Educational Psychology—Limitations and Possibilities

COMMUNICATION
Teacher–Student Communication in Education 799
What Is Communication?
Communication is not an innate or rather automatic quality. We are not born with the ability to
communicate verbally and particularly, to communicate with effectiveness and competence, but
rather it is a learned process that continues throughout our lives. There is a never-ending human
drive to speak and be heard. Communication is how we as individuals attempt and struggle to make
sense and meaning in our lives. As translated from the Greek, communication literally means to
share, have fellowship, and communion with others to form community. Significantly, to form
communion requires that the act of mindfully, present, listening be part of the communicative
interaction. This crucial detail is often ignored or overlooked within communication practices
and relationships.
At its basic, original starting point, communication affirms the humanity of others and ourselves;
as well as impacts the quality of our lives, daily. Communication is not simply a process of
sending and receiving messages, but rather, it is continuous transactional human engagement that
involves the entire person—mind, body, and spirit and significantly, personality and emotions.
Underpinning our need to communicate and experience human verbal contact and intimacy is
the want to belong, be loved, and to love others. We must tell our lived stories to discover, build
identity, and claim selfhood. Through the projection of our voices, we claim empowerment that
our thoughts, experiences, and lives do matter and have meaning in the larger social community.
Significantly, communication and social interaction are tied to the hierarchy of human needs that
range from simple to complex. To be alive, is to hear our words and voices resonate within our
physical beings, thoughts, and actions; and to gain feedback and reaction to those sensations and
experiences from others. Communication signals our presence in the world.
COMMUNICATIVE SOCIAL INTERACTION
We create and maintain social identities, images, and Selves through an exchange of words
or interpersonal communication. We have often heard that each of us wears a mask that covers
the real Self to protect egos from harm. Such devices are used because we clearly understand
that all citizens must abide by civil, legal, and social rules that dictate our movement in society.
From a sociological perspective, daily living is bound up in rituals that regulate our individual
and collective behavior. Over time and with experience, these rituals and moral rules begin to
mold our human identity.
Social interaction oftentimes reflects the politics of language and hierarchy of power in society.
Interestingly, much of the role playing and maintenance that we engage in daily, is wrapped up
in a social construction of reality that is often imposed upon us by dominant social powers.
In other words, oftentimes, we tend to abide by, and obey rules, regulations, and dictates of
personal interaction that have been socially constructed, or manufactured; and we internalize
these constructions as they were absolute, unquestionable truth.
Functional Conflict
A profoundly important element of communication and social interaction that is often underaddressed,
ignored, or misunderstood is the role of conflict in the course of human social interaction.
Conflict does indeed have a constructive place within our communication lives. However, to
remain in a state of conflict is destructive. Let me explain. Communicative conflict can raise important
issues and actually connect diverse people moving them on the path to achieving harmony