Teachers’ Beliefs about the Needs of Students: Teachers as Local Experts (A Qualitative Analysis)

The link between students’ psychological needs and educational practice is often left unexamined in teacher training. Also underexplored are teacher beliefs about the needs of students. The present study asked practicing educators in the Republic of Tatarstan (N = 195), considered to be experts in the local culture as well as experts in child development, to tell us what they considered to be vitally important needs for the psychological well-being of students. Whether considered from the perspective of frequency counts or from the perspective of categories identified by independent raters, the theme of relationships emerged as centrally important in the teacher-generated responses. Implications for practice and for research are discussed.