Liking each other: “He gets along with everyone, that’s one of

The majority of students felt it important that the students and teacher like one another in order to be motivated to learn, to achieve in the subject, and to feel confident that the teacher would support them when they needed assistance:

Do you think it is important to have a good relationship with your teacher to learn Maths well? (Interviewer)

Yes, I do, ‘cause if you don’t really like the teacher you don’t want to listen to her or him or do well in your work. (SS student)

Why do you think it’s important to get on well with your teacher to learn maths well? (Interviewer)

‘Cause you have to get on well with your teacher if you want to get on well with your subject. (WW student)

Do you think it’s important for your learning to get on well with the teacher? (Interviewer)

Yes, it is important, ‘cause last year, my last maths teacher, we didn’t get on very well and it made my learning hard cause I didn’t like her. We didn’t like each other, so it made it hard for me to learn with her. (SS student)

How important is it for you to get along with your maths teacher? (Interviewer) It’s good to get along with your maths teacher so if they can be there for you when you fall down or if you get behind you can ask for guidance. (WK student)

For students, the teacher and students developing a liking for one another was assisted by their teacher showing knowledge of individuals through:

• showing care for mathematics learning and/or care for the person;

Yes, because, like, if I wasn’t at maths yesterday, she’d ask ‘are you OK?’ to make sure that everything’s all right. (SS student)

What are your teacher’s main ways of getting on well with the class? (Interviewer)

If people have a problem she listens to them and if they don’t get it she’ll explain it again…and if people want to do a certain starter she’ll let us do that one. (SS student)

• giving time to one-to-one teacher-student interactions;

Do you think your teacher cares about who you are as a person? (Interviewer) Yes. (SS student)

How do you know that? (Interviewer)

Like the way she is around us, she’s not like, just do that, she sits down with you and she talks with you and that gives you a warm vibe. (SS student)

• developing the class learning community;

What are the teacher’s main ways for getting on well with the class? (Interviewer)

I think she likes to do icebreakers and stuff at the start, to kind of get people used to the idea of doing maths before we start doing the actual lesson, and I think that helps her get on a bit better because you get kind of warmed up for the lesson. (SS student)

Is there any part of the lesson that you enjoy the most or that is the best part for you? (Interviewer)

For me it’s probably the class discussion, ‘cause we sort of have fun as well. (SS student)

It’s probably the same for me as well. (SS student)

OK, so you like it most when the teacher is up at the board, he’s helping with the notes, explaining the new work, and he asks lots of questions and then asks if there are questions. (Interviewer)

Yeah. (UM student)

Yeah, ‘cause we’re all as a whole group, like the whole class doing it so it’s more fun. (UM student)

• using humour:

Are there any difficulties for your teacher getting on well with your class? (Interviewer)

The Māori* and Pasifika* students were more likely than the New Zealand European* students to respond with ‘always’ regarding whether their mathematics teacher cared about them, wanted to help them learn, and encouraged them to do their best (Figures 7.1-7.3)35.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Always Most of the time

Sometimes Not Often Never

P e rc e n ta g e _Māori* Pasifika* NZ European* Total

Figure 7.1: Students’ responses to ‘My teacher cares about me’

Note: Mean % for Questionnaires 2 and 3

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Always Most of the time

Sometimes Not Often Never

P e rc e n ta g e _Māori* Pasifika* NZ European* Total

Figure 7.2: Students’ responses to ‘My maths teacher wants to help me learn’

Note: Mean % for Questionnaires 2 and 3

35

Measures of significance for exploring whether the differences between ethnic groups were significant were not calculated for the data used for these or subsequent figures due to the tests’ unsuitability. The following reasons informed this decision: some students were in more than one group; the results were not normally distributed; the data was subjective and qualitative; and the sample sizes were not sufficiently large.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Always Most of the time

Sometimes Not Often Never

P e rc e n ta g e _Māori* Pasifika* NZ European* Total

Figure 7.3: Students’ responses to ‘My teacher encourages me to do my best’

Note: Mean % for Questionnaires 2 and 3

Many students believed that liking the teacher was more important than knowing about them as a person:

Is it important to know a little bit about who your teachers are? (Interviewer) Not really, just as long as we learn. Because once we leave college we’re not going to be really involved with them. (SS student)

I know some teachers tell you all kinds of things about themselves and others tell you almost nothing, so where’s the best part of that continuum for a teacher for you guys? (Interviewer)

I don’t mind if I don’t know about them but as long as I get on with them it’s all right. (SS student)

Most students had a clear feeling that their teacher cared for them (Figure 7.1) but in the interviews many had difficulty expressing how they knew this. This was shown in several ways, for example by long pauses before a response, looks of confusion, or responses reiterating that they knew their teacher did care about them but they did not know how they knew this. Others expressed mixed feelings about whether or not their teacher cared about them:

Do you think your teacher cares about who you are as a person? (Interviewer) Sometimes I don’t think he really does…sometimes you just feel that way, you know, but other times he makes you laugh…but it’s just sometimes he makes you think he doesn’t really care. (UM student)

On the whole, students felt it important for their progress in the subject that they liked their mathematics teacher. Some also wanted to know about their teacher and their teacher to know about them as individuals and as a class so that the teacher could maximise students’ learning through understanding their needs and the ways in which they liked learning as a group (see also Section 7.2.1).