Improving teacher-student classroom interactions: what role do social and cultural backgrounds of teachers and students play?

While quality teacher-student classroom interaction is crucial in promoting students' learning, literature recognizes the meaningful effects teachers' and students' social background characteristics and cultural values or orientations have on classroom interactions. However, the extent of relationships between elements of the social and cultural contexts of teachers and students on teacher-student classroom interactions seem under-researched and may require more efforts from researchers, especially in the context of Africa. This empirical study sought to explore these elements and how they relate with teachers' and students' perceived classroom interactions in basic schools in southern Ghana after controlling for their demographic characteristics. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 175 teachers and 501 basic school students and was analysed using exploratory factor analysis, correlation, and hierarchical regression analyses. The results showed that social context and culturally responsive teaching practices correlate positively with teacher-student classroom interactions. Also, variance in classroom interactions was attributed to both social and culturally responsive teaching practices of teachers, with the latter having a greater effect on teacher-student classroom interactions. Implications of these findings for policy and practice are discussed.