Date of Award
12-2010
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Communication
First Advisor
Dr. Autumn Edwards
Second Advisor
Dr. Chad Edwards
Third Advisor
Dr. Kathleen Propp
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Campus Only
Abstract
This study seeks to understand the experience of adults who, as children, had a parent as a classroom teacher by applying Baxter and Montgomery’s (1998) Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT). The goal of this research is to better understand the contradictions and tensions that are an ongoing part of the parent/child relationship in the classroom setting, and to identify ways that the experience of being both parent and teacher, child and student may carry over to the home and to the child's broader school experience at the time. The application of RDT (Baxter and Montgomery, 1998) helps identify the tensions that exist in efforts to balance this unique circumstance. Fourteen adults who, as children, had one of their parents as their classroom teacher in either elementary, junior high, or high school for at least one school semester were part of the interviews. They explained in their own words their experience. Relational dialectical tensions existed in the parent/child, teacher/student crossover relationship. Additionally, participants utilized and described successful management techniques. This study has shown a complex process of interpersonal relationship management when two familiar roles are combined into a new, unfamiliar one.
Recommended Citation
Palomino, Catharyn A., "'My Parent Was Also My Teacher": The Experience and Management of Relational Dialectics" (2010). Masters Theses. 375.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/375