Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College

by Peter Felten, Leo M. Lambert

A mentor, advisor, or even a friend? Making connections in college makes all the difference. What single factor makes for an excellent college education? As it turns out, it's pretty human relationships. Decades of research demonstrate the transformative potential and the lasting legacies of a relationship-rich college experience. Critics suggest that to build connections with peers, faculty, staff, and other mentors is expensive and only an option at elite institutions where instructors have the luxury of time with students. But in this revelatory book brimming with the voices of students, faculty, and staff from across the country, Peter Felten and Leo M. Lambert argue that relationship-rich environments can and should exist for all students at all types of institutions. In Relationship-Rich Education , Felten and Lambert demonstrate that for relationships to be central in undergraduate education, colleges and universities do not require immense resources, privileged students, or specially qualified faculty and staff. All students learn best in an environment characterized by high expectation and high support, and all faculty and staff can learn to teach and work in ways that enable relationship-based education. Emphasizing the centrality of the classroom experience to fostering quality relationships, Felten and Lambert focus on students' influence in shaping the learning environment for their peers, as well as the key difference a single, well-timed conversation can make in a student's life. They also stress that relationship-rich education is particularly important for first-generation college students, who bring significant capacities to college but often face long-standing inequities and barriers to attaining their educational aspirations. Drawing on nearly 400 interviews with students, faculty, and staff at 29 higher education institutions across the country, Relationship-Rich Education provides readers with practical advice on how they can develop and sustain powerful relationship-based learning in their own contexts. Ultimately, the book is an invitation―and a challenge―for faculty, administrators, and student life staff to move relationships from the periphery to the center of undergraduate education.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching, Academia, Audiobook, Academic

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2020

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, but more geared towards administrators than teachers. Most of this book was a collection of case studies on ways that programs, courses, and spaces can be engineered to promote relationships. As a TA and teacher, I thought these ideas were valuable, but I was hoping for more techniques or content I could apply directly in my classroom.

I did feel validated in my approach to creating personal experiences for my students and in the work I've done towards mentoring and supporting others with less privilege or access in my department. But ultimately, relationships have to be a cultural priority at the department and campus level, and there have to be incentives and structural support for TAs and faculty to put in the time and effort behind building them.

[McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Relationship-Rich Education to inform my work as an higher education administrator. Felten and Lambert assert that the most meaningful experience of college long-term is not the content a student learns, but the relationships they cultivate with people who encourage and challenge them in their various pursuits. "We found that the key is not tasking each student with identifying a single mentor who will meet all of their needs, but rather creating a relationship-rich environment where students will have frequent opportunities to connect with many peers, faculty, staff, and others on and off campus."

This is a good reminder for those of us who are constantly thinking about ways to improve the student experience and learning outcomes; no volume of data and analysis can counteract the interactions students are having with others on campus. Focusing our data and analysis on how to create the opportunities for those interactions to be positive, supportive, and pervasive is paramount, if we want college to be the transformative experience for all students that we know it can be.

[Joshua Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 stars for this nice and thought provoking read on the state of Higher Education and how we can create meaningful experiences and interactions for our students.

The authors do a great job laying out some key points on how we can be intentional in our outreach to students to create welcoming and inclusive campuses.

This was my first time listening to an audiobook so that created some unique challenges in following this for me, especially as this book is essentially a compilation of case studies but I think this has a lot of value for most campuses. There is a nice diversity in case studies two year, four year, and graduate schools, public and private, East Coast and West Coast.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for work. Well done. Helpful.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me forever to read this book because I kept taking so many notes on implications and recommendations that emerged from the solid research on which it is based. I’ll write an extended review for the Journal of College and Character so stay tuned for that later this year!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read with good points. I question how many of these high impact practices most of us will be allowed to implement in the current anti-DEI environment, which is frustrating

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing earth-shattering or particular new to me in this book, but it was a good reminder of how important relationships in higher ed—not just instructor-student, but also peer relationships. I also liked that the authors stressed the importance of advisors, RAS, custodians, and other non-tenured university employees as potential mentors for students. Finally, the emphasis on the importance that community colleges can play was great. I’ve enjoyed discussing this with other in a book group across my university system.

[Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as part of a book group on my campus and went between thinking "Well this is all so obvious" to knowing how important it is for everything here to be this well-documented, in numbers as well as stories. Felten and Lambert argue that especially for first-generation, students of color, those with learning differences, and well, just about all students coming in as the pandemic shutdown ends, connecting with human beings will make all the difference in whether they actually learn and grow in college. Absent that attention to relationships, the white middle class kids whose parents went to college will skate through, check the boxes, enjoy the ever-improving amenities and hang their hats on the football team's record. That's not the enterprise I want to be part of, and in my current role as a Spanish professor I am very well supported in doing education the way these researchers urge us to to it: paying attention to students as individuals, expecting them to be interested in learning and able to learn, understanding that their lives before and during their college years often complicate their engagement with the institution and its demands, being ready to meet them where they are.

For me, at this time in my life - 7-8 years shy of retirement, kids grown and gone, full professor, teaching small classes of language majors (i.e. almost all of them bright, highly motivated, hardworking, and there because they love it, not because anyone talked them into it) - this comes easily and naturally. I know it is NOT this easy or as commonsense for others in my line of work, that some of what's here will be more controversial than it was to me. But this got a lot of YES and AMEN and THANK YOU in the margins, and was the basis for some excellent conversations with colleagues in the book group.

[JournalsTLY · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book grew out of hard work (lots of research and interviews) and aims to grow strong convictions about education. Though the data is gleaned from American colleges, I find the ideals as well as comments about current educational pitfalls very relevant for S E Asian schools too.

Key starters in the book about college education :

1) Every student must experience genuine welcome and deep care.
2) Every student must be inspired to learn.
3) Every student must develop a web of significant relationships.
4) Every student must explore questions of meaning and purpose.

Assuming one agrees with the pointers about, then college leadership must not be too distracted by "pride factors" or prestige but focus on "human factors" (which help students to connect and succeed in college).

To do so, college leaders need to shape the campus and life on campus to be a place where relationships become a cultural priority. Among other values/actions, the writers suggest :

1) value the time that staff and faculty put into relationship building eg mentoring or welcoming students.
2) value high quality education.
3) value Engagement over Prestige.

Embedded in the accounts of changes that took place in various American schools, they remind that these changes are made and sustained by long haul decisions making and investment ; not by edicts nor quick fixes.

Other than research gems, the book has many great quotes eg from Parker Palmer "... the human heart is the source of good teaching' (pg 67).

Read this - it inspired me to value staff , students, education and educators.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out very optimistic for this book-- a wide variety of institutions and instructors/staff? Goals of human connection? Count me in!--but over the course of the book, I found my eyes glazing over the detailed descriptions of particular programs or practices in particular institutions. But what works?

In a sense, this is a sticky question because we don't have one answer for any given student or program or university. There are a few tips to be gleaned--walk across campus instead of driving so you see students? hold office hours in the residential halls? --but they don't seem necessarily...well, rigorous. It's so hard to measure "caring" so it's hard to give recommendations for institutions or instructors. It feels so (warm and) fuzzy. It's easy to summarize "Relationships are important, so let's keep saying relationships are important and then we'll make relationships important."

[Morgane Golan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Learning, at its heart, is a relational process."

I read this book with my university's Center for Teaching and Learning book club, and it put into words some ideas that I never really explored before. This book is inspiring and led to some very thought-provoking and fun conversations within the book club. I aspire to integrate some of the concepts I learned about into my own day-to-day life on campus. Parts of the book are sometimes redundant, but Felten and Lambert do know how to drive a point home! I'd recommend this book to anyone who is passionate about improving higher education on the individual and cultural levels.

[Bryan Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ADORE this topic. The treatment felt like an expounding on a presentation to university administrators. More statistically heavy than I expected. I was hoping for more transformative stories based on the amount of research they did. (There was some, but I wanted more.)

