Editorial: The Role of Teachers in Students' Social Inclusion in the Classroom

Resumen de los autores

Students’ social inclusion has serious implications for their social, emotional and academic adjustment (Ladd & Troop-Gordon, 2003; Sette et al., 2020). The current research topic conceptualizes social inclusion from a contextual perspective and not merely as the result of students’ individual social competences. From this perspective, teachers represent an important element in the classroom social ecology significantly contributing to peer group dynamics and thereby also to individual students’ social inclusion (Farmer et al., 2011; Juvonen et al., 2019). Based on attachment theory, some researchers have argued that teacher behaviors expressing warmth, sensitivity and responsiveness contribute to students’ safe exploration of their peer worlds (Sabol & Pianta, 2012; Roorda et al., 2021; Verschueren & Koomen, 2012). Other researchers have highlighted the importance of teachers’ feedback towards individual students because they act as social referrers that communicate evaluative information about the likability of individual students (Hendrickx et al., 2017; Huber et al., 2018). However, despite an increasing interest in the role of teachers in peer relationships, we still know relatively little about the multiple avenues along which teachers affect their students’ social inclusion. The current research topic substantially contributes to this research gap. It includes fourteen articles that focus on different aspects of children’s social inclusion in the classroom (e.g., social acceptance, friendships, victimization, marginalization). These articles cover a broad spectrum of teacher practices (e.g., grouping strategies, behavior management) at different levels of the classroom (the group vs. dyadic relations). Several of the included studies applied a longitudinal design (e.g., Chen et al.; Kim et al.), included relatively large samples (e.g., Furrer et al.; Klang et al.), and used observational methods to assess teacher behaviors (e.g., Garotte et al.; Hendrickx et al.). Moreover, the research topic also includes studies that highlight students’ and teachers’ social-cognitive processing of teachers’ influence on social inclusion (e.g., Demol et al.; Mulvey et al.). Finally, some of the studies addressed teacher professional development and interventions to improve students’ social inclusion (Farmer et al.). This summary classifies the articles into the following four groups. Teachers’ behaviors at the classroom levelClassroom-level practices refer to the behaviors that teachers show towards the whole group of students instead of individual students. Two studies focused on teacher behaviors in the domain of classroom organization. Garotte et al. used a longitudinal design to study how teachers’ inclusive attitudes and observed classroom management (i.e., clear expectations, efficient use of instructional time) predicted children’s social acceptance. Classroom management was significantly related to children’s social acceptance, suggesting that behavioral measures might be more closely related to students’ social inclusion than to affective-motivational teacher characteristics. Kim et al. longitudinally studied the effects of teachers’ self-reported grouping strategies on students’ friendships and conflicts (e.g., managing behavior problems, heterogeneous ability grouping). Heterogeneous ability grouping negatively predicted children’s friendships. The authors explained this finding by children’s tendency to form their friendships based on similarity.Two additional studies addressed teachers’ behaviors in the domain of emotional support. Furrer et al. investigated how physical education teachers’ support for cooperative skills and individual reference norm orientation (e.g., praising all students for individual improvements) related to the social acceptance of students with and without intellectual disabilities. While teachers’ support of cooperative skills positively contributed to the social acceptance of all children, individual reference norm orientation strategies showed stronger effects in children with intellectual disabilities. Finally, Owens et al. showed that the teacher practice of spending individual time with students positively affected students’ later social acceptance and academic functioning. Moreover, they found that teachers’ behaviors were differentially related to social acceptance of students with and without ADHD.Teachers’ behaviors at the dyadic level Three studies focused on teacher’s behaviors towards specific students. The longitudinal study of Hendrickx et al. found that teachers rarely interacted with socially marginalized students. However, consistent with social referencing theory, positive teacher feedback towards socially marginalized and rejected students predicted increases in these students’ social acceptance over time. Chen et al. showed that the quality of dyadic relationships with individual students (closeness and conflict) longitudinally predicted younger children’s perceptions of peer support and victimization. The study further revealed significant effects of teachers’ behavior management on children’s perceived victimization. The quality of student-teacher relationships not only enhanced students’ social inclusion, but also reduced ingroup bias. Grütter et al. used network analyses to show that students were more likely to prefer peers from different ethnic groups when they perceived their teachers as caring. In contrast, less teacher care was significantly related to ingroup bias. The positive effect of teacher care was even larger in classrooms with strong ethnic group boundaries. Teachers’ and students’ thinking about social inclusionFour studies in this research topic investigated social-cognitive processes underlying the role of teachers in students` social inclusion, mainly by using hypothetical scenarios on social inclusion or exclusion.Demol et al. presented children hypothetical scenarios that described either absent teacher intervention

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Gasser, L., Cillessen, A. H. N., Huber, C., Mainhard, T., Müller, C. M., & Zurbriggen, C. L. A. (2022). Editorial: The Role of Teachers in Students' Social Inclusion in the Classroom. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.830973