scholarly journals “We Respect Them, and They Respect Us”: The Value of Interpersonal Relationships in Enhancing Student Engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 634
Author(s):  
Joanne Banks ◽  
Emer Smyth

Attempts to understand the patterns behind student disengagement and early school leaving have traditionally focussed on early school leavers’ individual characteristics. More recently, however, studies have begun to focus on the extent to which early school leaving is shaped by school-level factors, and in particular the central role of teachers and pedagogy, in (dis)engaging students. Studies have consistently shown how negative teacher–student relations can dominate the lives of young people, leading to poor attendance and behavioural issues which often culminate in them disengaging, leaving or being expelled from school. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in the role of pedagogical strategies in enhancing teacher–student relations, increasing student engagement and bringing about more socially just systems of education. Using in-depth qualitative interviews with staff working in a school engagement programme aimed at preventing early school leaving (the School Completion Programme) and young people who have left school early and who are now participating in an alternative education setting in Ireland as well as staff in those settings (the National Youthreach Programme), this paper provides a unique comparison of two approaches to learner engagement. Findings highlight the centrality of caring and respectful relationships between teachers and students across the two programmes. This paper suggests that aspects of the ‘productive pedagogies’ framework are being used to overcome barriers by placing equal emphasis on student wellbeing and formal learning. However, both programmes operate outside ‘mainstream’ education, with little scope for integration with the mainstream system. This paper concludes that at the micro level, the programmes are effective in re-engaging young people with education but argues that this has little impact at a broader level, where mainstream school practices impacting on student disengagement and early school leaving remain unchanged.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristīne Liepiņa ◽  
◽  
Lūcija Rutka ◽  

The early school leaving is an important topic in many countries. High early school leaving rates have many costs to individuals and society as a whole (Andrei et al., 2011). State Education Quality Service in Latvia implements European Social Fund Project No. 8.3.4.0/16/I/001 “Support for reducing early school leaving” to reduce the number of children and young people leaving school. The project promotes the creation of a sustainable cooperation system between the municipality, school, educators and parents to identify children and young people at risk of early school leaving and provide them with personalized support. Teacher has great influence on students’ educational decisions (Dunn et al., 2004). The way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in schools is important factor in preventing early school leaving. In order for the teachers to feel confident in their contribution and possible positive solution to the problem, they must have knowledge of the problem and effective solutions. According to the Project teachers are given the opportunity to professionally develop and strengthen their skills for working with young people. The aim of the study is to study the role of a teacher in reducing early school leaving and to reveal the necessary forms of support for the performance of pedagogical activity. Data for this study came from a survey and focus group discussion. 815 teachers participated in the study. Analysis of the data reveals that there are several dimensions in the role of the teacher in reducing early school leaving: creating a favorable and safe learning environment, promoting cooperation with parents and colleagues, improving one’s pedagogical competence, helping students to identify and solve learning and interpersonal problems, and revealing their mental and physical potential. The research results show main areas of professional development of teachers: sharing experience with colleagues and learning from each other, learning student’s individuality at a greater extent, diversification of teaching methods, promoting personal development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Defi Sri Harwati ◽  
Heri Yanto

This research aims to know the descriptive of input, environment, and outcome; analyze the influence of input to outcome; analyze the influence of environment to outcome; analyze the influence of input to environement; and analyze the role of environment in mediating the influence of input to outcome. Student previous achievement consisting of Mathematics and Indonesian National Exam at Junior High School is the educational input. Student engagement consisting of school engagement and class engagement is the educational environment and student accounting competence is the educational outcome. This research was a quantitative research. Data analysis used descriptive and path analysis technique. The total population and sample consists of 128 students of first class accounting. The results and conclusions in this study indicate that accounting competence is still good, student engagement is good, and student previous achievement is very good. There are influences of mathematics National Exam, Indonesian National Exam, school engagement, and class engagement on student accounting competence; there are influences of Mathematics and the Indonesian National Exam on school engagement and class engagement. School engagement mediates the influence of mathematics National Exam on accounting competence, but it does not mediate the influence of the Indonesian National Exam on accounting competence. Then, class engagement mediates the influences of the mathematics and Indonesian National Exam on accounting competencies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 398-411
Author(s):  
Erna Nairz-Wirth ◽  
Marie Gitschthaler

Although there is an extensive body of literature on the causes and consequences of early school leaving (ESL), little is known of how early school leavers cope with their situation after having left the education system. This paper’s main objective is to fill this research gap. At first we look at developments in the social positioning of early school leavers in Austria that show that their situation has deteriorated not only because of changes in the labour market (e.g. due to globalization) but also because of displacement processes that are influenced by habitus formation and capital endowment. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and capital, we explored the situation of young people who had left school early. We used a multi-perspective approach and conducted 123 narrative interviews which we analysed by grouping cases that demonstrated similar social practice and perception patterns generated by a set of socially learned dispositions. Thus we were able to reconstruct a habitus typology consisting of seven different types: the ‘ambitious’, the ‘status-oriented’, the ‘non-conformist’, the ‘disoriented’, the ‘resigned’, the ‘escapist’ and the ‘caring’. How young people experience stigmatization is the common thread that runs through all seven habitus types.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 882-899
Author(s):  
Kathleen Fraysier ◽  
Amy Reschly ◽  
James Appleton

