Abstract:

The educational process approached from a practical angle requires from the teacher not only the knowledge of recognised theories and certain procedures but also his personal, emotional involvement. Mere knowledge of means and methods employed in education may not guarantee success and effectiveness. Equally vital is the character and the form of interpersonal relations between students and their teacher. Even most subtle and sophisticated methods may fail when student-teacher relations will be ambivalent, or worse, hostile in nature. The quality of interpersonal relations makes up the climate that prevails in a given educational institution.

The definition of school climate may be narrowed down to a specific interpersonal relations taking place between the teacher and a student. It is assumed that these relations imply the existence of personal and emotional bonds in mutual interactions. The present study focuses on relations between persons that co-exists in an educational process with a view to investigating the quality of the school climate created through emotional engagement of the teacher.

In particular, the study aims at examining the issue of whether there is a correlation between R.H. Moos`s first dimension of Social Climate Environment Scale (SCES) and the degree of teacher’s emotional involvement in his student’s affairs. The first dimension of social climate (interpersonal relations) concerns the first three sub-scales:
(1) teacher’s and student’s engagement in performing their school duties;
(2) emotional support that a student can receive from the teacher;
(3) student’s freedom to express his feelings.

The other tool used for the purpose of this study is author’s original one. It is also related to the issues constituting the first dimension of social climate, however, the difference lies in the fact that emotional engagement refers to the degree of intensity of emotional involvement of the teacher in his student’s personal affairs. It is assumed that the correlation of these two tools can validate the claim that school climate is dependent on the degree of teacher’s emotional involvement.

On the basis of the obtained results it may be stated that the correlations between particular variables as well as their coefficients turned out to be statistically significant, with the correlations being strong and positive. In other words, the more emotional engagement teachers have in the educational process, the better school climate is created (the model of linear correlation was found to be explicable in 92%). Moreover, the higher the intensity of teacher’s emotional engagement in his student’s affairs, the more social interpersonal relationships at school are appreciated in the educational process (the model was explicable in 90%). Thus, the research substantiates the thesis that the quality of the school climate in the educational process is conditioned by the kind of emotional relationship that the teacher is able to establish with a student. The more the teacher is emotionally involved in his student’s affairs, the better the school climate.

Keywords:

Emotional involvement, emotional relationships, school climate, social relationships, teacher, student.