Strategies to Increase Connection

Strategies to Increase Connection

There are a variety of strategies that increase students’ connections with the college. For this section, I am drawing on the work of Felton and Lambert's book Relationship-Rich Education, Schwartz's book Connected Teaching (both available for checkout from the TLC), and the additional TLC module on the 4 Connections. 

 List of resources on the topic - books Relationship -Rich Education and Connected teaching, and the TLC module on the 4 Connections 

For an overview of the strategies, here's a short video.

 

Barriers to Relationship-Rich Education

All the strategies thus far have covered successful interactions with students, but I don’t want to make it sound simple. In fact, it can be really difficult: We can legitimately mess things up. Students can resist learning. It will not go well all the time, no matter how skilled an instructor you are. You will mess up. More than once. Sometimes, in a spectacular manner. 

While those mess ups may or may not be your fault, we have to address the fact that we teach and work within a system, and that system contains structural barriers to our efforts to build relationship-rich classrooms. 

First, the classroom has an asymmetrical power balance. Relationships are not equal. Even if we try to run a casual classroom to  lower defensiveness, display vulnerability and care, there is still a significant power differential in college classrooms. Some dominant culture students navigate it smoothly - they call you by your first name easily and reach out when they are struggling. For students raised in cultures with greater power distances (often, non-dominant cultures), it is much harder to feel comfortable with your efforts to shrink that power distance. Either way, faculty and staff still hold most of the power. We create the rules and determine our curriculum and assign grades. That power will - through no effort of your own - add weight to your words and policies, for both good and ill. That is how systems work. This will inevitably affect student perception of your interactions and connections. 

Another barrier to relationship-rich classrooms is the link between power and identity. We are all made up of a variety of individual identities and experiences. We bring our whole selves, not just our professional selves, to class. Our genders, our races, our abilities, our spirituality, our upbringing, our economic status, our education and much more shape how we move through the world. Similarly, our students are rainbows of identities and bring their whole selves to class. At times, we marginalize people unintentionally. We are humans with implicit biases and privilege is designed to be invisible to those who have it. 

The barriers are not insurmountable. Schwartz addresses these barriers and then develops what she calls a path forward. Her strategies include: 

  • Understand self
  • Understand others
  • Bring less-heard or unheard voices to the conversation
  • Challenge systems that marginalize and oppress
  • Power as energy to expand the learning space

We learn about ourselves, we learn about our students, and we make efforts to create classrooms that don’t leave people out. We admit our missteps and apologize without excuses and explanations, learning more so we can do better. It is difficult, but it is the work of teaching. I am sure that you have seen lists like this before, and I want to remind that this work in ongoing, not an easy checklist. 

I want to look at Schwartz’s top two recommendations a little more closely - understanding ourselves and our students. One way that we can understand more about our students and challenge our assumptions is to review the demographic info. This comes from Data Central, and is the most recent data for SCC. 

List of demographic facts about SCC: the average age is 37.45, percentage of students employed or seeking work is 73.3%, 37.6% have dependents, 46.6% are first generation, and 70.8% are financial aid eligible or low-income.  

This data reminds me personally that my students are different than I was as an undergrad. I was a single, able-bodied and neural-typical 18 year old with college-educated parents offering encouragement and confidence. I had a lot of academic successes in the past and was excited about making academia my professional home. At the same time, I had very limited financial means except grants, loans, and scholarships and was one of few students of color at a primarily White institution. That was me at the start of college, but that is not the majority of my students. So, when I tell stories in my head about why students are struggling, why they missed class or assignments based on who I was as a student, I am probably wrong. Understanding yourself and your students helps you avoid incorrect assumptions. 

Hopefully, reviewing this kind of info will lead you to do something: ask your student questions. Check in with them at the start of the quarter and learn what they are willing to share. Ask about potential learning barriers and create an SOS plan if they fall behind. Ask what they want you to know about them as people and as learners. Every time I ask, am I overwhelmed with their honesty and vulnerability. They want to be successful. Most are not lazy and unmotivated. Those who struggle are more likely to be dealing with family and money trouble than anything else.

Humans are really good at filling in the blanks, and having a limited understanding of who is in your classroom or projecting your own experiences on others means that your guesses are often poor. Learn what you can.

 

Additional Resources

For more information on the topic, I recommend these resources: