Student Socioeconomic Status and Teacher Stroke: A Case of Female Students in Iran

Supportive teacher-student relationships play a significant role in the trajectory of students’ academic life. Teachers may use various strategies to improve this relationship, one of which is teacher stroke (teacher encouragement). The stroking behavior of teachers might be influenced by several factors, including the socioeconomic status (SES) of students. Accordingly, the current study aims to investigate the differences among female English language teachers at three different school districts (i.e., upper, middle, and lower socio-economic class) in Mashhad, Iran, with regard to their stroking behavior. To fulfill this aim, 300 eighth-grade female students responded to an 18-item questionnaire and the collected data were subsequently analyzed using a one-way ANOVA. The results revealed that teachers tend to stroke high-SES students more frequently. The second aim of this study was to find out if there is a significant correlation between teacher stroke and students’ GPA. The results indicated that all the sub-components of stroke significantly correlate with students’ GPA. Moreover, the results of a stepwise multiple regression test indicated that two of the sub-components of stroke, namely valuing and classroom activities, strongly predict students’ GPA. Finally, the findings of the study have been discussed in light of the existing literature and implications have been provided for language teaching in the formal context of education.