Closeness in Student-Teacher Relationships: Centering Children’s Perspectives on Connection in the Classroom

Closeness in Student-Teacher Relationships centers children’s perspectives on closeness in the classroom while giving teachers questions they can consider toward cultivating more mutually affirming social and emotional dynamics. Despite many educators’ best efforts, today’s norms around relationship development can be excessively adult-first and inattentive to the wishes, needs, and desires of school-age children. This book looks beyond prescriptive methods for relationship development by modeling accessible practices for internal reflective work and deepened considerations of childhood agency and social power imbalances. Using firsthand observations and interviews in schools, relevant autobiographical perspectives, and a thorough yet accessible evidence base, author Clio Stearns prepares in-service teachers to explore their own vulnerabilities and challenge the prevailing notions of adulthood as a fixed state of knowledge and authority.

Clio Stearns is Assistant Professor of Education at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, USA, and author of Consent in the Childhood Classroom: Centering Student Voices Across Early Years and Elementary Education.