Teachers report feeling closest to children who come from professional, managerial or other non-manual groups and least close to children who come from non-employed families, according to a new study.
The ESRI carried out an analysis of the relationship between teachers and their five-year-old pupils in Ireland.
The study noted that the quality of teacher-student relationships strongly influences student engagement, attainment and wellbeing.
The research draws on data from the Growing Up in Ireland study, which has followed a sample of children since they were nine months old.
It focused on information collected when the over 7,000 children were five years of age and teacher responses to questions about closeness and conflict.
Teachers also indicated less conflict with middle-class children, with the highest level of conflict reported with children from non-employed families.
The analysis found a distinct difference in the attitude of newly qualified teachers compared to those with more than five years teaching experience.
Newly qualified teachers showed no significant social class differences in their level of closeness or conflict with students,
Awareness of educational disadvantage
However, the analysis identified "a clear link" between student social class and closeness and conflict among teachers with more than five years' experience.
"It is not clear from available evidence whether this relates to a greater awareness of educational disadvantage fostered in initial teacher education in recent years and/or the fact that these teachers have not yet been fully socialised into the classed assumptions of their more experienced counterparts" the analysis concluded.
The study was carried out by Emer Smyth, Katherin Barg and Valentina Perinetti Casoni.
They suggest that initial and continuous teacher education "could usefully enhance teachers' ability to work with parents from a range of backgrounds and help counter deficit perspectives on working-class students".
"Promoting greater social class diversity in the teaching profession would also help reduce the cultural distance between teachers and students, as would support for adopting more inclusive practices around dealing with student behaviour," the study found.
The ESRI said the findings point to the importance of conditions outside the school in shaping relationships within it, with poverty and deprivation impinging on a child's ability to engage in learning.
"This highlights the importance of family income support and measures to help low-income families cope with the cost of living".
The study also warned that with the rise in school absence seen in recent post-pandemic years "this pattern has the potential to put further social and cultural distance between teachers and students unless measures are taken to address it".
