relational competence in schools

The nature of education is
less about knowledge and information, and much more about human relations"
(sidorkin, 2023)

relations are important because

• learning is possible only on a strong relational foundation
• learning is profoundly social
• motivational and cognitive aspects of learning based on relations
• we need good company to learn, if not driven by passion or immediate need
• (sidorkin, 2023)

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• 'The relational skills and social capital students build during their school years determine how happy and successful they are going to be as adults'
• (sidorkin, 2023)

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• Classroom teachers : build teacher-student relationships, but also peer relationships
• see close relationship to motivation in relations

others

• teacher education, principals, policymakers
• build broader accountability frameworks that recognize student experience indicators, at least coequal with cognitive achievements

student well-being

what is relation?

baumeister & leary (1995)

• people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the solution of existing bonds. belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being

relational self-tuning

culture shapes relations

previous view that relations are

it's hard to be smart on your own

pedagogy of relation

relations are not only in dialogue

vygotsky

'there have been no experiments on learning without relations, simply because the latter must always present for the former to occur' (sidorkin, 2023)

jobless economy
'to prepare students for a world of optional labor, we need even stronger connections between students and teachers and among students' (sidorkin, 2023)

MOTIVES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

'new relations are not built from scratch every time you encounter a new person or group' (sidorkin, 2023)

good mother-bad other schema

(sidorkin, 2023, p. N/A)

'some issues of workplace bullying, and relational aggression go back to unresolved relational patterns from adolescence'
(sidorkin, 2023)

family systems, inner parts-work

EDUCATIONAL RELATION

• the teacher should establish safe and secure relations (with and among students)
• and then move beyond safety and security
• both moves equally important
• the interaction and tension is the full breadth of the educational relation
• (sidorkin, 2023)

THE TEACHER SHOULd

dialectic: 'To provide the sense of belonging we should accept students as they are. And yet to accomplish their growth, we should not do that' (sidorkin, 2023)

a relation becomes educational when it acquires a direction

affection and levarage (saveedra)

sidorkin, 2023

role model?

measuring educational relations?

The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures, and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social process it is intended to monitor (campbell, 1976)

relational competence

ability to move, affect, have an impact on - another person and to be moved yourself (jordan, 2004)

'those who act with relational competence make a positive difference to others, making people think and feel in different and more productive ways' (jordan, 2004)

the relationally competent
professional initiates, maintains, strengthens and develops relationships with others (jordan, 2004)

aspelin, 2018

aspelin, 2018

• social approach (working with relationships to achieve a goal)
• relational approach (is a part of relationships, is present with the student, no inherent goal)

relational competence model (aspelin, 2018)

• acting communicatively competent=teacher actions support reciprocal understanding and respect
• differentiation comptent= fosters a space where the student can differentiate from the class as an individual, distance regulation
• socioemotionally comptent= empathy, notices, and cont. interpretation of student's emotional state, responds adequately

how can teachers relational competence be developed?

• collegiate dialogue (evidence based)
• shadowing/observation/mentoring/stimulated recall
• study/research circles
• (aspelin, 2023)

aspelin, 2018

• take an interest in the pupil
• move into the students role
• not stuck in views of who the pupil is
• work for the pupils dvelopment and advancement
• not get stuck in views of own self, professional role or own emotions, feelings and actions
• have positive attitude and remain authentic (cf. sidorkin, 2023)
• be sensitive
• extroversion/introversion
• relationships as goals and means to a goal
• balancing distance and closeness
• professional/personal competency

time and relational labor

johanna.bjorkell(at)abo.fi