THE POWER of TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS in DETERMINING STUDENT SUCCESS a DISSERTATION in Education Presented to the Faculty O
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CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by University of Missouri: MOspace THE POWER OF TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS IN DETERMINING STUDENT SUCCESS A DISSERTATION IN Education Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION by MICHAEL DAVID CAMP B.S.E., University of Kansas, 1993 M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1998 Ed.S., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2000 Kansas City, Missouri 2011 ii THE POWER OF TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS IN DETERMINING STUDENT SUCCESS Michael David Camp, Candidate for the Doctor of Education Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2011 ABSTRACT The purpose of this ethnomethodological exploratory descriptive case study was to investigate and understand teacher perceptions of the relationships between teachers and students and how those teachers perceive relationships affect student academic performance and behavior in a small town elementary school. The relationship between a teacher and a student is defined as a formalized interpersonal association between an authority figure and a subordinate who interact on nearly a day to day basis. A cross-case analysis of five individual case studies of elementary grade classroom teachers teaching in a 500 student preschool through fifth grade predominately Caucasian middle-income small town school located approximately an hour from a large Midwestern metropolitan city was used to investigate the following research questions: (a) What teacher and student behaviors do teachers perceive contribute most directly to developing and maintaining positive and supportive teacher- student relationships? (b) To what extent do teachers perceive their interactions with students influence the academic and behavioral success of students in their classrooms? (c) How do teachers perceive their interactions with students influence their students’ future academic and behavioral success? (d) How do teachers perceive school culture affects student behavior and academic performance and achievement? Through analysis of teacher interviews, classroom observations, and participant journals, four predominate themes were determined: iii (a) relationships; (b) culture; (c) high quality instruction; and (d) behavior management. The data from this study showed that these teachers believe that there is value in forming and maintaining positive and supportive relationships with their students in providing for their students’ academic achievement and behavioral success. The data also showed that these teachers feel the classroom and school culture influences academics and behavior and believe it is important to understand and respond to individual student cultures. These teachers all spoke of and wrote about the importance of planning high quality instruction in providing for academic and behavioral success and high quality instruction was observed in each teacher’s classroom. These teachers felt a system-wide positive behavior management plan and classroom management procedures that taught students how to behave and supported positive behavior through student accountability also was important in providing for academic and behavioral success. - iv APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the School of Education, have examined a dissertation titled “The Power of Teacher-Student Relationships in Determining Student Success,” presented by Michael David Camp, candidate for the Doctorate of Education degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance. Supervisory Committee Donna Davis, Ph.D., Committee Chair Department of ULAPSIE Loyce Caruthers, Ph.D. Department of ULAPSIE Jennifer Friend, Ph.D. Department of ULAPSIE Sue Thompson, Ph.D. Department of ULAPSIE v CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................. xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... xiii PREFACE .............................................................................................................................. xiv Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY .................................................................................1 Purpose Statement ..............................................................................................1 Problem Statement .............................................................................................3 No Child Left Behind.............................................................................6 The Achievement Gap ...........................................................................8 Dropout Rates ......................................................................................10 Need for the Study ...........................................................................................14 Research Questions ..........................................................................................16 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................17 Overview of Methodology ...............................................................................20 Theoretical Traditions ..........................................................................21 Setting ..................................................................................................23 Participants ...........................................................................................23 Sampling Techniques ...........................................................................23 Data Collection ....................................................................................23 Data Analysis .......................................................................................24 Summary ..........................................................................................................25 vi 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................27 No Child Left Behind.......................................................................................31 Democratic Schooling ......................................................................................36 Social Justice ........................................................................................43 The Achievement Gap .....................................................................................48 Minority Achievement Gap .................................................................48 Teacher Perceptions and Expectations.....................................48 Gender Achievement Gap ....................................................................53 Culture..............................................................................................................54 School Culture .....................................................................................55 Hegemony ............................................................................................57 Reculturing School...............................................................................59 Constructivism .....................................................................................60 Student Culture ....................................................................................64 Cultural Knowledge and Competence .................................................66 Multiculturalism ...................................................................................69 Teacher-Student Relationships ........................................................................73 Teacher Effectiveness ..........................................................................81 Student Motivation...............................................................................83 Student Engagement ............................................................................87 Teacher Feedback ................................................................................90 Differentiated Learning ........................................................................95 Classroom Management.......................................................................98 vii Effective Discipline ...........................................................................100 3: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................................................105 Preliminary Research Questions ....................................................................105 Rationale for Qualitative Research ................................................................106 Theoretical Traditions ....................................................................................109 Case Study .........................................................................................110 Ethnomethodology .............................................................................113 Narratology ........................................................................................115 Portraiture ..........................................................................................116 Design of the Study ........................................................................................117