Find out about various types of relationships between teachers and students and think about your own relationship with your students.

1. Types of Relationships
Between Teachers and
Students
Ecaterina Albu, MA
Department of Germanic Linguistics and Intercultural
Communication, MSU

3. Do you like your
students?

4. Name 3 reasons why you always
like your students
 1.
 2.
 3.

5. Name 3 reasons why you don’t
always like your students
 1.
 2.
 3.

6. Name 3 reasons why you don’t
always like your students
 Do you sometimes consider some of
them hopeless or “unteachable”?
 Do they fail to be aware of the necessity
to study?
 Do they irritate you by their behaviour?
 ???

7. How do you manage that?

8. "They don't pay me to like the
students."

9. Kids don't learn from
people they don’t like.
Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, TED speaker

10. A great number of models of
student-teacher relationship
They mostly depend on:
Age level and expertise of learners
Type of educational institution
discipline

11. Best teacher-student relationship?

12. Could you name some of the
ROLES of the teacher in
relationship with the
students?

13. Some of the teacher roles
 Controller
 Assessor
 Corrector
 Organizer
 Prompter
 Resource
 Facilitator
 Source of
expertise
 Counsellor
 Listener
 Guide
 Administrator
 Negotiator
 Participant
 Catalyst
 Supporter
 Actor
 Instructor

14. 1. Paternalistic (Authoritarian) Teacher
 provides for a person’s basic needs without
giving them autonomous, decision-making
authority
 will make decisions for the student
 determine what information will be provided
 provide only as much information as the parent
thinks best for the student.
 tends to act in what they perceive as the best
interest of the student, regardless of what the
student actually perceives as his/her own best
interests

15.  Parents must produce changes in
their children, else they die for lack
of physical change known as
growth.
 Children left unfed will not prosper
or long survive.
 Parents attend to the needs of their
offspring before such are known or
appreciated by their progeny.
 Educators must produce changes in
their students, else they “die”, in
an intellectual, cognitive and
academic sense, for lack of the
cognitive change known as
intellectual growth.
 Students left untaught will not
prosper in society, or even survive,
lacking the basic tools of social
interaction.
 Educators attend to the needs of
their learners before such needs
are known or appreciated by their
students.
 Educators, at least those who
attempt to be responsible
educators, make their best
judgments as to how to best serve
the needs of their students for
intellectual development or
growth.

16.  A student signing up for an introductory
linguistic course may not understand the
importance of linguistic notions
(language, speech, thought), or the
content of this type of course, and thus
must rely on the instructor to make
curricular choices in their best interest.

17. So what is the problem then?
 Adult learners, while in possession of the emotional and
cognitive capacities which signal informed consent and
autonomy, are still lacking the intellectual capacity to
decide the content of their studies
 All teachers make decisions regarding course content
and pedagogical methodology. This means that we are
deciding what our students SHOULD know, what sorts of
criteria we use for assessing that knowledge, the format
for inquiry and discussion, and the claim that this
knowledge will benefit them.
 In making the informed choice to attend college,
students are implicitly giving institutions the right to
determine curricular programs and standards, and giving
individual faculty members the right to set content and
methodology in the classroom.

18. Problem:
 most mature adults do not want to be treated as
if they were children
 becomes most problematic, if not downright
insulting, when used with adults
 in higher education there is often need for the
learner to surrender decision making authority
to the educator
 the educator, who assumes the responsibility for
the learner when making decisions on behalf of
the learner, must aim to both benefit the
learners and protect the learner from harm

19. 2. The Therapist Teacher is In:
Pedagogy as Therapy
 What would be an intellectual pathology
to be addressed through formal
education?
 As humans are born ignorant and without
skills, the normal natal condition of a
human cannot be viewed as a
pathological condition. So where would
be the need for a cure?

20. Pedagogy as Therapy
Physician Educator
Bacterial Infection Incorrect Belief
Viral Infection or Genetic Disposition Incorrect Information
Injury
Incapacitating Habit of
Mind

21.  A belief held that is not supported by evidence and has
counter-evidence in abundance available to the believer
would be an "incorrect" belief.
 An educator can identify such beliefs and then attempt to
remedy them if there is an available therapy in the form of
counter evidence, or the presentation of other beliefs
held by the learner.
 Placing incorrect information in proper context and
providing the needed correctives
 Each person "inherits" a great deal of information
inherited from the social environment. Not all of it is
accurate and much of it can be false.
 Education can change ideas that a person inherits or that
have been "given" as true.
Pedagogy as Therapy

