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Key research evidence
One of the dimensions of effective teaching practice, is partnerships – “collaborative relationships that contribute to and support children’s learning” (Ministry of Education, 2003, p. 13). Of the many professional partnerships that teachers need to form, the partnership that contributes most to student achievement is probably the partnership that forms between teacher and student.
One significant study of effective literacy instruction describes effective teachers as being “caring of learners”, “interested in learners’ lives”, and “positive in their interactions with learners” (Pressley et al., 2004, p. 225). Another key study describes how effective literacy teachers “connect with learners”, “hold a genuine concern for learners”, and “are consistently positive in their interactions with learners” (Raphael et al., 2008, p. 68). “[C]aring teachers can enhance student achievement and behaviour” (ibid., p. 74).
John Hattie has studied the attributes of expert teachers:
Expert teachers have high regard for students. The manner used by the teacher to treat the students, respect them as learners and people, and demonstrate care and commitment for them are attributes of expert teachers. By having such respect, they can recognise possible barriers to learning and can seek ways to overcome these barriers. The picture drawn of experts is one of involvement and caring for the students, a willingness to be receptive to what the students need, not attempting to dominate the situation.”
Hattie, 2002, unpublished, p. 13
In Māori Students: Schools Making a Difference, the Education Review Office looks at good practice in schools.
Good practice schools … support Māori students by …
- creating an environment which focuses on the success of Māori students
- promoting positive behaviour
- creating a physical environment which reflects Māori cultural elements
- supporting Māori students and their families
- helping Māori students to develop leadership skills
- promoting positive Māori role models.
Education Review Office, 2002, page 2
All of these actions suggest culturally responsive and mutually respectful relationships between teachers and students.
In their research into the experiences of year 9 and 10 Māori students in mainstream classrooms, Russell Bishop and his colleagues explore, in some depth, the concept of ‘culturally responsive and mutually respectful relationships’ and the importance of such relationships for Māori students and their teachers (Bishop, Berryman, Tiakiwai & Richardson, 2003). They discuss the concept of ‘Manaakitanga: caring for the person’ (pp. 96–99) and describe how effective teachers of adolescent Māori students:
… treat students and whānau with respect leading to reciprocity, are compassionate, understand the world of the students as Māori and as teenagers, have a sense of humour, can be trusted – they keep confidences, are giving of themselves, act in a just and fair manner, are friendly and firm in relation to students, learn and ensure Māori names are pronounced properly, ensure their actions are culturally located, participate with students in a variety of ways [and] want to be in the classroom with the students. They are passionate about being with the students more than anything else.
Bishop et al, 2003, pp. 96–97
They conclude that effective teachers of Māori students look closely at the balance of the relationship that they have with their students and plan to do something about the imbalance that is often apparent in this relationship. Such teachers are able to recognise that Māori students, as a group, have long been marginalised by a substantial group of teachers who have subscribed to a deficit theory to explain Māori underachievement and consequently have tried to control classroom learning from their majority-culture perspective. Effective teachers of Māori students are prepared to examine their understandings and practices closely so that they can make changes that will lead to more equal and mutually respectful relationships with students.
[U]nless teachers engage in considerations of how dominance manifests itself in the lives of Māori students (and their whānau), how the dominant culture maintains control over the various aspects of education, and the part they themselves might play in perpetuating this pattern of domination, albeit unwittingly, they will not understand how they and the way they relate to and interact with Māori students may well affect learning.
Bishop et al, 2003, p. 7