The importance of educators building relationships with students

The importance of educators building relationships with students and its impact on their identity development and their academic success
Explore the importance of educators building relationships with students
and their influence on identity development. Modern times have never experienced most of the challenges
presented recently worldwide affecting education and the learning communities developed from the portable
classrooms across campus to the auditorium lecture halls of our fine Universities and Colleges. There’s
simultaneous gifts and burdens being placed on all involved in learning. On one hand we have the ability to
connect with our students and their parents in real time over the internet in times of crisis, so the learning
keeps happening despite a global pandemic. At the same time, however, we see social distancing and political
uprising causing more and more people to feel disconnected from each other and experience more and more
symptoms like conditions related to mental health concerns. The role of a teacher can be very similar to one of
an employer for students. The expectations and social norms created in a classroom setting can very well set
the stage for students after high school regardless of if they go on to college or not. How do we determine the
best ways to embolden strong positive relationships with students that can begin as the seed in a classroom
and eventually blossom into positive attitudes about learning and taking part in creating mutually respectful
learning and living areas around us?
What you will want to do as you develop the topic is to look at literature on the concept of identity development
across the school years, specifically, elementary and middle school. What are the components of and
influences on identity development? And then explore literature describing how teachers, counselors, coaches,
etc. impact identity development. The focus is on one’s identity as a “learner,” so that focus might also guide
the search for informative literature on the topic.