All We Have Is Each Other: A Grounded Theory Exploration into the Impact of Relationship Building in a Self-Contained School Setting Following COVID-19

The landscape of public education has felt a severe impact from the COVID-19 global pandemic. As schools and educators move into this new normal, educators and students will have to come together to reverse the damage caused over the past 3 or 4 years. To complete this goal, educators must understand the perception of students regarding building and maintaining relationships, and vice versa. The purpose of my multiple-methods grounded theory study is to explore and explain how emphasizing student-teacher relationships (STR) can support rebuilding school community in self-contained settings following the COVID-19 global pandemic through focusing on the perspectives and perceptions of the stakeholders in the learning environment. I conducted this study in a small self-contained high school during the 2022-2023 school year with nine students identified with special education needs, mainly with emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD), and ten educator participants. Results for my study are currently in the preliminary stages, however, early analysis shows a consensus from participant interviews that emphasizing STR shows a moderate to high positive impact on student-teacher relationships, student engagement, academic success, social-emotional growth, decrease of teacher burnout, and more positive teacher attitudes about their students and schools. Key contributors to this shift include, but are not limited to, mutual respect, humanness, humor, relatability, support, and communications as major aspects of the building and maintaining the quality of student-teacher relationships.