Personal Antecedents of Teachers’ Socioemotional Support for Students

• In Event: Antecedents and Correlates of Teachers’ Relational Work

Abstract

Many studies have confirmed the positive influence of teachers’ socio-emotional support on students’ wellbeing, satisfaction, and motivation. In this case, it is surprising that researchers have rarely asked which teachers are more or less likely to display support for students. Two longitudinal studies addressed this lacuna by examining the role of teachers’ interpersonal orientation. In Study 1, we applied Butler’s (2012) achievement goals for teaching framework to examine the hypothesis that relational goals, defined as teacher strivings to create warm and caring relationships with students, will uniquely predict teacher support, as reported by both teachers and students. In Study 2, we examined teachers’ interpersonal needs and values as potential antecedents of relational goals and supportive teaching.

Methods: In Study 1 280 teachers in Israel completed a measure of Goal Orientations for Teaching (Butler, 2012). Six months later, teachers and middle-school students (N = 1,800) in the classes of 73 of the teachers completed measures of teacher support. In Study 2, a new sample of 338 teachers in Israel completed measures of (a) need for affiliation, need for achievement, and fear of failure, (b) values (Schwartz, et al., 2001) and (c) goals for teaching. They reported on their social support for students several months later.

Results: The results of Study 1 fully supported the predictions. A regression analysis confirmed that relational but not other kinds of achievement goals for teaching predicted teacher reports of their social support for students. HLM analyses of student reports confirmed that (a) perceptions of teacher support differed significantly between teachers and (b) teacher relational goals significantly and uniquely predicted between-teacher variance in student reports of teacher support. Study 2 yielded several novel results. First, as predicted, teacher support for students and teacher relational goals were significantly predicted by need for affiliation (but not by need for achievement or fear of failure) and by self-transcendence (e.g., benevolence, altruism), but not other values. Second, a series of path analyses confirmed that teacher relational goals partially mediated the associations between these socially oriented needs and values and teachers’ social support for students.

Discussion: Taken together, the results showed that teachers’ interpersonal orientation as reflected not only in their motives for teaching, but also in their general motives and values, significantly predicted their social support for students. These results make a novel contribution to a literature that has focused mainly on the consequences for students of teacher support, rather than on examining which teachers tend to be more supportive. They also contribute to research on teacher motivations and practices, which has rarely examined the role of teachers’ general needs and values. Given the importance of teacher support, another fruitful direction might be to examine possible organizational influences (e.g., supportive leadership and peer relations).

Authors

• Ruth Butler, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Limor Shibaz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Liat Levontin, Interdisciplinary Center