ABSTRACT
There are close connections between asking pupils about the qualities of a good teacher and about teacher-pupil relationships and exploring with them questions about what teachers do that is helpful or unhelpful to them in influencing their engagement and their success with classroom learning. When pupils are asked these latter questions, their answers still emphasise teacher humanity. ‘We found’, Wallace (1996b: 39) reports, ‘that time and again pupils emphasised the importance of interpersonal relationships with understanding teachers who were prepared to listen.’ In answer to these more contextualised questions about classroom practice, however, pupils’ concerns with teachers’ humanity and sensitivity cannot easily be disentangled from their reliance on teachers’ professional abilities and judgements. This is epitomised by Kershner’s (1996: 79) finding that ‘value [was] placed on individualised and fine-tuned support from teachers, which was most welcome when it had been sought and received at the right time during a lesson, and preferably discreetly’.