The central quote I'm taking away is this: "We found that the key is not tasking each student with identifying a single mentor who will meet all of their needs, but rather creating a relationship-rich environment where students will have frequent opportunities to connect with many peers, faculty, staff, and others on and off campus."

[Joshua Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel weird writing this review because this book is the physical guide for all that I’ve believed in my higher Ed career. So is it OK to praise something that loudly rebounds in your echo chamber?

Yes it is. This is what higher education should be. Life is relationships and college should be a concentrate of that. This book not only lays out the importance of relationships in college communities and how they lead to student success but also example of institutions and programs doing this work well.

Along with How to Raise an adult I want to give a copy of this book to every new hire.

[Art Markman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents the results of interviews from across several different kinds of higher-education institutions and provides stories of the benefits of programs and efforts by universities and faculty to develop relationships with students.

There is food for thought here, but I would have liked to see more explanation for where the themes drawn from the interviews came from and more critical analysis of the potential limitations of relationship-based educational practices.

[Layne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good book about building relationships in education.
Lots of examples and stories from the universities they visited.
As I read it, it helped me think about things I could do to improve my relationships with students and how to help mentor them better. Bottom line, spend time with them.

[Jimmie Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about the undergraduate experience and how ALL faculty and staff have the ability to make a difference in the lives of students through building relationships. The very simple concepts of relationships, communication and compassion are made real through practical examples from the world of higher education.

[Steven Volk · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the research indicates, a student's ability to create meaningful relationships with peers, mentors, and faculty is probably the greatest indicator of success in completing college. This book explores the research and adds details based on hundreds of interviews conducted at institutions of higher ed across the country. An excellent read.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights and thoughts about ways those in higher education can aid in retention and student success through meaningful relationships and mentoring. The only reason I didn't give this book a 5 star rating is that it focuses heavily on academic affairs, and it would be nice to see an expansion addressing more of other areas within a university or college.

[Wiebke Kuhn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The key take-away from this book is that creating opportunities for students to make meaningful relationships while in school is a priority to ensure success. Lots of examples of different types of higher education institutions, showing lots of hard work that has been put into programs everywhere to make this possible.

[Liz Norell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply put, this is an excellent book for college faculty and staff. Felten and Lambert take a (mostly) qualitative approach to understanding the primacy of relationships in college success and thriving. What's true for students is also true for the workers -- we ALL need these interwoven networks of support and relationship if we are to thrive. I loved this book.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as part of a reading group at work. There were some really solid insights, particularly for thinking about what needs to be changed in higher education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Administrators and staff should definitely take a look at this, or at least at Felton's recommendations. Will they take action based on this? Doubtful. 3.5*

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is nothing “new” here for those of us in small liberal arts colleges but the reminder about even brief supportive interactions with students is worth it. There are some great examples of specific programs too.

[Zack · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars alone for the 1st 100 pages which are student services driven, would have been 5 stars but the last 60 pages were too faculty focused for my current role. Rare to read a book where I want to underline a phrase on every other page. Good work related read.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this very quickly the night before a book club meeting. It was not the most memorable teaching book I've read, although it led to good discussions. I appreciated the thoughts about small conversations, and encouraging students to form relationships with other students.

[Kelli Rushek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a book club and while it could be very enlightening for other faculty, it’s sort of my academic and lived philosophy. I didn’t gain too much from it, but I want those who aren’t versed in this topic to read and act on the research within!

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a common read at work, and it was both informative and inspiring. It deepens our commitment to building networks - constellations of connections - between students and staff. I really enjoyed this book!

[Josiah Hatfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Higher ed research book with the thesis that we all learn within relationships. Some examples are a “no duh” to those with experience in student affairs at small institutions. But overall solid. Utilizing the book for a student peer mentor course.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of great ideas from a wide variety of colleges.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was ok. Good idea. A little underwhelmed by the execution.

[Jody Condon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Everyone working in higher education should consider reading this book.