As the economic landscape changes, a college degree has become increasingly necessary for securing employment in an information-based society. Student engagement is an important factor in predicting and preventing high school dropout, and improving student outcomes. Although the relationship between secondary school engagement and high school completion is well supported in existing research, the relationship between secondary school engagement and postsecondary enrollment and persistence is unclear. In this study, we examined whether students’ engagement in high school predicts postsecondary matriculation and persistence in the first year after accounting for demographic and school-level variables. Results indicated secondary student engagement does predict postsecondary enrollment and persistence beyond academic and behavioral variables. Consistent with research among secondary students, the Future Goals and Aspirations Scale of the Student Engagement Instrument was the strongest engagement predictor. Results have implications for early warning systems and college retention efforts.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Dickson

In England, the compulsory age of participation in education or training was raised to 17 in 2013 and then 18 in 2015. In Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, the school leaving age is 16. The idea of raising the age of participation in education or training is gaining traction in the Scottish context, as well as in Wales. The Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) conducted research for the Welsh Government to explore the implications of pursuing this policy in Wales. The research considered how raising the participation age (RPA) might interact with ongoing reforms to school age and post-16 provision in Wales, and explored alternative policies which concentrate on reducing early school leaving as opposed to policies that legally require young people to remain in learning for longer periods of time.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Bills ◽  
Nigel Howard

In this article, we interrogate the policy assumptions underlying a significant South Australian public education re-engagement initiative called Flexible Learning Options, formulated within South Australia’s social inclusion policy agenda, beginning in 2006. To this end, we applied Baachi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ policy analysis framework to a historical range of departmental Flexible Learning Options policy documents and evaluations to uncover how Flexible Learning Options (1) understands the problem of early school leaving, (2) defines the notion of being an ‘at risk’ young person and (3) interprets and enacts the intervention process for young people identified as ‘at risk’ of early school leaving. Our policy analysis indicates re-engagement in learning – as measured by improved retention – to be the key Flexible Learning Options policy driver, with schools ‘silently’ positioned as a significant part of the retention in learning problem. The Flexible Learning Options engagement in learning intervention directed at ‘high-risk’ students’ works to remove them from schools into places where personalised support and an alternative curriculum are made available. ‘Lower risk’ students are given a combination of in-school and off-school learning options. Our What’s the Problem Represented to be? analysis also reveals that (1) the notion of ‘risk’ is embodied within the young person and is presented as the predominant cause of early school leaving; (2) how the educational marketplace could work to promote Flexible Learning Options enrolment growth has not been considered; (3) schools are sidelined as first choice engagement options for ‘high-risk’ young people, (4) secondary school redesign and family intervention as alternative reengagement strategies have largely been ignored and (5) through withdrawal from conventional schooling, the access of many Flexible Learning Options to students to an expansive curriculum delivered by teachers within well-resourced school learning architectures has been constrained.


Author(s):  
John Eric Boberg ◽  
Steven J. Bourgeois

Purpose Greater understanding about how variables mediate the relationship between leadership and achievement is essential to the success of reform efforts that hold leaders accountable for student learning. This multi-source, quantitative study tests a model of integrated transformational leadership including three important school mediators. Design/methodology/approach 5,392 students provided data on student engagement, and 569 teachers provided survey data on principal leadership and the collective teacher efficacy and extra effort of their colleagues. Data were analyzed at the school-level (N = 51) using mediation analysis with the PROCESS macro to calculate the direct and indirect effects of all of the variables in the serial multiple mediator model. Findings The model explained a significant amount of variance in both reading (38%) and mathematics (35%). Collective teacher efficacy and student engagement mediated all of the leadership effects, demonstrating the importance of teacher and student relations in school improvement. The combined effect sizes are significantly greater than the effects of earlier TL models. Originality/value This study contributes to “leadership for learning” research by demonstrating that refining TLBs to include instructional management can enhance a leader's impact on achievement. As one of the few studies to examine student engagement as a mediator along with teacher mediators, the current study highlights the importance of teacher-student relations in school improvement. While collective efficacy mediated all of the effects of leadership on achievement, student emotional engagement also contributed to mathematics achievement. The study’s findings advance research into mutual influence processes, indicating that reciprocity may extend throughout the leader-teacher-student loop.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiguang Li

Education, in essence, is an interactive activity in which teacher and student interactions construct a learning path to raise knowledge. However, it is evident that this learning path is not merely cognitive. Thus, the role of interpersonal relationships should not be taken for granted. Teacher-student relationships are among the salient factors in effective teaching. Factors such as these trigger achievement, motivation, and engagement in students (Martin and Dowson, 2009), with student engagement in particular seeming like the keystone for educational achievement. One relative innovation that promotes student engagement and undertakes more effective learning and deeper knowledge of the materials is flipped learning (Kim, 2017). This theoretical review article was written to enlighten scholars, teachers, and learners with key concepts in interpersonal relations and their roles on student engagement in the context of flipped learning. In this study, some pedagogical implications were presented with the prospect of edifying the practice of teachers, students, and syllabus designers.


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