The Importance of Interpersonal Relationships in Educational Settings

Human beings are relational by nature. From the moment we are born, we form connections – with family, with peers, with teachers, and eventually with colleagues and communities. These connections don’t just shape who we are; they shape how we work, how we learn, and how we grow. In educational settings, where the goal is nothing less than the development of the whole person, interpersonal relationships are not background noise – they are the very foundation on which effective learning is built. Understanding their relevance across the different contexts in which they occur is essential for anyone working in education today.

What are interpersonal relationships, and where do they occur? 🔗

At its simplest, an interpersonal relationship is a social connection between two or more people. But the scope of these connections is far wider than most people assume. According to social psychology research, the main domains in which interpersonal relationships develop include family, kinship, friendship, employment, community organizations, and civic groups. These relationships are regulated by norms, law, mutual agreement, and social expectation – and they form the basis of functioning societies.

In the context of education, these broader life domains directly intersect. A student’s relationship with their parents shapes the confidence they bring into the classroom. A teacher’s relationship with their colleagues shapes their commitment to their work. A school’s relationship with its parent community shapes the overall culture of trust and support. Interpersonal relationships, in other words, do not begin and end at the school gate. They radiate outward – and inward – across multiple systems simultaneously.

The ecological systems perspective 🔗

Research drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems model has been particularly influential in understanding how relationships function across these different layers. As scholarship in the field explains, individual roles and interpersonal relationships sit at the micro level, with linked microsystems – such as the household, the school, and the workplace – connecting into a mesosystem. Beyond this lie ecosystems and macrosystems, encompassing institutions, cultural norms, and policy environments that frame all human interaction.

For educators and school administrators, this framework offers a practical insight: the quality of relationships within a school is never isolated. It is always shaped by, and shapes, the broader relational environment in which students and teachers live their lives.

Why interpersonal relationships matter in educational organizations 🔗

The shift in research focus over recent decades is striking. Earlier studies of organizational behavior tended to examine structure, tasks, and formal authority. Today, researchers increasingly recognize that what happens between people – the informal, relational dimension of organizational life – is equally powerful in determining outcomes. A landmark review published in the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior frames interpersonal relationships in organizations as multilevel phenomena: top-down organizational processes shape individual relationships, while those same relationships, from the bottom up, implicate and transform organizational outcomes.

In schools and universities, this dynamic plays out constantly. The relationships between teachers and students, between colleagues, between staff and school leaders, and between the institution and families – all of these relational systems interact. Improving any one of them has measurable ripple effects across the others.

Teacher-student relationships and learning outcomes 🔗

The teacher-student relationship is arguably the most studied interpersonal dynamic in education – and for good reason. A 2026 systematic review covering 55 studies found that positive teacher-student relationships were consistently associated with all elements of teacher and student wellbeing as described in the PERMA model: positive emotions, engagement, meaning, and accomplishment. Students who feel supported by their teachers are more likely to participate actively, persist through difficulty, and develop the confidence to explore new ideas.

The relational dimension also extends to social and emotional development. When teachers model empathy, respect, and open communication in their daily interactions, students internalize these behaviors and bring them to their peer relationships as well. The classroom, in this sense, becomes a training ground not just for academic skills, but for the interpersonal competencies that students will carry throughout their lives.

Collegial relationships among teachers 🔗

Interpersonal relationships among teaching staff are equally consequential – and their importance has become clearer as the global teacher retention crisis deepens. Longitudinal research drawing on data from more than 5,000 school employees in England found that each standard deviation increase in the quality of collegial relationships was associated with a meaningful increase in staff members’ likelihood of rejecting outside job offers. In plain terms: teachers who feel relationally connected to their colleagues are significantly more likely to stay.

This finding is echoed in research by the National Council on Teacher Quality, which found that schools where teachers reported a strong sense of collective responsibility – where colleagues held each other accountable and supported each other’s development – posted significantly higher retention rates than those with weaker relational climates. Even trust with parents mattered: elementary schools reporting high teacher-parent trust had staff retention rates about five percentage points higher than those reporting low trust.

A mixed-methods study published in a leading educational psychology journal also found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, positive teacher-teacher and teacher-administrator relationships were significantly associated with greater teacher wellbeing. Notably, colleagues who engaged in collaborative problem-solving and provided mutual emotional support reported stronger relational bonds than before – a finding described by researchers as a meaningful silver lining of an otherwise difficult period.

Interpersonal relationships as an organizational system 🔗

One of the most important shifts in recent research is the move from studying individual relationships in isolation to understanding them as part of a broader relational system within an organization. Research in organizational behavior has consistently shown that friendships at work improve individual employee attitudes including job satisfaction, commitment, engagement, and perceived organizational support. When peers act as confidants, they also help mitigate negative work experiences before those experiences escalate into disengagement or exit.

