1. 72 z Principal Leadership z september 2010
in my opinion in my opinion in my opinion
The Key to
Success
What students think
about their education
is determined by
the quality of their
relationships with
their teachers and
administrators.
By Julia E. Britt
Julia E. Britt (julia.britt@pecps.k12.va.us) is
an assistant principal of Prince Edward County
Middle School in Farmville, VA.
S
tudents’ relationships with their
teachers are a primary indicator
of how they view their educa-
tion. As Blankstein, Cole, and Houston
(2007) said, “Relationships are the key
to any success you might have in your
school or organization” (p. 97). Many
students have positive relationships
with their teachers; others, like this
former middle school student, have
troubled relationships that affect their
schooling and haunt them afterwards.
But as Werner and Smith (1992)
stated, “A caring relationship with a
caring adult enables at risk youth to
make life-altering changes” (p. 201).
Barriers
Unfortunately, barriers to building
such relationships exist. The Empow-
ered School District Project, a three-
year study funded by the Danforth
Foundation, looked at the relation-
ships between teachers and students
(Short & Greer, 2002). Teachers who
are empowered by their administra-
tors to make school decisions tend to
empower their students by allowing
students to make instructional and
learning decisions in the classroom.
This builds trusting relationships
that take learning and teaching to a
whole new level. But the teachers
in the study exhibited a pattern of
resistance to sharing decision making
in the classroom with students. The
teachers’ sense of ownership impeded
their ability to allow students to gain
empowerment through shared deci-
sion making.
Blankstein (2004) noted that the
challenge is to get the student’s lives
interwoven into the process of ensur-
ing student achievement. Teachers are
not always equipped to deal with the
level and seriousness of the problems
students bring to school, however,
and may jump to the conclusion that
such problems inhibit the students’
ability to learn, which is not true at
all. Blankstein suggested that opportu-
nities in which students and teach-
ers can see each other and interact
outside of the school setting will help
them build solid relationships.
Gorton, Alston, and Snowden
(2007) wrote that teachers often base
their authority on their knowledge
of pedagogy and the subject matter
and believe that they have complete
control over students. Gorton et al.
challenged educators to rethink their
current ideas of authority and who
controls what in schools. Hoy and
Miskel (2008) offer a formal look at
how school leaders and teachers look
at control of students at the build-
ing level. In the traditional model,
custodial culture is the norm. This is
My relationships with my middle
school teachers were kind of on the
rocks, because teachers were always
out for me. It all started with my
sixth-grade teacher. She would just
pick me out [of] the whole group of
people who were talking and tell me
to shut up or be quiet. She would
constantly write me up. It got so
bad that I dreaded going to school.
I would act sick or make myself
get sick. When I went to school, I
would get suspended so I would
not have to deal with her. She was
best friends with the other teacher I
had a problem with. She would yell
at me worse than my sixth-grade
teacher. I used to go home and cry
and scream in a pillow until I fell
asleep. My grades got worse and
worse.
—A former middle
school student
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2. september 2010 z Principal Leadership z 73
Is the classroom teacher
centered, with the teacher
in charge of making all
decisions? Or is it a student-
driven classroom, where
students not only have a
voice in the curriculum but
also have the only voice?
Both ends of the classroom
dominance spectrum are
extreme; the solution is to
find a happy balance.
an unyielding, highly controlled cul-
ture in which maintaining order and
authority over students are the focus.
The opposite is true when the school
is viewed as a professional learning
community in which cooperation and
teaming are the focus and students
have experience in helping make deci-
sions about classroom learning. This
model requires two-way communica-
tion between students and teachers, a
democratic atmosphere, and increased
self-determination among students.
Good Classroom
Relationships
Leitão and Waugh (2007) identified
three overlying themes that foster
relationships between teachers and
students: connectedness, communica-
tion, and availability. Common sense
indicates that teachers who have
warm and caring attitudes toward
students foster good relationships.
Students are more likely to respond
positively to teachers who make an
effort to get to know all students,
for example by standing at the door
and greeting them as they enter the
classroom.
Think about it—would you want
to be taught by an instructor who
greets you by name or one who mere-
ly starts talking without any person-
alization? Students, like adults, want
to feel a sense of belonging. Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs certainly states the
underlying theory in this building of
classroom relationships. First all the
students’ basic needs must be met;
then they must feel a sense of belong-
ing for real learning to take place.
