posits that a cultural shift is necessary to fully harness the potential of coaching in graduate medical education. We introduce the deliberately developmental organization framework, a conceptual model focusing on three core dimensions: developmental communities, developmental aspirations, and developmental practices. These dimensions broaden the scope of coaching interactions. Implementing this organizational change within graduate medical education might be challenging, yet we argue that embracing deliberately developmental principles can embed coaching into everyday interactions and foster a culture in which discussing failure to maximize learning becomes acceptable. By applying the dimensions of developmental communities, aspirations, and practices, we present a six-principle roadmap towards transforming graduate medical education training programs into deliberately developmental organizations.

Implementing Holistic and Humanistic Approaches in a Remote Flipped English Translation Module

A holistic approach encourages meaningful learning, creativity, risk-taking, and mutual empathy within a learning environment and challenges the traditional pedagogical approaches based on mono-referential methods. Rethinking these approaches entails placing learners at the core of the teaching process, including their inner personal spheres. Grounded in a case study of an Italian university setting, this study underlines the contribution to learner centrality of holistic and humanistic approaches to flipped learning and suggests how to implement such an approach in a remote English translation module. The study was conducted via a structured questionnaire completed anonymously by 148 Italian students aged 18–19 at the end of their English module. The outcomes highlight the students’ appreciation of the holistic approach combined with a humanistic teaching approach (HTA), which they perceived as pushing the boundaries of formal, mono-referential teacher–learner relationships while maintaining these roles. The present study thus holds implications for the wider teacher community regarding the benefits and challenges of implementing flipped learning with an HTA in other translation courses or modules. Rather than simply guiding and assisting students in learning for themselves, teachers have a crucial role as holistic learning facilitators. By redesigning a typical flipped learning class, the study enhances teachers’ awareness of this role and provides insightful suggestions on how a holistic approach can be applied in remote English translation teaching.

Towards a conceptual framework for communicating library training to students in South African university libraries: A literature review

Developing conceptual frameworks to improve library training among librarians in South African university libraries is not common. The purpose of this article was to assess, synthesise and critique available literature to determine the extent to which librarians in South African university libraries could reflect on their library training and synthesise relevant theories and models that can assist develop a conceptual framework for communicating library training. The integrated literature review focuses on five central themes namely: communication models, the evolution of technology, learning theories, social learning and web based learning environments, and the role of authority in teacher-learner relationships. The article argues that academic librarians operate within the universe of teacher-learner relationships in library training initiatives, albeit unconsciously so. This makes library training in South African university libraries a mature topic needing reconceptualization. Future research should employ single and multiple case study research designs to formulate frameworks on a case-by-case basis.

Sex and School Differences in Executive Function Performance of Zambian Public Preschoolers

Despite a great deal of research on the relations between preschool executive functions (EF) and demographic variables such as age, sex and school variables (classroom organization and teacher behaviours including quality of educational instruction, planning, organization and teacher-learner relationships), not much is known about these associations in Zambian preschoolers. This study was aimed at examining the relations of executive functions to age, sex and school variables in 133 Zambian preschool learners enrolled in urban public preschools aged 5 to 8 years. A between-subjects quasi-experimental research design was utilised. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank model showed sex and school differences were also observed to be significantly related to executive functions, no significant relationship was found for age. Key implications of the study for pre-primary policy, girl-child education (to discourage child marriage) and preschool teacher professional development in Zambia are discussed.

The Role of Teachers' Interpersonal Behaviors in Learners' Academic Achievements.

In the context of English as a foreign language classroom, affections that form between teacher and students may affect the teaching/learning process. This review aimed to investigate the related studies on the effect of teacher-learner interpersonal relationships on learners’ educational performance in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) educational contexts. This review concluded that there is a significant constructive correlation between teacher-learner interpersonal relationships and learners’ academic achievement. Learners are required to have some sense of belonging to improve their educational performance. Moreover, other positive emotional factors such as grit, wellbeing, self-efficacy, academic engagement, motivation, and foreign language enjoyment can mediate the association between teacher-learner interpersonal relationships and learners’ academic success. The study concludes with some implications for English learners, English language teachers, and English language teacher trainers. The ideas can improve their awareness of teacher-student interpersonal relationships, including teacher stroke, rapport, and teacher immediacy and their role in improving learners’ foreign language learning.

‘Butter Balla Here!’: The Functions of Humor in Primary English Classrooms in Korea

The use of humor has been a controversial research topic in language classrooms. Humor is pervasive; however, the functions of humor in primary English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms is under-investigated. To analyze the distinct features of humor, this study explores the specific functions of humor in primary English teaching classrooms in South Korea. The data set included thirty 40-minute English lessons videotaped in 2019 and semi-structured interviews with three teachers. Data were analyzed by identifying humor sequences, transcribing these classroom sessions and interviews, coding recurrent themes, and sorting representative excerpts. As a result, psychological, social, and behavioral functions of humor were conceptualized. The findings showed that humor (i) mitigated learners’ anxiety and aroused interest in language learning, (ii) reinforced constructive teacher-learner relationships and enabled camaraderie between learners, and (iii) regulated student behavior or rationalized learners’ listening incomprehension. Pedagogical implications are also discussed regarding ways to use and respond to humor in language classrooms.

