Teacher relationships: a participative study

Abstract

This study aims at the understanding of teacher relationships as an essential element in the understanding of pupil teacher relationships. This understanding is approached through involvement of the researcher in one school, the participation of teachers in the study and through the relationship between the researcher and the teachers. In chapter one the relevance of teacher relationships is considered, particularly through their connection with teacher stress, the socialisation of teachers and current changes in teachers' work. Scarcity of studies and barriers encountered in studying teacher relationships provide added relevance. Conceptual perspectives, considered in chapter two, include phenomenological emphasis on people's interpretations of their own experience, psychoanalytic concepts of the unconscious and counselling approaches to learning as a two way process and the enabling of understanding through a relationship that combines involvement with detachment. Planning of the research aimed at securing involvement while maintaining validity of data and interpretation. Chapter three records the data and experience of the study and the development of interpretations. Through the experience of group sessions with the teachers, through personal interviews and through the researcher's experience of the school three problems were identified as involving feelings of anxiety and frustration;assessment, consultation and the expression of feeling. These problems are explored in relation to the school context and through their reflection in the relationship between researcher and teachers. The conclusions emphasise the importance of the teachers' need for classroom autonomy, the head's need to maintain a consensus end the limitations of the expression of feeling for understanding teacher relationships in this school. Chapter four evaluates the study and the methods used and relates the conclusions to a wider context. It suggests that further studies and application of these methods are both needed and possible.