Relational Competence from Teacher Education to Teaching Practice

- A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Relational competence is an important part of teachers’ and pedagogues’ education and has been discussed increasingly during the last 15-20 years. Some criticism of the focus on relational competence argues that it moves the teachers’ orientation away from curricula subjects and towards the psychological conditions of individual students instead of the class communities.
We reject this critique based on a longitudinal study of a development project of the Bachelor’s Degree Programme for Teacher Education in Aarhus, Denmark. The aim of the project was to work with methods in order to develop the student teachers’ relational competence. The present study shows that increased focus on theory and practice with relational competence can contribute to the motivation, learning and well-being of participants in institutional contexts.