Conference Agenda

This study explores relational pedagogy as a core dimension of inclusive educational practice in Icelandic compulsory schools. In recent years, international and national policy discourses have increasingly emphasised student well-being, participation, and belonging as central aims of schooling. However, while positive teacher–student relationships are frequently highlighted as important, there remains limited empirical research examining how relational pedagogy is enacted as a deliberate pedagogical practice in everyday classroom contexts.

The purpose of the study is to develop an in-depth understanding of how teachers in Icelandic compulsory schools construct and enact relational pedagogy in their professional practice, and how such practices support inclusion in a broad sense. The research is of a qualitative natura and aims to analyse and theorise the characteristics of teaching practices and approaches, and how these contribute to relationships and students’ inclusion. The study is guided by the following research question:

What can be learned from teachers in Iceland about relational pedagogy as inclusive practice?

The research is grounded in relational pedagogy, which conceptualises teaching and learning as fundamentally social, ethical, and relational processes (Gergen, 2009; Biesta, 2004). From this perspective, learning is not merely the transmission of knowledge but emerges through interaction, dialogue, and mutual engagement between teachers and students, as well as among students themselves. Teaching is therefore understood as a shared pedagogical endeavour in which meaning is co-constructed within a relational space.

Central to the study is the concept of Pedagogical Relational Teachership (Ljungblad, 2021), which emphasises respect for students’ positions, recognition of diversity as a resource, and the ethical responsibility of teachers to create inclusive learning environments where all students are acknowledged as full participants. This approach aligns closely with inclusive pedagogy, which shifts the focus from categorising learners to examining how educational systems, practices, and relationships shape participation and belonging (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011).

Recent research has highlighted how informal interactions, teacher presence, flexibility, and responsiveness can foster meaningful relationships and create conditions for inclusive learning (Hickey & Riddle, 2024). Such relational practices may be particularly visible in small or closely connected school communities, where teachers have greater opportunities to engage with students on a personal level. Iceland provides a relevant context for this investigation. Data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (OECD, 2024) indicate that Icelandic teachers place strong emphasis on creating safe, welcoming, and respectful classroom environments, and report high confidence in their ability to positively influence students’ well-being and engagement.

Despite this, there is limited research examining how relational pedagogical practices are developed, sustained, and experienced in Icelandic schools, and how they contribute to inclusion beyond academic outcomes. This study seeks to address this gap by connecting international theoretical perspectives on relational pedagogy with teachers’ lived experiences and practices in Icelandic compulsory education. In doing so, it aims to contribute to broader discussions on inclusive education by foregrounding relationships as a pedagogical and ethical foundation for participation, learning, and well-being.

A high-quality teacher–student relationship (TSR) is widely regarded as a key contributor to students’ academic achievement, motivation, and socioemotional well-being, particularly during the early years of schooling (McCormick et al., 2015). From the perspective of attachment theory, relationships with teachers provide students with emotional security that supports exploration, engagement, and learning within the school context. Similar to early attachment experiences, students develop internal working models of their relationships with teachers based on repeated classroom interactions (Pianta, 1999).

Empirical research conceptualizes TSR along the dimensions of closeness and conflict (Roorda et al., 2011). Closeness reflects warmth, trust, and perceived emotional support, whereas conflict captures negative interactions, relational tension, and a lack of harmony. A substantial body of research indicates that students’ externalizing behaviors are associated with higher levels of conflict and lower levels of closeness in the TSR (Hajovsky et al., 2020). Behavioral problems therefore represent a major challenge for the development and maintenance of positive teacher–student relationships. Teachers may perceive both externalizing behaviors (e.g., oppositional or disruptive behavior) and internalizing behaviors (e.g., social withdrawal or anxious-depressive symptoms) as demanding and may respond in ways that are insufficiently attuned to students’ needs (McGrath & van Bergen, 2015). Importantly, prior research suggests a reciprocal association between behavioral problems and TSR quality: strained relationships may exacerbate behavioral difficulties, which in turn may further undermine the relationship and contribute to escalating cycles of conflict. Internalizing behaviors have also been linked to reduced closeness, although their associations with conflict appear less consistent (Shi & Ettekal, 2021).

