From discipline to communication: Reflections on the reconstruction of teacher–student relationships

Abstract

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) believes that the teacher–student relationship is the core of the education process. If teachers cannot understand and accept this concept and cannot implement it effectively, it is impossible for reform to achieve its desired goals. Within the context of Foucault’s concept of discipline, the teacher–student relationship in the Chinese education system is considered universal. At the level of knowledge and behavior, this kind of teacher–student relationship reflects the teacher’s absolute control over the students, and it is also one style of power relationship. To improve this relationship, it is therefore necessary to study the power relations between teachers and students. In order to build a more vital teacher–student relationship, I attempt to construct a communicative teacher-student relationship by applying communication theory and analyzing the communicative teacher–student relationship from the following four aspects: the roles of teachers, the roles of students, equally communicative dialogue, and text power.