Caring Behavior of Teachers: Investigating the Perceptions of Secondary School Teachers and Students in Lahore

This study is designed to investigate perceptions of teachers and students about caring behavior of teachers. The purpose of the study is to gain better understanding about factors that play a role in the development of teachers’ caring behavior and teacher-student caring relationship. A scale employed by King and Chan (2011) has been adopted for this purpose. The revised scale consists of four main factors (Sense of Respect and Trust, Interpersonal Relationships, Academic Support, and Classroom Management), and twenty two items. Data were collected from 403 grade 9 students and 156 secondary school teachers who belonged to seven public secondary schools in Lahore. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The study revealed that both the teachers and students gave great importance to the teachers’ caring behavior. They agreed to the top two factors i.e. Sense of Respect and Trust, and Classroom Management. The opinions differed about the priority of the other two i.e. Interpersonal Relationships and Academic Support. When it came to individual items, the differences were more prominent as four out of top five items were different. There were no statistically significant differences based on teachers’ gender and education level, but their experience made a difference with less experienced teachers showing more inclination towards caring behavior. The study recommends the teachers to develop a culture of respect and care in the classroom by showing respect to the students, developing a culture of greetings, calling them with their proper names, appreciating good behavior, and involving them in decision making. Keywords: caring behavior, teacher behavior, classroom environment, teacher-student relationships