Homeroom teacher – student relationships quality: a new model integrating self-efficacy in teaching and technology with social-emotional competence

This research aim was to examine the homeroom Teachers and Students Relationship Quality (TSRQ) as a function of the contribution of three key-factors: teaching/digital technologies’ self-efficacy, and social-emotional competence, in addition to infrastructure-factors (student age, class size). Previous studies focused on teachers rather than on homeroom teachers. Substantial changes in educational systems worldwide have occurred due to the accelerated development of Artificial Intelligence, raising questions about the homeroom teachers’ role. A validated questionnaire was completed by a nonprobable-sample of 696 Homeroom teachers in primary/secondary schools. Homeroom teachers reported high TSRQ. The path-analysis showed that each key-factor has distinct and combined contribution. More than half of the variance of TSRQ was explained by social-emotional competence. The theoretical contribution recognizes the importance of including teaching/digital technologies self-efficacy as key-factors of TSRQ, thus enabling development of additional multidimensional models. Construction of teacher-education programs focusing on homeroom teachers’ as shared role-holders is suggested.