Is Discussing Identity More Important Than Shared Identity To Student-Staff Relationship Building?

Research consistently demonstrates that the quality of student-staff interactions matters for positive student outcomes. Some research studies also suggest identity similarities (homophily) often contribute to meaningful human connections. Yet, influence and staff identities on teaching learning in higher education is less explored. We report how undergraduate students at one US university perceive impact classroom relationships. Four themes emerged from our analysis: (1) Shared interests may be more important than shared some staff; (2) Students’ year study influences their views relationships; (3) Identity homophily a point connection (4) Discussing identity, without homophily, can lead course-based The first three these align with existing literature, but fourth theme extends previous research, we focus exploring students, discussing matching when interacting academic staff.