Teacher–child relationship quality in early childhood education: the importance of relationship patterns

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine kindergarten teachers' and children's perceptions of their relationships following a person-centred approach, and to describe patterns of relationships between them. 67 Kindergarten teachers and 403 children completed two measures designed to explore their perceptions of their relations. Four patterns of kindergarten teacher–child relationships were identified both from teachers and children reports. Results showed that three of the reported patterns resembled patterns reported by other researchers for teacher–child relationships. An interesting finding was that the notion of dependency and its relation with closeness and conflict had a different interpretation from teachers in the Greek educational context. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Keywords:

• teacher–child relationships
• relationship patterns
• children's perspectives
• early childhood education
• STRS

Notes on contributors

Athanasios Gregoriadis, PhD, is a Lecturer of Early Childhood Education at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Early Childhood Education, Greece. He teaches courses both in Bachelor and Master's Degrees, he is in charge of the practicum of the pre-service early educators and he is also a scientific advisor in the Experimental Early Childhood Center of his University. His main research interests are teacher–child relationships, early childhood curricula, and the evaluation of early childhood environments. He has participated and is currently participating as a coordinator and key staff member in five funded international and national research projects during the last seven years. He has great experience in pre & in-service teacher training as he has been participating as a leader in many training courses. He has published over 15 research papers in peer review international journals, and he is a member of the American Educational Research Association.

Vasilis Grammatikopoulos, PhD, is a Lecturer in Educational Evaluation at the University of Crete, School of Education, Department of Preschool Education, Greece. In the past, he was Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at the Liverpool Hope University, UK, and University of Macedonia, Greece. He was also Academic Scholar at the University of Thessaly, Greece, for nine years. He has participated in numerous funded national and international research projects during the last 13 years, and his main research interests are: educational evaluation, early childhood education evaluation and evaluation of physical activity in early childhood education. He has great experience in pre & in-service teacher training as he has been participating as a leader in many training courses. He has published over 20 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals and is a member of the American Evaluation Association and American Educational Research Association.