Abstract:

From the pre-school to the high school education, the teacher-student relationship has been mostly seen through the caring concept, which has been thoroughly explored and described in the literature. In other words, the importance of emotional, close and meaningful teacher-student relationship has been proven for student's healthy and positive development and school achievement. However, at higher levels of education, the situation is somewhat different. The teacher-student relationship at university level and the way students construct the understanding of developing this close and meaningful relationship are still not sufficiently explored. Since we deal with the adult-adult relationship in this context, there is a question of boundaries between teachers and students, i.e. the need for closeness and the need to express any emotions in academic environment. However, in such a neutral climate, where teachers are distanced and do not provide climate for expressing and understanding of the student's emotions, we wonder how successful their relationship will be with their students after graduation.
Accordingly to previously mentioned, the aim of this qualitative research was to identify the factors underlying the attitudes of the student teachers' regarding the teacher-student relationship and the importance of expressing emotions in this relationship. The focus was on their experiences during the studies, especially on teaching practice experiences. Students in their last year of studying in Croatia were interviewed in focus groups. The students' responses clearly show that they are aware of the importance of expressing emotions to create positive climate and close relationship for children to feel more open in expressing their own emotions. But the students face some emotional fears that might cause them doubt the correctness and the way of expressing their emotions to their future students. For example, they mention the fear of losing their authority and lack of discipline, the feeling of teacher's overload, the possibility of children's manipulation of emotions, and the potential misunderstanding of the emotional reactions and teachers' actions. The last fear that is present in (especially male) students is particularly important and indicative since it has not appeared in the literature so far, and is largely based on their experiences during the teaching practice and on lack of the critical reflection on that experience. The results of the research point to the importance of close and meaningful relationships in higher education, in which students will feel psychologically safe and free enough to critically reflect on their experiences. Such experiences could be crucial for the formation and the development of healthy and positive relationships in the future.

Keywords:

Emotions, teacher education, teacher-student relationship.