Student engagement and teacher-student relationships in upper secondary school

Abstract

For students to succeed at school it is important that they actively participate at school, feel that they belong to their school, and find their studies meaningful. It is therefore of concern that a large group of students, especially during adolescence, see little point in their studies and find school boring. Scholars believe that the negative development of student engagement, which takes place during adolescence and places them at risk of dropping out, may be traced to the changes of the school environment at upper secondary level (see Eccles et al., 1993). The schools are larger than at the previous school level, the social environment is significantly more complex, students have different teachers every semester and do not have a supervising teacher as they were accustomed to in lower secondary school. It has been suggested that this more complex and impersonal school environment does not adequately meet the needs of adolescents for relatedness, but research is lacking (Connell & Wellborn, 1991; Quin, 2017).

The aim of the study is to shed light on teacher-student relationships at the upper secondary school level and how the students’ experience shapes their engagement with study and school. The analysis seeks to define the aspects of these relations that increase engagement. The objective is to give teachers and other educators deeper insights into student experience, offering a richer understanding of teacher-student relations for enhancing school success.

This study is a part of a larger ongoing, qualitative study: Showing up to school. Student engagement with their studies at upper secondary school and COVID-19. The focus is on the experience of fifteen students in different upper secondary schools. Participants were selected by purposeful sampling and snowball sampling. The interviews were semiopen and based on an interview framework about students' experience of their upper secondary schooling (Qu & Dumay, 2011). The data were analysed using a thematic approach building on the six-step analysis of Braun and Clarke (2006). The study took place during restrictions due to COVID-19, which provides a unique opportunity to highlight students’ experiences of connecting with teachers in the classroom on the one hand and through a computer screen on the other. With increasing emphasis on distance learning it is important to be aware of how it serves students’ needs during adolescence and what effect it has on school engagement.

Three main themes were identified in the young people’s experience of positive social interactions between teachers and students. They are 1) that the teacher seeks to create a relationship with students, 2) that the care and support of the teacher enhances students’ well-being, and 3) that the teacher’s encouraging presence is an impetus for learning. Additionally, from the standpoint of the participants, it was clear how important a close and informal relationship with teachers was for their engagement with school and their studies. The students described how strong connections with teachers had a positive influence on their learning habits, attitudes, and ambition with regards to their studies and feelings of belonging to school. However, they experienced that they had less access and opportunities to establish relationship with their teachers in comparison to lower secondary school. The study also shows that although students felt that many teachers had done their best when transferring classroom teaching to distance teaching, they missed the “conventional” interactions with their teachers. The distance learning had a negative effect on the close and personal relationship with the teachers that the students value.

Although the relationship between teachers and students changes as students grow older (Crosnoe et al., 2004; Roeser et al., 1998), our main findings indicate the significance of paying closer attention to the unique role of teachers at upper secondary school level and highlights how meaningful it is for the students to feel related to their teachers. Additionally, our findings show how important a nurturing relationship between teachers and students on personal and face-to-face level is for students’ engagement towards school and their studies which is considered vital to their educational success.