Using Photographs and Memory-Work to Engage Novice Teachers in Collaborative Learning About Their Influence on Learner Behaviour

This article offers an account of using photographs and memory-work as a visual participative method in research conducted by a deputy principal with novice teachers in a South African primary school. The study was prompted by observations of how novice teachers struggled to manage learner behaviour in socially just and compassionate ways. It aimed to help novice teachers express the uncertainties and challenges they encounter, and prompt candid discussions on learner behaviour. The article shows how visual participative methods can facilitate collaborative learning with novice teachers. Additionally, it illustrates how the novice teachers came to see their critical role in influencing learner behaviour and the value of positive teacher-learner relationships in supporting learner behaviour. This work will be valuable to educational researchers in diverse contexts interested in growing their participative research methods repertoire. Furthermore, it illustrates how working with photographs and memory-work can facilitate the expression of participants' viewpoints and understandings and intensify educational researchers' learning from and with others in the interests of social change.

Cultural Considerations in Debriefing.

Culture influences how we communicate, teach, and learn. Debriefings are laden with cultural influences. Without attention to cultural considerations, accepted debriefing techniques might not reach the desired outcome and, in certain cultures, may even harm teacher-learner relationships. We explore cultural considerations in healthcare simulation debriefing and offer guidance for debriefers to gain awareness of potential cultural biases.

Morehouse School of Medicine Case Study: Teacher-Learner Relationships Free of Bias and Discrimination.

Bias can impact all aspects of human interactions and have major impacts on the education and evaluation of health care professionals. Health care and health professions education, being very dependent on interpersonal interactions and learning as well as on the assessment of interpersonal behaviors and skills, are particularly susceptible to the positive and negative effects of bias. Even trained and experienced evaluators can be affected by biases based on appearance, attractiveness, charm, accent, speech impediment, and other factors that should not play a role in the assessment of a skill. At the Morehouse School of Medicine, elements in the curriculum and the milieu help decrease the burden of bias experienced by learners. In addition, many of the learners develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes that appear to assist them with navigating bias in other learning or practice environments. In this case study, the authors reflect on these elements and how they can be replicated in other settings. According to the authors, modifying the learning environment to enhance and sustain relationships is key in addressing toxic bias.

Education and Care: How Teachers Promote the Inclusion of Children and Youth at Risk in South Africa

Children and youth at risk, particularly those placed in child and youth care centres (CYCC) in South Africa, have suffered from school disengagement due to multiple barriers to learning such as the exposure to crime and violence at a young age. As children and youth at risk at these centres find it difficult to engage in learning, new approaches need to be found to re-engage their interest to learn. This article discusses how the ‘Curriculum of Care’, an adaptation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), responds to the educational needs of children and youth at risk at a CYCC in the Western Cape. It draws primarily from interviews and a focus group discussion with the centre manager and teachers at the institution. The findings reveal that positive learning outcomes, and the effective integration of children and youth at risk, are shaped by positive teacher–learner relationships; however, the findings raise questions about the extent to which such a curriculum prepares children and youth at risk for life after they leave the institution. The article suggests that the institutions providing education and care for children and youth at risk need to provide a curriculum balancing academic rigour with care to promote a holistic, inclusive education programme that enables youth and children at risk to effectively navigate their entry into society.

Feeling Heard: Inclusive Education, Transformative Learning, and Productive Struggle

AbstractDevelopments in international inclusive education policy, including in prominent UN documents, often refer to the aim of a quality education for all. Yet, it remains unclear: What exactly is meant by quality education? And, under what conditions are quality educational experiences possible for all learners? In this essay, Diana Murdoch, Andrea English, Allison Hintz, and Kersti Tyson bring together research on inclusive education with philosophy of transformative learning, in particular John Dewey and phenomenology, to further the discussion on these two questions. The authors argue that teacher–learner relationships, of a particular kind, are necessary for fostering environments wherein all learners have access to quality educational experiences associated with productive struggle as an indispensable aspect of transformative learning processes. They define such relationships as “educational relationships that support students to feel heard.” In developing their argument, the authors first analyze the concept of productive struggle, an aspect of learning increasingly recognized in research and policy as an indicator of quality education. Second, they discuss three necessary, though not sufficient, conditions for the teacher to cultivate educational relationships that support students to feel heard. Third, they draw out connections between environments that support feeling heard and those that support productive struggle, and they discuss teachers' challenges and risk‐taking in creating such environments. The authors close with a discussion of implications for international policy, practice, and research.

TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.

TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine.

Is Knowledge Insertion Desirable?

AbstractIn this article, John Tillson discusses the conditions under which what he calls “knowledge insertion” would be desirable for the one who has knowledge inserted. He argues that making use of knowledge insertion would not be cost free; in particular, it would come at the price of relationship goods realized through teacher–learner relationships, and of the achievement of learning, at least for the knowledge inserted. Despite these costs, though, Tillson concludes that knowledge insertion would most often be desirable since the losses could usually be more than compensated by the knowledge gained or would matter little so long as one realizes the relevant relationship and achievements goods to a satisfactory level at some point in one's life.

The Influence of Additional Educational Support on Poverty-Stricken Adolescents’ Resilience and Academic Performance

Resilience can be viewed as successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances (e.g. poverty). This article reports on an investigation of which the primary aim was to establish how additional educational support enhances adolescents’ resilience and academic performance. A quantitative approach was followed using two schools. One was a poverty-stricken school where additional educational support was officially offered, while the other school offered normal required tuition and was located in a middle class suburb. In total, 117 Grade 9 and 10 learners participated in the research. The results indicated that resilience related positively to academic performance and to other factors which are associated with academic performance such as teacher-learner relationships, parental involvement and study methods. Additional educational support to poverty-stricken learners resulted in higher resilience and academic achievement. Amongst the variables used in the investigation, additional educational support explained the largest proportion of the variance in academic achievement, followed by resilience and cognitive development.