The Early Education Teacher-Child Relationship: How Teachers Experience Closeness with Children in Child Care Sharon Quan-McGimpsey, Kathleen Brophy, Leon Kuczynski Sharon Quan-McGimpsey, Kathleen Brophy, Leon Kuczynski Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, Guelph, Ontario Introduction Conclusions Emergent Models of Close Teacher-Child Relationships Perceptions of Agency In The Relationship Relationship building lies at the core of meaningful early childhood education programs (Pianta, 1999). Teacher-child relationships have generally been conceived as professional relationships, where teachers maintain professional distance (Katz, 1981), as well as caregiving relationships, where teachers provide attachment security (Howes, 1999). However, there is also the possibility that (Greenspan, 2007) early education teachers may also experience closeness as a personal relationship when teachers develop a personal stake in the relationship where they also benefit. Weingarten’s (1991) theory that social interactions are mutually co-constructed and may be experienced as intimacy, provides a perspective on this possibility. Teachers are conceptualized as forming close relationships with children by accumulating a history of interactions over time (Hinde, 1979). Relationship expectancies are representations developed by teachers and children on the basis of their past history of interactions. This is the foundation for emergent close relationship and also is the source of knowledge that teachers and children use when they interact with each other in the present (Hinde,1979; Lollis & Kuczynski, 1997). This study looks at teachers’ experiences of their relationships containing ideas that correspond with existing models of teacher-child relationships in the literature, or containing ideas that have yet to be identified. The qualitative analyses focused on the types of relational expectancies that teachers and children used 1) in their conceptualizations of closeness 2) when considering strategies for the management of closeness. INTERVIEWS 24 early education teachers interviewed separately regarding their relationships with a child of their own choosing. INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1.General questions about “closeness” 2. Critical incidents with a particular child 3 incidents when they experienced closeness 3 incidents when they experienced not feeling close 3 incidents when, following not feeling close, there was a shift back to closeness. THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF RELATIONSHIP EXPECTANCIES 1) Interpretive induction, abduction (Kuczynski & Daly, 2003) 2)Categories operationalized & coded 3)Relative frequencies computed (frequency/total number of initiations) 1)Model of Teachers’ Conception of Closeness ( N = 24) was comprised of three relationship domains: personal, attachment, and professional, where the personal domain was predominant with intimacy as a defining feature. Early education teachers’ relationships with children are more complex than depicted in previous research. The model that emerged includes a professional domain, a caregiving domain and a personal domain, with the personal domain as most dominant in teachers’ perceptions. Not only do teachers maintain traditional professional and attachment relationships with children they also maintain a personal relationship involving intimate two way exchanges in which they themselves had a stake. The discovery that teacher-child relationships are personal relationships involving perceptions of mutual intimacy (Weingarten, 1991) is innovative. The coordinated interplay between the relational domains in managing strategies in closeness is also new. In close relationships with children, teachers experience personal and professional tensions, that influence the process of decision-making in the classroom. Teachers and children exercise their agency within a relationship context. Also, analyses indicated that teachers use knowledge of their relationship history with individual children when considering strategies that will best meet their goals in different situations. The research highlights the neglected perspective of the personal dimension in teaching. In the management of intimate and personal moments, teachers and children respond not only to the stimulus qualities of present behaviors, but also on the basis of relational representations that were formed during the past history of interactions with each other, and the future goals of their relationships. Teachers’ Conception of Closeness Personal Relationship/Intimacy (61%) * Positivity - physical pleasure, shared meaning/interest, positive emotion Distinctive Intimate Communication – self-disclosure, exclusivity Interdependence – intimate knowledge, emotional connection Caregiving Relationship/ Attachment (21%) * Trust Professional Relationship/Teacher (19%) * Authority Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) * Note: Frequencies of conceptualizations for each domain divided by the total initiations over 3 domains Teachers’ attributed initiations in close interactions most frequently to: Professional/Teacher * Teachers in the Professional/Teacher domain. Attachment/Caregiving domain. * Children in the Attachment/Caregiving domain. Intimacy/Personal * Mutually-initiation in the Intimacy/Personal domain. 2) Strategies for Managing Closeness (N = 24) Teachers reported active strategies for building maintaining and repairing close relationships with children. 3)Tensions in the Teacher-Child Relationship. Teachers spontaneously reported dialectical tensions between the personal and professional domains of their relationships with children. The most prevalent tension was the teacher’s struggle to attend to one child versus attending to all the children in the group. Teacher Strategies Prevalence of Theme Pro-active - means of becoming acquainted with children 14% * Maintenance - preservation of a close relationship already in progress 74% * Withdrawal - used when not feeling as close to each other 20% * Reparation - means of resolving conflict situations & restoration of closeness 28% * Frequency of initiation of each type of strategy divided by the total of number of strategies. Personal versus Professional Prevalence of Theme Attention to One Child versus Group (13) 46%* Closeness with Teacher versus Closeness with Other (8) 29% * Sadness in Separation versus Happiness in Graduation (4) 14% * Parental Role versus Role of ECE (3) 11% * * Frequency of reports divided by the total incidences of tensions. The Influence of Years of Experience on Closeness The conceptualization of closeness as a personal and intimate relationship was reported most often by teachers with the fewest and most years of experience, whereas the conception of closeness with children as a professional relationship was reported most often by teachers with the least experience. Otherwise, teachers at all levels of teaching experience were found to share notable similarities in how they conceived and managed relational strategies and tensions in close teacher-child relationships. Method Method