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 nonimmigrant students. Teachers who felt more efficacious in CRT reported more conflict in the relationship with immigrant and refugee students. Findings corroborate the relevance of teacherstudent 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.