Close and Conflictual: How Pupil–Teacher Relationships Can Contribute to the Alienation of Pupils from Secondary School
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
1. The research article was organized and well written.
2. The research methodology is been formulated and meticulously carried out.
3. The findings and conclusions are presented satisfactorily.
4. Apt educational implications were drawn.
5. Given the quality of the work the sample size could have been larger.
Author Response
Many thanks for your comments and time in reviewing the article. Please find our responses in the attachment.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Many thanks for your comments and time in reviewing the article. Please find our responses in the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Overall an interesting study with an innovative design adressing an importand topic. However the article might benefit from revisions:
Line 41- 50: Please restructure this paragraph – right now a clear line of argument is missing.
General remark:
Studies cited are comparably old. Please include recent findings on school alienation around the working group Hascher & Hadjar.
Line 70-74: Aims of the study
First I would restructure the proposed aims; the aim to explore pupils experiences of alienation and pupil-teacher relationships should be followed. Then the teachers views come into account. Third mechanisms and barriers for forming positive pupil-teacher relationships should be examined from pupil and teacher perspective with this given data structure. Including teachers view in assessing mechanisms and barriers for forming positive relationships is highly beneficial in this regard.
Line 90/91: Concept of disengagement is used without defining and differentiate from the concept of school alienation.
Chapter Alienation:
Even though this chapter locates the concept in the early roots of alienation and two prominent representative, it remains unclear how these conceptualisations are used in the present study. Line 97-102 – here a clear connection to the present study should be made – which of the three purposes does the study follow?
Line 125: please list a number of studies who have applied those themes of Seeman.
Hascher and Hadjar (2018) define three domains of alienation – one of them is alienation from teachers. This should be integrated in the paper.
Chapter pupil-teacher relationships and Alienation
A clear definition of pupil-teacher relationships is missing. Furthermore, a theoretical argument is needed how those relationships affect pupils alienation should be clarified.
Line 175-180: references used are rather old. On the protective effect of pupil-pupil-relationships add: Morinaj, J., Moll, F. de, Hascher, T., Hadjar, A., Grecu, A., & Scharf, J. (2023). School Alienation Among Adolescents in Switzerland and Luxembourg: The Role of Parent and Peer Supportive Attitudes Toward School and Teacher Autonomy Support. Youth & Society, 55(2), 187–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X211043902
Reference 37: year missing.
Line 244, 280: Reference missing. Error! Reference source not found. Seems to be a warning message from a literature system
Matrials and Methods: Please elaboreate why a mixed data approach was needed and what the benefit was. With figure 1 it seems that qualitative and quantitative results are rather similar. Weren´t there conflicting or supplementary results?
Results: Interesting approach to focus on the CLCH group – this should be mentioned earlier in the materials and methods section.
Table 6: standardize display type (bullet points)
Line 448-453: Did the group of CLCH students refered to more ciritcal indicents then the other students interviewed?
The teacher interviews remain unmentioned here. What did they say about possible incidents and the relationship to those students?
543-546: Please add quotes that show students´ alienation. How were students´ identified as experiencing school alienation (or to be more specific: alienation from teachers)
Chapter title Teacher-pupil relationships and school engagement – surprising as school engagement wasn´t in the focus of the paper. The focus is school alienation.
Line 581-582: You found that teachers their relations to students differently if the relationships were more conflictual. Did you find any information if the students experienced those teachers differently? What was the characteristics of the teachers who remained a positive relationship with those students?
Line 585-603: did you measure cortisol levels? This paragraph seems to me rather off-topic. In a discussion the present studies findings should be discussed.
Line 658-659 – here you state that pupils were alienated – information on the identification of experiences of alienation should be added. Clarify if the alienation is broad in the sense of school alienation or referred to one domain (alienation from teacher)
Line 684: How did you come to the derivation of pupil peer-support? This aspect wasn´t included in the analysis. It should be added, that teachers need to be aware of the importance of the first weeks to build a positive pupil-student relationship.
Author Response
Many thanks for your comments and time in reviewing the article. Please find our responses in the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Thank you very much for your revision and additional explanations in the review letter.
