From the Classroom to the Coffeeshop: Graduate Students and Professors Effectively Navigate Interpersonal Boundaries (original) (raw)

Partners in Learning: A Grounded Theory Study of Relational Practice between Master's Students and Professors

Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 2012

Meaningful academic relationships between adult master's students and their professors can both deepen students' learning and serve as a regenerating force for professors. This study employed grounded theory methods to explore the question, "What goes on in relational practice between master's students and professors?" I interviewed ten matched pairs of recent alumni and professors who identified as having "a meaningful academic relationship." Dimensional analysis surfaced two core dimensions: reconstructing and regenerating. In reconstructing, the students' core dimension reveals the student experience of reconstructing, or understanding more deeply, theory or one's self. In the case of regenerating, the professor's core dimension identifies the professors' experience of "giving back" through their teaching and extending their professional reach by training others. These experiences serve to reinvigorate professors over the course of their careers. In addition, findings in this study resonate with sensitizing concepts including relational cultural theory and relational practice. Finally, the analysis surfaced evidence supporting authentic teaching concepts and connected these concepts to faculty and student learning partnerships.

Identifying Professional Boundaries in the Professor-Student Relationship in the Academic Context

Aim: The present study aimed to identify professional boundaries in the relationship between professors and students through a qualitative content analysis. Hence, 36 (20 students and 16 faculty members) were selected using purposive sampling method with maximum variation. The data were collected through semistructured interviews, and analyzed through inductive content analysis. The rigor of the findings was examined through member check, triangulation, and reflexivity. The results showed that the professional boundaries in the relationship between professors and students include: emotional boundaries (avoiding emotional and romantic relationships and maintaining respectful behavior), communication boundaries (transparency in communication and maintaining privacy), and power boundaries (transparency in power boundaries and avoiding discrimination and differentiation).

Exploring the strategies of faculty-student interactions: A grounded theory study in Iranian academic context

Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 2020

This study sought to explore the strategies students use to navigate faculty-student interactions in an Iranian academic context through using a grounded theory approach. Conceptual framework and theoretical background of the study are based on the social exchange frameworks, student socialization, and social learning theory. Participants were 35 university students and the data were gathered via in-depth interviews. Grounded theory analysis revealed thirteen categories and a core category of "interaction, formation of social capital and students' development" which described the faculty-student interaction strategies and their consequences. The results suggested that faculty-student interactions would occur under causal conditions of faculty-related and course-related contacts. The results also revealed that these interactions were affected by political orientation of faculty and gendered demarcation as contextual conditions in the Iranian academic context. Furthermore, the faculty presence, commuter or residential students, students' psychological characteristics and educational level were found to be the intervening conditions of faculty-student interaction. According to the results, the process of paradigm model comprised action/interaction strategies including academic, professional and personal interactions, trust, and intimacy. Moreover, the results also revealed that the two main consequences of adopting these strategies by the students were collaboration and changes in attitudes.

Community College Faculty: Exploring the Process by which They Determine and Manage Interpersonal Boundaries with Students

2018

Higher education instruction is a relational practice that requires skill, reflection, and intentional effort. Faculty-student relationships are critical to learning. Interpersonal boundaries between community college faculty and students are a dimension of the faculty-student relationship that is under-researched and minimally understood. The purpose of this research was to qualitatively and phenomenologically explore faculty perceptions of their awareness of boundaries between themselves and community college students. Data were collected from seven faculty who work at a large Northwestern community college. Interviews were conducted to explore faculty perceptions of how they become aware of, arrive at, and negotiate change of their interpersonal boundaries between themselves and community college students. Data resulted in themes that gave insight to faculty experience of general boundaries, how course content and teaching strategies reflect their boundaries, and how opportunitie...

Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Graduate Student and Faculty-Advisor Relationship

Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education

The relationship between graduate students and faculty members is a topic of great interest in higher education. While there is a wealth of theoretical and empirical research on the subject, discussions overlook the social dynamics that shape these relationships. This article seeks to fill this gap by presenting a conceptual framework that considers crucial components, including interpretations, reciprocal roles and responsibilities, relational factors, and effects, in analysing graduate student-faculty advisor relationships. By exploring these elements, the article offers a comprehensive framework that accounts for the nuances and limitations of these relationships and provides recommendations for best practices.

