The Importance of Teacher Relatedness

Research indicates that for students faced with difficulties or challenges in the academic setting, a sense of relatedness to someone within the school can serve as a motivator to remain engaged in the learning process (Furrer & Skinner, 2003). The term 'relatedness' can come to mean many things. Furrer and Skinner (2003) found that an adolescent’s feelings of teacher support predicted the value he or she placed on achievement as well as engagement and effort (Furrer & Skinner, 2003). Additionally, feeling important to key figures in the academic setting, most notably teachers, was found  to elicit positive behaviors such as persistence and participation and dampen negative behaviors such as anxiety (Furrer & Skinner, 2003).

'Relatedness' can also mean the ability to identity with a person based on a common racial, ethnic or cultural background, socioeconomic status or gender. Furrer and Skinner (2003) found that males, regardless of ethnic group, general feel a lower sense of relatedness to teachers than females. This is likely due in part to the fact that the majority of teachers are female. A report by the Pew Hispanic Center entitled "Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap" (2009) found that Latinos consider a lack in teacher relatedness a main contributor to the poor academic achievement and educational attainment of their ethnic group; relatedness in this report was conceptualized as more in line with the second definition presented here. Among Latino adults age 26 and older, 47% stated that the different cultural backgrounds of Hispanic students and their teachers is a major reason that Hispanic students do not do as well as other students in school. The result was nearly identical for Latinos ages 16 -25 as 44% stated that a mismatch between student and teacher background was a significant factor in poor achievement. Thus, while, 62% of Latino youth strongly agree that the teachers in their high school are working or worked to help them succeed, relatedness was still a factor pinpointed by Latinos when discussing academic achievement.

Why is this important?

U.S. demographics are changing such that a substantial number of classroom are made up of mostly minority students. The Census reports that 92% of U.S. population growth over the last decade came from minorities of all types including those who identified as mixed race.; the Hispanic population alone grew by 43% during this time period. Despite this, teaching remains a white, female dominated field. In the Los Angeles Unified School district for example, 72% of the students are Latino, while only 32% of the teachers are Latino. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has specifically launched the TEACH program to attempt to diversify the teaching population.

Below is data taken from 4 diverse Massachusetts cities (all numbers are in percentages). Note the differences between the student and teacher populations.

Lynn
	Students	Teachers
African American	12.4	1.9
Asian	9.9	0.9
Hispanic	49.4	6.4
Native American	0	0
White	24.5	90.1
Other	3.3	0.7
Female	47.9	78
Male	52.1	22

Brockton
	Students	Teachers
African American	52	7.5
Asian	2.6	0.8
Hispanic	14.4	3.9
Native American	0.5	0.1
White	27	86.1
Other	3.5	1.4
Female	51.3	80.9
Male	48.7	19.1

Holyoke
	Students	Teachers
African American	3.4	1
Asian	0.9	0
Hispanic	77.2	24.8
Native American	0	0.1
White	18.2	73.5
Other	0.2	0.6
Female	48.1	80.7
Male	51.9	19.3

Boston
	Students	Teachers
African American	35.5	28.6
Asian	8.4	4.7
Hispanic	40.9	12
Native American	0.4	0.2
White	12.9	54.4
Other	1.9	0
Female	48.1	74.9
Male	51.9	25.1

While student achievement is not wholly dependent on a teacher's gender or race (or 'effectiveness' for that matter), diversifying the teaching population may be integral to keeping students engaged in school and therefore should be a high priority.

*All data taken from: www.doe.mass.edu

Other References:

Furrer, C., & Skinner, E. (2003). Sense of relatedness as a factor in children’s academic engagement and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 148-162.

Lopez, M.H. (2009). Latinos and Education: Explaining the Attainment Gap. Pew Hispanic Center, 1-34.