Culturally responsive teaching, teacher-student relationship and school belongingness: A multi-informant study in ethnically diverse classrooms

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) and close teacher-student relationships can promote students' school belongingness, which might be especially important for immigrant and refugee students. Yet, there is limited quantitative evidence how CRT is related with teacher-student relationship and school belongingness. This multi-informant cross-sectional study examined how teacher-student relationship is linked with students' school belongingness, and to what extent it mediates the association between teachers' CRT self-efficacy and school belongingness. Participants were N = 134 elementary school students (44.78 % immigrant and refugee) and N = 30 teachers. Teacher-reported conflict and student-reported closeness were negatively correlated. Bivariate correlations showed that student-reported closeness was positively and teacher-reported conflict negatively related with school belongingness. However, only student-reported relationship significantly explained variance in school belongingness. Teacher-student relationship did not mediate the association between CRT and school belongingness. Exploratory analyses showed that teacher-reported conflict was negatively linked to school belongingness only among non-immigrant students. Teachers who felt more efficacious in CRT reported more conflict in the relationship with immigrant and refugee students. Findings corroborate the relevance of teacher-student relationship for students' school belongingness. Furthermore, they suggest that teachers should receive trainings in CRT in order to enhance their relationships especially with immigrant and refugee students.