The Association between Student-Teacher Relationships and the School Engagement of Looked After Children

Positive student-teacher relationships have been found to promote school engagement and this is acknowledged to play an important role in school achievement.

Looked After Children (LAC) are a vulnerable group at risk of poor educational outcomes and who are likely to have experienced difficult relationships with caregivers.

There is emerging research investigating the link between school based relationships and school engagement, and this study sought to investigate the nature of this relationship in LAC.

A systematic literature review explored the link between peer relationships and student school engagement.

Sixteen studies were included in the review and the synthesis of findings revealed that positive peer relationships were related to increases in school engagement.

Studies also reported specific associations between peer relationships and behavioural and psychological engagement with school. However, limited research with vulnerable groups

was noted. The empirical paper sought to explore the nature of the link between student teacher relationships and the school engagement of LAC.

A mixed methods pproach was adopted to explore the associations between student-teacher relationships and behavioural, academic, cognitive and psychological engagement with school, and to understand pupil views about the role teachers play in their school engagement.

The quantitative component involved 23 students in 10 schools. Multiple regression analyses indicated that increases in the positivity of student-teacher relationships were related to higher levels of psychological and cognitive school engagement.

The qualitative component involved a thematic analysis of student perspectives obtained through semi-structured interviews.

Themes that were identified indicated that students tended to attribute school engagement to internal factors such as motivation to learn and their perceived ability to complete school work.

Findings were discussed in the light of theoretical models and existing literature. The final section provides a critical reflection of the empirical paper and evaluates the research in the light of a pragmatic epistemological standpoint.