INTRODUCTION Th is chapter is a follow-up of the contribution on teacher-student relationships by Pianta (2006) in the fi rst edition of the Handbook of Classroom Management. Just as Pianta did, we reconceptualize classroom management in terms of the relationships between teachers and students and use a relational approach to classroom management. Evertson and Weinstein (2006) defi ned classroom management as “the actions teachers take to create an environment that supports and facilitates both academic and social-emotional learning” (p. 4). From a relational perspective, we both extend and confi ne the defi nition of classroom management to read all teacher actions and associated cognitions and attitudes involved in creating the social emotional aspect of the learning environment. Although this defi nition focuses on teacher actions, it is important to acknowledge that these actions become eff ective only to the degree that students interpret these. Our approach emphasizes the socio-emotional aspects of teacher actions, and this chapter is primarily interested in teacher-student relationships. Peer relationships, of course, are another important factor in the socialemotional environment but will be treated in other chapters of the handbook.