From functioning communality to hostile behaviour: students’ and teachers’ experiences of the teacher–student relationship in the academic community

Abstract

Teacher support is an important factor affecting academic and social integration into the university. However, studies have been very scarce concerning both students’ and teachers’ experiences of their relationship in higher education. The purpose of this study is to examine students’ and teachers’ experiences of communality and interaction as well as the support given by teachers in the academic community. A total of 68 teachers and 104 students participated in this study by answering both Likert-scale and an open-ended question. The results show wide variation in both students’ and teachers’ experiences. The experiences varied from descriptions of a good and functional communality to a gap between teachers and students or even hostile behaviour towards students. Five main categories emerged from the data: (1) functioning interaction and communality, (2) good quality contacts between students and teachers, (3) variable experiences of interaction and communality, (4) low quality interaction and communality, and (5) dysfunctional contacts between students and teachers. The results indicate that teachers experience the support given to students more positively than the students. In addition, the results concerning the open-ended question also indicated that teachers experience the communality and interaction between teachers and students more positively than the students. More attention should be given to the teacher–student relationship at the higher education level. In addition, general skills such as ability to interact with others and social behaviour should be emphasised to a greater degree when recruiting staff.

Keywords:

• Academic community
• higher education
• students’ experiences
• student integration
• teachers’ perceptions
• teacher–student relationship