TY - JOUR
T1 - A Mixed Methods Pilot Study of an Equity-Explicit Student-Teacher Relationship Intervention for the Ninth-Grade Transition
AU - Gaias, Larissa M.
AU - Cook, Clayton R.
AU - Nguyen, Lillian
AU - Brewer, Stephanie K.
AU - Brown, Eric C.
AU - Kiche, Sharon
AU - Shi, Jiajing
AU - Buntain-Ricklefs, Jodie
AU - Duong, Mylien T.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Journal of School Health published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American School Health Association.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - BACKGROUND: Student-teacher relationships are associated with the social and emotional climate of a school, a key domain of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model. Few interventions target student-teacher relationships during the critical transition to high school, or incorporate strategies for enhancing equitable relationships. We conducted a mixed-methods feasibility study of a student-teacher relationship intervention, called Equity-Explicit Establish-Maintain-Restore (E-EMR). METHODS: We tested whether students (N = 133) whose teachers received E-EMR training demonstrated improved relationship quality, school belonging, motivation, behavior, and academic outcomes from pre- to post-test, and whether these differences were moderated by race. We also examined how teachers (N = 16) integrated a focus on equity into their implementation of the intervention. RESULTS: Relative to white students, students of the color showed greater improvement on belongingness, behavior, motivation, and GPA. Teachers described how they incorporated a focus on race/ethnicity, culture, and bias into E-EMR practices, and situated their relationships with students within the contexts of their own identity, the classroom/school context, and broader systems of power and privilege. CONCLUSIONS: We provide preliminary evidence for E-EMR to change teacher practice and reduce educational disparities for students of color. We discuss implications for other school-based interventions to integrate an equity-explicit focus into program content and evaluation.
AB - BACKGROUND: Student-teacher relationships are associated with the social and emotional climate of a school, a key domain of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model. Few interventions target student-teacher relationships during the critical transition to high school, or incorporate strategies for enhancing equitable relationships. We conducted a mixed-methods feasibility study of a student-teacher relationship intervention, called Equity-Explicit Establish-Maintain-Restore (E-EMR). METHODS: We tested whether students (N = 133) whose teachers received E-EMR training demonstrated improved relationship quality, school belonging, motivation, behavior, and academic outcomes from pre- to post-test, and whether these differences were moderated by race. We also examined how teachers (N = 16) integrated a focus on equity into their implementation of the intervention. RESULTS: Relative to white students, students of the color showed greater improvement on belongingness, behavior, motivation, and GPA. Teachers described how they incorporated a focus on race/ethnicity, culture, and bias into E-EMR practices, and situated their relationships with students within the contexts of their own identity, the classroom/school context, and broader systems of power and privilege. CONCLUSIONS: We provide preliminary evidence for E-EMR to change teacher practice and reduce educational disparities for students of color. We discuss implications for other school-based interventions to integrate an equity-explicit focus into program content and evaluation.
KW - education equity
KW - implicit bias
KW - school program evaluation
KW - student-teacher relationships
KW - teacher professional development
KW - transition to high school transition
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U2 - 10.1111/josh.12968
DO - 10.1111/josh.12968
M3 - Article
C2 - 33184887
AN - SCOPUS:85095944157
SN - 0022-4391
VL - 90
SP - 1004
EP - 1018
JO - Journal of School Health
JF - Journal of School Health
IS - 12
ER -