This dynamic highlights the importance of identifying teacher-level relational resources that may buffer or attenuate the negative effects of students’ behavioral problems on relationship quality. One such resource may be teacher humor. In educational settings, humor has been associated with a more positive classroom climate, reduced negative emotions, and increased student engagement (St-Amand et al., 2024). Moreover, teacher humor has been described as a component of effective teaching behavior and as an instructional resource for relationship building (Fovet, 2009).

Despite these potential benefits, teacher humor has rarely been examined as an independent construct moderating the association between behavioral problems and TSR quality, particularly in elementary school contexts. The present study addresses this gap by pursuing three objectives: (1) to examine the associations between externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems and the TSR dimensions of closeness and conflict, (2) to investigate the direct associations between perceived teacher humor and TSR quality, and (3) to test whether teacher humor moderates the relationship between behavioral problems and TSR quality, possibly functioning as a protective factor.

As argued in scholarship drawing on a radical understanding of inclusive education (IE), there is a need to develop a different knowledge basis for theorizing inclusion, than that being developed through the perspective of special needs education (Armstrong et al., 2011; Slee, 2008; Slee & Allan, 2001). In response to that, a strand of research in the field of IE has proposed an engagement with what can be termed theories of educational community (Danforth & Naraian, 2015), as “paradigmatic narratives” that create contexts for students to engage with each other and with the atypical or the uncommon in terms of interdependence rather than competition, and of diversity rather than deviance (Naraian, 2008). This understanding of IE, which Göransson and Nilholm (2014) have termed a ‘community understanding’, has as its point of departure the observation that schools, by design, exclude students in a non-contingent way, as certain social groups face exclusion systematically. Therefore, theoretical constructs targeting the individual rather than the setting as the source of failure can be seen as inadequate explanations for such systematic exclusion. Instead, it is structural aspects and multiple layers of the organisation of schooling that need to be examined and changed in order to achieve IE (Slee, 2008; Vlachou, 2004).

Various social relations and practices in schools and classrooms have been conceptualized and studied in educational research under the term ‘community’ (Fendler, 2006; Patoulioti & Nilholm, 2023). However, educational research where schools and classrooms are treated and theorized as communities, has been extensively drawing on underlying metaphors of social relations practiced in different domains of the adult world, and community is usually seen as something that school adults create and promote for children (Patoulioti & Nilholm, 2023). Students’ own social relations and collective practices have been less utilized as the basis for understanding and theorizing educational ‘community’, despite research documenting the centrality of sociality and relationships in children’s and youth’s lives (e.g. Corsaro, 2018; Lahelma, 2002). A focus on students' experiences of social relations at school becomes especially important in the context of the recent expansion of a market logic and focus on individual results, which has been criticized for their impact on social relations (Ball, 1993), and the undermining of a community ethos in education (Slee, 2019).

This study focuses on mainstream school culture in relation to students’ social lives and relations, with the aim to identify and critically analyse ways of being together that become possible for students in everyday social life of mainstream school, beyond the classroom, and also within students’ perceptions of community. Swedish mainstream schools offer a pertinent setting for such analysis due to the extensive marketization and recent moves toward standardization, in an educational system previously grounded in social ideals. The study is rooted in social constructionism, meaning that the social world and the knowledge(s) about it are approached as constructed contingently and throughout the constant and multiple relationships between human beings (Burr, 2015). An understanding of IE as the creation of schools responsive to diversity that promote community as ethos and practice links IE to a long pedagogical tradition emphasizing the social function of education (Göransson & Nilholm, 2014). To approach community beyond sameness, the study draws on Jean Luc Nancy’s (1991) critique of community as being common, and his theorization of community as being-in-common.