Construction and Initial Validation of the Student-Professor Interaction Scale

2004

This article describes the development of an instrument to measure the multiple dimensions of student-faculty interactions. The sample consisted of 318 students (114 males, 203 females; 58% White, 16% African American, 9% Hispanic Americans) who completed the Student-Professor Interaction Scale (SPIS). Eight dimensions were identified, with Cronbach alphas ranging from 51 to .92. Dimensions ofstudent-faculty interactions were related to academic motivation and academic self-conceptfor the majority White sample, but only academic self-concept for the ethnic minority sample. African American and Hispanic American students reported feeling less connected with professors, perceived their experiences with faculty as more negative, and perceived faculty as less respectful when compared to White students. Implications for student affairs research andpractice are discussed. The importance of student-faculty interactions in facilitating the intellectual and personal growth of college students cannot be overstated. Wlodkowski and Ginsberg (1995) make the following observation: "People who feel unsafe, unconnected, and disrespected are unlikely to be motivated to learn. This is as true in college as it is in elementary school" (p. 2). The most utilized assessment of student-faculty interactions, operationalized by 10 items on the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ), focuses on the frequency of interactions with faculty in different situations. While frequency of interactions is certainly one important aspect of student-faculty interaction, it does not include other dimensions that we believe are central in fully conceptualizing and understanding the construct. Therefore, there is a need to develop an instrument that assesses different dimensions of student-faculty interactions. In their influential book Education and Identity, Chickering and Reisser (1993) state that next to peer relations, relationships with faculty are among

Fostering Student-Faculty Relationships in Higher Education

2021

This study investigated the overall quality of the interpersonal relationship students have with faculty and staff, that is, relationship quality. In relationship management research, relationship quality is paramount for the creation of bonds with customers, which in turn is necessary for the sustainability of organizations, that is, continuity and growth. In higher education, it is not only recent changes in the funding of education that urge us to further investigate relationship quality, as students having relational bonds with their teachers and faculty/staff is important as well. We expect that these relationships are expected to influence students' college experiences positively. Although educational literature addresses the importance of student-faculty relationships, little is known about students' perceptions of the quality of their relationship with their program. The aim of this study was, therefore, to get a more in-depth understanding of the concept and measurement of relationship quality within a higher education context. To that end, an existing relationship quality scale was used measuring five dimensions: trust in honesty, trust in benevolence, satisfaction, affective commitment, and affective conflict. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on survey responses of 551 students from a Dutch university of applied sciences. Next to the CFA, a small-scale focus group discussion was held to validate the quantitative findings of students' perceptions of relationship quality. The findings confirm that the relationship quality instrument is an adequate instrument to investigate relationship quality in a higher education context. Additional qualitative results also suggest that students acknowledge the relevance of relationship quality and the need for having a good relationship with their faculty and staff.

Creating contact: Examining the relationship between organizational context and students’ interactions with and perceptions of faculty members

2013

Higher education institutions aim to promote many learning and developmental outcomes for their students, especially for first-year students. Having positive faculty-student contact is one known way to enhance students’ experiences and outcomes. Yet, many institutions struggle to encourage these relationships. Indeed, much of what may influence relationships between faculty and students is not within an institution’s immediate control. Despite this issue, some institutional actions may still have a significant relationship to students’ experiences. This study explores the antecedents of students’ relationships with faculty members, specifically addressing the research questions: 1) How does the organizational context relate to students’ reports of their interactions with and perceptions of faculty members? and 2) Is the relationship of student characteristics and organizational context to students’ reports of frequency of faculty-student interaction the same as their relationship to...

Relational Turning Point Events and Their Outcomes in College Teacher–Student Relationships from Students’ Perspectives

Communication Education, 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacherÁstudent interaction using a relational frame (i.e., describing the studentÁteacher dynamic as inherently relational). Specifically, we focus on turning points and their potential outcomes in studentÁteacher relationships. Students who were able to identify a relational turning point event with a college teacher (n0394) completed open-and closed-ended survey questions about the event, its outcomes, and their learning and motivation. Analysis of participants' responses yielded six meta-level categories of turning point events, most of which were positively valenced: instrumental, personal, rhetorical, ridicule/discipline, locational, and other person. Our analysis also yielded 11 categories of outcomes of relational turning point events. Two of these*changes in willingness to approach the teacher/seek help and changes in perceptions of their relationship with the teacher*were common to personal turning point events. Students who reported positive instrumental, personal, and locational turning point events also reported increased cognitive learning, affective learning, and student motivation following the turning points. Further, students who reported a ridicule/discipline turning point event, the one event type commonly rated negatively, reported decreased cognitive learning, affective learning, and student motivation.