An Intersectionality Framework on the Role of Student-Teacher Relationships on Student Social Outcomes

This research aimed to build on the great wealth of knowledge on student-teacher relationships, social competence, and peer outcomes while utilizing a different approach integrating race and gender. The view of intersectionality may influence those who join in reading this research to consider race coupled with student gender as a strong influence affecting the formation of a relationship as instrumental as the student-teacher relationship. In a sample of 10,886 (8489 White, 2397 Black) students from third to fifth grade, the research completed three aims: characterizing the relationship between teacher rated closeness and conflict and students’ social outcomes in fourth and fifth grades; to establish whether the students’ race and gender contributed to student-teacher closeness and conflict and their mediating effect on students’ outcomes; to determine whether there was a mediating role of students’ social self-perception in the fourth grade on the effects of third-grade teacher-rated closeness and conflict on fifth-grade social outcomes. The following findings emerged from the study: (a) there is a longitudinal effect of early student-teacher relationships on longitudinal social outcomes; (b) Black boys and girls experience adverse variability in student-teacher relationships; (c) student-teacher relationships do not relate to Black students’ views on social self-perception; (d) social self-perception mediates teacher-rated conflict and social outcomes in the fifth grade; (e) the view of intersectionality is supported. The findings represent a unique contribution from a perspective of intersectionality applied within the classroom context, considering the power dynamic between the teacher and the student and its influence on social outcomes