A Conceptual Framework for Teacher-Child Relationships in Early Childhood

Teacher-child relationship is an important factor for the overall development of the child. It is also a reflector of child centredteaching practices, classroom quality and child outcomes. These relationships are influenced by many factors that are personal to teacher and child and are also related to the classroom environment. Positiveteacher-child relationships develop warm and secure teacher-child bondings which are beneficial for the socio- emotional and academic success of the child. Dependent and conflictual teacher-child relationships are stressful for teachers and have a negative outcome for the child. This paper explores the literature to recognise the factors affecting teacher-child relationships and have proposed a conceptual framework to understand these relationships inethnically and socioeconomically diverse classrooms. Literature has tried to define these relationships according to the attachment theory or through bio-ecological model of development thus ignoring the role of culture as a major factor in formation of these relationships. This paper used Bourdiue’s theory of Capital, Field and Habitus and Contextual System Model of Pianta as theoretical framework and proposes Cultural Framework for teacher-child relationships.