Sozio-emotionale Schulerfahrungen von Schüler:innen – Theoretische Grundlagen, methodische Herausforderungen und empirische Befunde

Social interactions and relationships in the school context are important building blocks, not only for successful teaching and learning processes, but also for the healthy development of students. Interwoven with these relationships are emotions, which are closely linked to success at school and significantly shape students’ individual experiences of school reality. This article provides an overview of the theoretical foundations, methodological challenges and current empirical findings regarding: (a) students’ emotional school experiences; (b) students’ social relationships with teachers and peers; (c) the integration of students’ social and emotional school experiences within the construct of school-related well-being; and (d) evidence-based practical success conditions for students’ positive social and emotional school experiences. The main focus is on the question of how these constructs—which have so far been considered rather separately from each other in research studies—can be better thought of together. After the introduction, the second chapter introduces the thematic complex of emotional school experiences, in particular, the genesis and regulation processes of achievement emotions. The investigation of students’ social school experiences focuses primarily on the complexity of the network of their relationships and the resulting theoretical and empirical desiderata. Further, the construct of school-related well-being is outlined, as well as the extent of its integration with both emotional and social school experiences. How socio-emotional experiences can be taken into account and promoted in the school context is discussed in the third chapter. Finally, we address the initial question of how socio-emotional school experiences can be considered more as interwoven entities in future research by bringing together these two research strands and traditions.