Teacher Student Relationships And Teacher-Student Educational Relationship

The literature reviews aims to investigate the effects that extracurricular activity engagement by teachers has on the teacher-student educational relationship. The review concludes that the positives outweigh the negatives for the teacher-student educational relationship when teachers and students engage in extracurricular activity. It cautions about some of the commitments required from teachers to engage in extracurricular work.

Key words: Teacher, Educational Relationships, Teacher-Student Relationship, Engagement.

Introduction

Time is a precious commodity for teachers. Often teachers are expected to spend more of their time outside of the classroom, engaging in extracurricular activities (Bailey & Colley, 2014). Teachers can

Burnout syndrome has been defined as having three dimensions, physical, mental and emotional exhaustion, (Maslach & Pines, 1984 cited in Saiiari et al., 2011).Teachers have a range of abilities to handle stress and heavy workloads. For those teachers who do not cope well with heavy workkloads and stress, there can be negative impacts on their teacher-student educational relationship (Saiiari et al., 2011). The authors also suggest that teachers who are able to control their emotions are less likely to suffer from burnout syndrome. They give the example of a sports teacher being one of the best teachers at coping and dealing with burnout syndrome (Saiiari et al., 2011). They suggest this is because such teachers enjoy the benefits of having social skills because they are involving and mixing with different types of people throughout their day. The authors did not make any comments in regards to the differing personalitiies and coping strategies of sports

An example is that student’s experience joy and happiness at seeing their sports teacher even before the class begins if they have engaged in or seen that teacher engaging in extracurricular activity with other students. In a New Zealand context Macfarlane (2004) explores this same notion in his work on Manaakitanga and Whanaungatanga. Manaakitanga is developing an ethic of care for students and Whanaungatanga is sharing common interest and values. (Macfarlane, 2004) Extracurricular activity provides a platform for both of these notions to be developed and this helps establish meaningful relationships with students (Macfarlane, 2004). The literature suggests that if teachers are able to cope with the added time pressures that come with engaging in extracurricular activity there can be positives for the relationship that is being built with students. Similarly if they do not, it can have negative connotations for the teacher to student educational relationship and the students’ learning (Eccles, Barber, Stone & Hunt, 2003; Saiiari et al, 2011; Whitely & Richard,