ABSTRACT

A substantial body of international research argues that the teacher-student relationship is crucial for students’ academic and social-emotional learning. However, microanalytic studies of teachers’ relational competence are rare. This article aims to contribute such a study by exploring teachers’ relational competence, drawing on Erving Goffman’s concept of face-work and focussing on how a particular teacher-student relationship is constructed in an ongoing processes of interaction. The paper presents in-depth analyses of teacher-student interaction using a video-recording of a classroom episode. In the episode, the student loses face as a result of a complex series of events. The teacher, through rapid action, helps the student repair face and manages to (re-)establish a respectful interaction ritual. Overall, the teacher’s relational competence is manifested by advanced and complex face-work. Our analyses indicate that relational competence is essentially a micro-social artistry – a lightning-quick ability to interact with students in the ‘here and now’. The article also discusses the pedagogical implications of these findings, for example, that it is crucial to include face-work in teacher education and training.

摘要

大量国际研究认为，师生关系对于学生的学业和社会情感学习至关重要。然而，对教师关系能力的微观分析研究却很少见。本文旨在通过探索教师的关系能力，借鉴欧文戈夫曼的面子工作概念，并关注特定的师生关系如何在持续的互动过程中构建，来为这样的研究做出贡献。该论文使用课堂录像对师生互动进行了深入分析。在这一集中，学生因一系列复杂的事件而丢脸。老师通过迅速的行动，帮助学生修复面子，并设法（重新）建立尊重的互动仪式。总体，教师的关系能力体现在高级复杂的面子工作上。我们的分析表明，关系能力本质上是一种微观社会艺术——一种在“此时此地”与学生互动的闪电般快速的能力。文章还讨论了这些发现的教学意义，例如，将面子工作纳入教师教育和培训至关重要。