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2-077 - Teacher-Child Relationships in the Early Years of Schooling

Fri, March 22, 10:00 to 11:30am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 332

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

There is growing evidence that suggests teacher-child relationships support the development of children’s academic and social-emotional skills, yet little work on how relationships form for children from diverse linguistic and racial backgrounds or how classroom characteristics shape the formation of these relationships during the preschool and elementary school years. Given that young children spend most of their school day within a single classroom, teacher-child relationships may be particularly important in the early years of schooling. There is a need to examine how contextual factors influence the quality and impact of teacher-child relationships and better understand the impact of these relationships for all children. This symposium examines classroom and child characteristics that contribute to teacher-child relationships in the early years of schooling.
The first paper uses a racialized lens to examine classroom quality and teacher-child relationships for children of color compared to white children. The second paper seeks to understand how relational conflict and closeness vary across the school year for children who are multilingual and children who speak only English. Finally, the third paper considers both individual and classroom-level experiences. This paper examines how the benefits of teacher-child relationships vary based on classroom quality.
When taken together, these papers explore how contextual factors influence children’s relationships with their teachers. The symposium increases our understanding of the teacher-child relationships children experience in a variety of contexts. These insights can be applied to support educator understanding and strengthen teacher-child relationships, which may lead to improvements in children’s school experiences and classroom outcomes.

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