For schools specifically, research on school interpersonal relationships highlights a distinctive quality of educational organizations: almost all educational activities take place in the form of interpersonal communication, the time and space gap between members is small, and schools are institutions dedicated to the spread of knowledge and values. This makes schools unusually rich environments for relational development – but also unusually sensitive to relational breakdown. When interpersonal dynamics are poor, the consequences ripple through students, staff, and the wider community simultaneously.

Drawing on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the same research notes that strong school interpersonal relationships help staff develop a sense of collective belonging and organizational identification – which in turn drives commitment to shared goals and improves overall school performance.

The role of leadership in relational systems 🔗

School leaders sit at the intersection of all these relational systems. The quality of the principal-teacher relationship is a powerful determinant of both staff wellbeing and organizational culture. OECD data from TALIS 2024 shows that nearly nine out of ten teachers across OECD education systems report that their principals maintain good professional relationships with staff – and this collegiality is closely associated with teachers’ sense of being valued and their ability to achieve their lesson aims.

The same data reveals that 86% of teachers across OECD systems agree they can rely on their colleagues – a foundational indicator of relational health in any organization. Where this trust exists, schools are better positioned to respond to challenges, share innovative practices, and sustain staff commitment over time.

Interpersonal relationships across contexts: family, community, and school 🔗

A comprehensive understanding of interpersonal relationships in education must account for the family and community contexts that students and educators bring with them into school. Research on teacher networks has established that strong relationships among educators build school communities, enhance teacher commitment, and give teachers a sense of belonging and professional efficacy. But these professional networks do not exist in a vacuum – they are sustained or eroded by the broader social conditions in which teachers live and work.

Similarly, research in interpersonal and group dynamics confirms that educational environments benefit significantly from applying relational principles to classroom management, collaborative learning strategies, and student-teacher interaction. Positive peer relationships and effective group work enhance learning outcomes and student engagement – outcomes that depend not just on what happens inside the classroom, but on the relational fabric that surrounds it.

The community dimension matters too. When schools actively build bridges with families and local organizations, they extend the relational system beyond the institution itself. Parents who feel genuinely connected to a school’s staff and culture become partners in the educational process rather than distant spectators. This expanded relational network creates a more resilient, resource-rich environment for students – one that supports both their academic progress and their broader human development.

Building healthier relational systems in schools 🔗

Given the weight of evidence, the practical question is how schools can deliberately strengthen interpersonal relationships across all the contexts in which they matter. Research published in the British Journal of Educational Psychology identifies several actionable directions: reducing excessive administrative workloads that crowd out time for relational interaction, fostering teamwork and peer collaboration among staff, and creating structured opportunities for teachers to build genuine professional bonds.

At the school leadership level, evidence reviewed by the Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies points to three factors that consistently support teacher retention across different cultural contexts: collegial relationships between teachers, effective mentoring policies, and positive principal-teacher relationships. None of these requires additional budget – they require intentional attention to how people relate to one another within the organization.

For students, the investment in relational quality pays dividends that extend well beyond academic performance. Students who experience consistent, caring relationships with teachers and peers develop the emotional resilience, communication skills, and social awareness that prepare them for adult life. These are precisely the qualities that neither curriculum nor assessment can measure alone – and yet they are among the most enduring outcomes of a good education.

What do you think? As schools face growing pressures around staff retention and student wellbeing, how much priority should school leaders give to actively building and sustaining interpersonal relationships – not just as a management strategy, but as an educational value in itself? And if interpersonal relationships in education are shaped by family, community, and organizational systems all at once, where should the work of improving them realistically begin?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_relationship
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13668803.2020.1818547
3. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-110622-061354
4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-025-10107-2
5. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13540602.2025.2584280
6. https://www.nctq.org/research-insights/building-a-school-climate-that-makes-teachers-want-to-stay/
7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37883008/
8. https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jrme/papers/Vol-5%20Issue-6/Version-2/P0562115125.pdf
9. https://en.front-sci.com/index.php/jher/article/view/913/1105
10. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2025/10/results-from-talis-2024_28fbde1d/full-report/professional-relationships-in-school-communities_b6ddef33.html
11. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-6091-939-8_6
12. https://study.com/academy/lesson/interpersonal-relationships-group-process-approaches.html
13. https://www.educationreview.com.au/2023/04/positive-interpersonal-relationships-and-lower-workloads-appear-central-for-teacher-wellbeing-and-retention/
14. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1431320.pdf