‘My teachers make me feel alive’: the contribution of student-teacher relationships to student well-being in accelerated education programmes in South Sudan and Uganda

Student-teacher relationships are a key element of schooling that affect students’ well-being. This is especially true in conflict-affected contexts. However, there is little research on which dimensions of the relationship are most important for student well-being in such contexts, and even fewer studies deploying cross-country methodology. This study addresses that gap by drawing from multi-site comparative case studies including interviews with 75 students from multiple schools in displacement settings in South Sudan and Uganda during four field visits in 2019. We identify four salient dimensions of student-teacher relationships that are associated with student well-being in both countries. The first dimension is teachers’ fulfilment of expectations related to their role as educators. The second is how teachers expressed and enacted care for learners. The third dimension is how teachers and learners expressed respect for each other. The fourth dimension is how comfortable learners felt in seeking help from their teachers.