As today’s student population becomes more and more diverse, the challenges for teachers to build strong relationships with each and every student in their classroom also increase. We know well the consequences for students’ development and learning when students’ need for caring relationships with teachers becomes thwarted. However, less is known about the consequences of strained relationships for teachers. Emerging research suggests that emotional experiences of helplessness, inefficacy, or suppressed anger in dyadic teacher-child relationships could threaten teachers’ emotional stability in the classroom and seriously impact teachers’ well-being. As the quality of teacher-student relationships rests on the well-being of teachers, I will argue that caring for teacher-student relationships implies caring for teachers. This caring for teachers requires a deep understanding of the cognitive-emotional processes in dyadic teacher-student relationships. To support this caring for teachers in practice, I will present examples from dyad-focused intervention research showing how we can become “critical friends” to teachers, encouraging and supporting teachers in building, restoring, and maintaining caring relationships with all students in their class.

Jantine Spilt1
1 Research Institute of Child Development and Education, Universiteit van Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, Netherlands

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