Knowing Kids Makes a Huge Difference: Advancing a Conceptual Framework for the Principal-Student Relationship

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring the Ways in Which Principals Affect Student Learning

Abstract

This paper submission is a summary of an exploratory study of the principal-student relationship (PSR). We know that improving students’ relationships with teachers has important, positive and long-lasting implications for building trust, increasing motivation and engagement, and improving both behavior and academic achievement, and we know that principals have the second most significant effect on students. So, what about principals’ relationships with students? As the PSR is an understudied phenomenon, the authors conducted a qualitative narrative inquiry of the PSR in order to describe more nuanced implications and deeper understandings of the influence and impact of the phenomenon. The findings of the study are presented and a new framework for viewing the PSR is offered.

Authors

• Jamie Kudlats, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Kathleen M. Brown, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill