Prioritizing Early Relational Health in Tutoring for Equitable Learning Recovery

In this May 31, 2022 GLR Learning Tuesdays webinar, attendees had the chance to learn from early childhood expert Junlei Li, Ph.D., of the Harvard Graduate School of Education who shared the following wise words, among many others:

“Reading experts will talk about reading as a technical or mechanical process — the phonics, the decoding of the letters and so on — but reading exists as a social, cultural process that helps us understand who we are, who our families are and who our communities are. So the technical, relational and social processes work together to make learning and development happen, and instrumental in that process are the human interactions that weave together the learning of the text, the giving and receiving of ideas between the adult [i.e., tutor] and the child, and then creating that sense of belonging, affirmation and encouragement that children need to learn.”

CGLR’s John Gomperts moderated an inspiring and informative conversation with Li, exploring the key aspects of adult-child interactions that lead to positive youth development and increased focus on academic learning. This conversation was followed by a panel of leaders from national and local tutoring programs who discussed how tutors can be trained to focus as much on relationship building as on the important technical components of reading and academics that will lead to equitable learning recovery. From the tutoring experts, we learned specifics of what this balance of relationships and academics looks like on a day-to-day basis for tutors working with early grade students who are most in need of focused support to get back on track.

”That confidence comes from tutors sitting with students saying ‘Great job! Today was hard and you didn’t give up and you go back into class and you try that again.’”

– Jennifer Joyce, Reading Partners