It is also important to give stu-
dents a voice in classroom decisions.
“Classroom dominance” seems like
a negative term; in fact, it is not.
It refers to who is in charge in the
classroom. Is the classroom teacher
centered, with the teacher in charge
of making all decisions? Or is it a
student-driven classroom, where
students not only have a voice in the
curriculum but also have the only
voice? Both ends of the classroom
dominance spectrum are extreme; the
solution is to find a happy balance. I
suggest starting small and building the
level of student voice so that students
and teachers can have productive
discussions about what will be learned
and how.
Most of you reading this are think-
ing, “Oh, yeah, right! The state or local
school board dictates our curriculum.”
I challenge that thinking. Say you have
a set curriculum, such as teaching
about the watershed system; teachers
have a pretty good idea what students
need to show that they know about
that topic.
The decision of how to teach it
is now an area in which the students
can give some input. The teacher can
ask students about how they would
like to learn and write those ideas on
the board, such as getting real water
samples, drawing maps of the water-
shed, writing to local experts, and so
on. Now learning becomes personal-
ized. It starts to mean something
to students; they become engaged
and enthusiastic. This excitement is
shared outside the classroom with
families, who hear about the “cool”
things students are discovering about
watersheds or whatever subject they
are studying.
Outside Forces
Communication that takes place out-
side the classroom can be as powerful
as discussion in the classroom. Teach-
ers who allow students to contact
them outside the classroom have
Photocourtesyofauthor

3. 74 z Principal Leadership z september 2010
more influence over the direction of
students’ learning. Technology can
be the tool to make this relationship
work. When I was teaching, and in a
few instances as an administrator, I
have given out my personal cell phone
number to students. To this day, I get
a text message every now and then
from students whom I coached on a
particular academic team, asking how
I am doing and what new educa-
tional project I am working on. In my
experience, students do not abuse
this privilege. Social networking of-
fers a new way to communicate with
students.
The future in education may
well include creating social network-
ing groups to foster teacher-student
relationships. Is it possible to separate
personal networks from school-based
network accounts? Of course. The key
to doing this successfully would be in
making password-protected accounts
for the students and having them
sign contracts that have clear rules.
Imagine if the former middle school
student from the beginning of this
article could have texted his feelings
to his teachers before the situation
reached such a crisis; would this have
changed his relationships with his
teachers? Maybe.
More Important Than Ever
When I became a school administra-
tor, I was worried that I would not be
able to re-create the types of relation-
ships that I had built with students
when I was a classroom teacher. But
I was amazed at how responsive
students were to my overtures. I make
a point to greet as many students as
in my opinion in my opinion in my opinion
possible every morning. I try to notice
if students have a new haircut or look
nice and I offer positive comments. I
discuss student learning with students.
Positive exchanges build student-
teacher relationships that weave
together school leadership and student
achievement. With the increase of
teacher accountability, relationships
in the classroom are more important
than ever. When students have posi-
tive working relationships with teach-
ers and other adults in the school,
students will take ownership of their
learning and, in turn, achieve much
more. PL
References
n Blankstein, A. (2004). Failure is not an
option. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
n Blankstein, A., Cole, R., & Houston, P.
(2007). Engaging every learner. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
n Gorton, R., Alston, J. A., & Snowden, P.
(2007). School leadership and administra-
tion. Boston, MA: McGrawHill.
n Hoy, W. K., & Miskel, C. J. (2008).
Educational administration theory, research,
and practice. New York, NY: McGrawHill
Higher Education.
n Leitão, N., & Waugh, R. W. (2007).
Teachers’ views of teacher-student relation-
ships in primary school. Paper presented
at 37th Annual International Educational
Research Conference, Freemantle, Western
Australia.
n Short, P. M., & Greer, J. T. (2002). Lead-
ership in empowered schools: Themes from
innovative efforts (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.
n Werner, E. E., & Smith, R. S. (1992).
Overcoming the odds: High risk children
from birth to adulthood. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press.
The future in education
may well include creating
social networking groups
to foster teacher-student
relationships. Is it possible
to separate personal
networks from school-
based network accounts?
Of course.
Photocourtesyofauthor