This chapter explores supportive teacher–student relationships that are part of a general
approach to teaching. Gloria Ladson-Billings, Lisa Delpit, Michelle Fine, and Nel Noddings
are among a number of educators who have written about the importance of emotional con-
nections between teachers and students. InThe Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African
American Children, Ladson-Billings (1994) studied the qualities that made a multiracial group
of teachers successful working with African American students. A key element of what she
describes as “culturally relevant pedagogy” is the ability of these teachers to care about and
connect to their students. Delpit (1995) is concerned that teachers reject working-class,
poor, and minority youth because their perceptions of proper behavior and ways of learning
are based on their own class and cultural backgrounds. Fine (1991) argues that in an irration-
al world where students are sometimes demeaned by school authorities, dropping out may
be the only rational choice some students can make. Noddings (1984, 1992) offers a philoso-
phy of education based on an “ethic of caring.”
In “My Best Teachers 3,” I describe how I learned to be a teacher from relationships with
my students. Other sections examine ways of “seeing” students, what schools mean by
gifted education, and a project that helped remedial students experience success in school
and develop a sense of self-worth.
An essay by S. Maxwell Hines, the science educator at Hofstra University and a faculty advi-
sor to the New Teachers Network, discusses her experience as a student who was rejected by
teachers and schools. She explains how the idea of culturally relevant pedagogy makes it pos-
sible for teachers to connect with and scaffold on the life experiences of their students. A con-
cluding section examines a statement about education by James Baldwin, a noted African
American author, who invited teachers to participate in a movement to transform the world.

SECTION A: HOW IMPORTANT ARE RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN A TEACHER AND STUDENTS?

In May 2001, Johanna Grussner took 24 members of an elementary school gospel choir to
perform in her hometown in Finland. The fifth and sixth graders were from an inner-city
American neighborhood with a large immigrant population. Many of the children had histo-

CHAPTER

4

RELATIONSHIPS:WHY ARE RELATIONSHIPS

WITH STUDENTS CRUCIAL

TO SUCCESSFUL TEACHING?

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