Leading Relational Pedagogy (original) (raw)
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2007 AEL: Leading Relational Pedagogy
Viewing teaching and learning through a pedagogic rather than instructional lens gives a broader view of the real work of teachers and school leaders. Relational pedagogy builds on the strong emphasis of the importance of relationships already embedded in the concept of pedagogy and then equips the learners to become partners in their own social/interpersonal education.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, 2023
One could easily argue that the pedagogy of relation is not new: a genealogy of the approach would send us back to the ancient Greek philosophers. However, in recent years relational pedagogy has been taken up in novel and everdeepening ways. It is a response to ongoing efforts at school reform that center on teacher and administrator
Relational Pedagogy, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education
and Keywords One could easily argue that the pedagogy of relation is not new: a genealogy of the approach would send us back to the ancient Greek philosophers. However, in recent years relational pedagogy has been taken up in novel and ever-deepening ways. It is a response to ongoing efforts at school reform that center on teacher and administrator accountability, based on a constraining view of education as the effective teaching of content. In this view, methods, curricula, and high-stakes testing overshadow the human relationship between teacher and student that relational pedagogy theorists place at the center of educational exchanges. When relationships are secondary to content, the result can be disinterested or alienated students and teachers who feel powerless to step outside the mandated curriculum of their school district. Offering an alternative vision of pedagogy in a troubling era of teacher accountability, contemporary relational theorists take inspiration from a range of philosophical writings. This article focuses on those whose work is informed by the concept of caring, as developed by Nel Noddings, with the critical perspective of Paulo Freire, or the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas. Although these approaches to ethical educational relations do not necessarily mesh together easily, the tensions among them can bear fruit that informs our pedagogy. Each student-teacher relationship is a unique pedagogical space: it is a one-on-one teaching situation, a partnership of sorts, that can lead to learning exchanges that enliven both individuals. However, in the United States, ongoing efforts at school reform and a culture of teacher and administrator accountability take a limited view of pedagogy as the effective teaching of mandated content. This approach is particularly troubling in an era of deeply inequitable educational access, resources, and outcomes that disproportionately affect the poor and students of color. Further, student demographics
Relational pedagogy: putting balance back into students' learning
The purpose of schooling is typically seen in terms of preparing future citizens to participate in society, ensuring that students can take their place in the world of work, and encouraging personal development and a sense of wellbeing in each student. However, in spite of this espoused balance of the social, cognitive and affective domains of learning, cognitive learning is usually over-emphasised to the detriment of the other domains. Schools should not lose sight of their purpose to develop all aspects of the child. We propose that there are models and strategies that will enhance students' learning while also preparing them more effectively for living and working in society. Relational pedagogy: changing the school and classroom culture The relational pedagogy approach treats relationships as the foundation of good pedagogy, building on the strong emphasis on relationships already embedded in pedagogy itself (MacNeill and Silcox, 2006). Relational pedagogy equips learners to become partners in their own education for life. At the same time, it recognises that building relationships without improved student learning across all of the dimensions of education does not constitute good pedagogy. Relational pedagogy suggests three practices that can be used to change the classroom culture. While each one can stand alone, they complement each other in creating a safe, interesting and dynamic classroom environment. Reflective behaviours Studies across the globe indicate that children have a growing deficit of emotional skills. As a result, behaviour management has become an issue in most classrooms. The reflective behaviours approach to teaching and learning aims to reverse this trend by empowering students to control their learning environment and take responsibility for their learning, through a culture that is highly conducive to student-centred learning. The classroom environment should allow students to develop conflict resolution skills to deal with inappropriate behaviours. It should encourage students to take risks in dealing with off-task behaviour from other students. At the same time, students must be made aware that all class members require different
Relational Pedagogy and Democratic Education
New Perspectives on Education for Democracy, 2021
Approaches to learning and teaching cast under the designation of 'relational pedagogy' provide the focus of this chapter. We argue that democratic education is most apparent in the moment of encounter between students and teachers. When deliberative negotiation of learning occurs and recognition is given to the mutuality of the pedagogical encounter, moves towards a democratic education are established. For this pedagogic deliberation to occur, the formation of meaningful relationships between students and teachers is fundamental. By meaningfully coming into relation and setting about the task of negotiating how learning should proceed, teachers and students give credence to the immediacy of the moment-to the immediacy of the pedagogical encounter-and the effects exerted by the context within which this relationship is activated. This chapter asserts that it is in these terms that relational pedagogies actively resist the normalising effects of dominant expressions of schooling typical of this present moment-approaches to schooling that preface reductive, decontextualized, 'one size fits all' logics-to instead provoke recognition of the idiosyncratic, in-the-moment character of learning. It is in these moments that deliberation and negotiation become crucial to learning and expose formations of a democratic education that positions the relational at its core.
Expanding Educational Leadership Theories through Qualitative Relational Methodologies
Magis, Revista Internacional de Investigación en Educación
Educational leadership is conceptualised through a relational framework and empirically understood through qualitative relational methodologies such as relational ethics, ethics of care and narrative inquiry. Empirical data from narrative interviews revealed that in many cases where the school principals honed values such as care and relational attributes in their daily leadership practices, learners were more likely to respond to such relational and caring practices, which they witnessed and experienced. It appears that relational methodologies can elicit relational leadership styles, which set caring and supportive examples for both teachers and learners, adding much worth to a favourable educational landscape.
Pedagogical Relational Teachership-A Multi-Relational Perspective
2018
This paper presents a new theoretical multi-relational perspective, Pedagogical Relational Teachership (PeRT), which can support the development of new knowledge about teachers’ relational proficiencies. In the field of inclusive education, PeRT can address relational challenges in today’s schools by focusing on interpersonal relationships and relational values. It is a radical alternative that explores teaching conditions to enable subjectification, so that students can emerge as unique subjects. Through a relational-oriented approach, the spotlight is directed towards students’ participation in their education. From a pedagogical perspective, PeRT uses a three-dimensional model highlighting interpersonal relationships at micro, meso, and macro levels within the educational system. The first dimension is based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The second dimension includes a model which highlights different aspects of relational teachership. This part of the model is in...
Key Indicator Taxonomy of Relational Teaching
Ljungblad, A-L. (2022). Key Indicator Taxonomy of Relational Teaching, Journal of Education for Teaching, , 2022
How teachers relate to their students when they teach can contribute to a deeper and more coherent relational understanding of teaching as an interpersonal profession. This article presents a key indicators' taxonomy of relational teaching. Within the theoretical perspective of teaching called Pedagogical Relational Teachership a taxonomy to inquiry the relational dimension of the teaching profession is developed. The concept of relational teaching is categorised into a model under the themes of Tact and Stance and then further organised into six smaller units. These six relational key indicators can be used by empirical researchers to capture and illuminate the ongoing relational processes between teachers and students on a micro-level, as well as support pre-service and inservice teachers to create sustainable and trustful relationships with their students. Finally, the article discusses how this nuanced taxonomy can be applied in practice and research to cultivate the relational proficiencies of teachers in the twenty-first century.