22. The problem of the “doctor”?
 focusing more on the disease or organ
system than on the person who is ill =
focusing on the content of the curriculum
rather than on the development and
growth of the learner

23. 3. Priestly Teacher
 Not just an expert in education or a professional
field of study, but a supposed expert in morality
and life in general
 Full of certainty concerning the the ultimate
goals of the instructional program and the sort
of person to be produced
 makes many decisions as to what is in the best
interests of the learners

24. The problem of the soul-saver?
 the faith of the educator in the ideal person as
conceived by the educator
 The priest is building character while teaching
SOME subject matter.
 The priest is turning out the perfect member of
the congregation => the educator is seen as
infallible
 The process of inquiry is replaced with
indoctrination and training

25. 4. Employee Teacher
(less Authoritarian)
 opposing alternative to the paternalistic
approach
 educators consider themselves to be contracted
employees and the person in need of assistance
is the employer who contracts for certain
services to be supplied by the educator.
 no obligation of the one toward the other
beyond that of employer to employee.

26. The problem?
 Most educators are not willing to see
themselves and simply employees of the student
and obliged to do only what they are instructed
to do by those students.
 Teachers think of themselves as more
knowledgeable about the student’s condition
and thus in a better position to make decisions
concerning instruction than the learner.
 “I know what you need, I am the specialist and
you only need my services”

27. 5. Collegial Teacher
(non-authoritarian)
 Educator as a colleague of the recipient of
instruction - as an equal
 basic relationship which attempts to be non-
authoritarian in as much as neither party has a
position of power over the other.
 meets and shares a common concern for the
intellectual and vocational well being of the
person seeking assistance.
 discusses the situation, considers the options
available and reaches a decision as to the most
appropriate and desirable course of instruction.

28. The problem?
 Educators are not the equal of the
recipient of education in terms of
knowledge and skills.
 Students don’t see themselves on equal
footing with those who they teach.

29. 6. Contractual Teacher
(non-authoritarian)
 educator as a party to a contract with the
recipient of instruction to perform services.
 If both agree to terms there is a contract.
 The educator is obliged to do only what is
stated in the contract and the recipient of the
service must in turn provide remuneration as
stated in the contract.

30.  parties to the contract usually have
different educational backgrounds and
knowledge of the intellectual condition of
the potential student.
 It is difficult, if not impossible, to arrange
a fair contract between parties who are
so unequal in their knowledge and
interests.
The problem?

31. 7. Entertainer Teacher
(Edu-tainer)
 Keeps students interested and entertained
during lectures and discussions
 This plays a valuable role in post-secondary
education
 Entertainers are often beloved by students, and
rank very high on student evaluations.
 Students flock to their courses, and they achieve
celebrity status on campus.

32.  Only a presenter of inert facts instead of taking seriously
their responsibilities as facilitators of informed and critical
thought
 “edu-tainers” can pose a significant threat to the integrity
of the profession: if post-secondary education is to be
conceived of as the entertaining transmission of facts, the
fundamental mission of the academy is lost.
 while engaging in presentation, they disengage from their
students.
 Professors who are entertaining AND who strive to
achieve the goal of informed and critical thought meet
the ethical obligations of the profession. But so are
instructors who, while not pedagogically “exciting,” are
cultivating the minds of their students in a variety of other
ways.
 Entertainment and education are not mutually exclusive.
The problem?

33. 8. Covenantal Teacher
 educators seeing themselves as involved in a covenant
with a deity or society itself and OBLIGED to society to
render care unto its members in return for what society
had provided to the educators.
 key elements: promise and fidelity to the promise –
“Canon of Loyalty and Fidelity”
 In this model the educator has received a gift of the
knowledge and skills needed to practice the art of
teaching. In return the educator has made a promise to
pay off a debt in return for what was provided to prepare
them to be a member of the profession of education.
 ethical “aim” - not mere proficiency, but genuine care
about the intellectual development of learners.

34.  There are not many educators who are ready to
acknowledge any indebtedness to society (see
also below) and the obligation to provide service
to others in return.
 Why should education be anything more than
another job?
The problem?

35. Which is the best relationship?

36. There is NO universal solution.
Or it is… adapt and switch.

37.  Let’s be aware when to switch roles
 Let’s teach the student, not the
lesson
 Let’s believe in our students and
actually connect with them on a
real, human, personal level

38. TED talk: Rita Pierson
“Every kid needs a champion”
 http://
www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid

39. Ikigai (Japanese) – the reason of being
Let teaching become your ikigai