Relational Pedagogies

Relational pedagogies place relationships at the heart of good teaching and learning. As shown across multiple fields of educational scholarship, educational interactions and learning exchanges between children and their teachers necessarily exist within the context of an existing relationship. The strength and characteristics of these relationships in turn shape and influence the success of the exchange. Importantly, therefore, relational pedagogy is not simply about making a child or teacher feel happy or content. Rather, it is closely related to the style, quality, and content of education a child receives. Empirical research supports these theoretical claims. Relationship qualities and teacher-child interaction qualities have each long been shown to influence children’s emotional well-being and competence, across early childhood centers and schools, yet there is increasingly strong evidence that they shape cognitive development and learning outcomes too. To ensure equitable educational opportunities for all children, strong and adaptive teacher-child relationships are critical. Given the varied definitions and use of relational pedagogy in the literature, together with a diverse range of relevant research that examines relational concepts, we have attempted to present multiple representative topics and articles across this encyclopedia entry. The topics and articles we feature are not exhaustive, and, indeed, there are likely to be other good ways that one might frame research and theory on relational pedagogies. Where two studies have similar findings, we have intentionally given preference to the more recent study; noting that references from this more recent work are likely to offer the reader the broadest window into the field. We nonetheless also include a number of seminal resources. We also have elected to cite research with robust methodologies where possible, although we note that methodological approaches vary markedly between subfields. Research examining teachers’ perspectives in early childhood centers has often used multiple case studies, for example, while research examining children’s developmental outcomes within particular relationships or following particular interactions is often larger in scale and broader in approach. The majority of research and scholarship on relational pedagogies, student-teacher relationship quality, and interactional processes is conducted with Western societies and cultures: often in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and western Europe. Less research or scholarship has been conducted in other countries, cultures, and subcultures. This is a problem replicated across developmental and educational research broadly, with study participants much more likely to come from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies than from other non-WEIRD societies. While the majority of works in this bibliography are therefore also conducted with Western children and students, we include a section outlining an important body of emerging research and scholarship focused on relational pedagogies in Indigenous, non-Western, and diverse communities.