For effective learning to transpire, teachers are expected to build positive teacher-pupil relationships according to the Teachers’ Standards (2012). This is supported in literature, as Morgan (2008, p. 14) highlights,

“The teacher’s skill in managing their class depends on the quality of their relationship with the children. A teacher must build up trust and friendship with the children as this establishes the basis for behavioural management and change”.

Equally, as parents and guardians traditionally possess a natural and intrinsic bond with their children, and thus are a significant figure throughout their childhood and lives; it is a shared view among practitioners that parents and teachers should maintain a healthy teacher-parent relationship for the benefit of children’s welfare and education (Dunst, cited in Porter, 2008, p. 6).  

Effective communication is believed aid relationships between all parties – this is embedded into the Teachers’ Standards (2012), which highlights a necessity for teachers to communicate effectively with parents with regard to pupils’ achievements and well-being in order to promote positive partnerships with parents and guardians. Establishing healthy and trusted relationships demonstrates that children’s education and well-being are of primary concern, thus signalling that children and parents can approach educational practitioners with their concerns (James, 2013).

A secure partnership between parents and practitioners “is an authentic way of sharing in the development of each child and his emotional and social growth and learning” (Hughes and Read, 2012, p. 53). This collaboration between parents, pupils and practitioners creates a ‘triangle of trust’, whereby healthy and trusted relationships are forged via direct, daily contact within a welcoming atmosphere (Goldschmied and Selleck, 1996). Hughes and Read (2012, p. 16) suggest, it is vital that these relationships are formed as early as possible, as failure to create trusting and positive relationships with parents can cause pupils and parents to become defensive or distant in future circumstances, as mentioned in Parental Feedback and Pupil Feedback.

ClassDojo (2019) claims to “connect teachers with students and parents to build amazing classroom communities”. The app allegedly achieves this by offering features to communicate with parents in order highlight pupils’ achievements and sanctions. These features include: direct messaging via the application; a ‘class story’ – where pupils’ work can be shared with parents in a scrolling timeline format; and a daily report feature. Through the applications digital communication platform, ClassDojo enables teachers to report constant and continual data on children’s behaviour directly to parents via the regularly updated behaviour profiles (Mavolev, 2018) – this creates a database of personalised student reports, thus demonstrating patterns and trends of pupil behaviour, which may ease teachers practice for tasks such as ‘report writing’, but also intensifies the surveillance culture within education, and extends school-based disciplinary into children’s homes (Mavolev, 2018). This therefore, prevents children’s personal liberty and creates additional pressures pupils to conform to expectations exhibited by teachers – a power narrative. 

Though it can be argued that these features enable teachers to communicate pupils’ achievements and areas of concern, it is prominent that achievements and concerns are condensed into designated categories. For instance, “calling out” or “not following instructions” identifies what the teacher perceives as misbehaviour, however, categorising children’s behaviour in this manner overlooks the cause of the defiant behaviour; which may be due to personal difficulties that the child is confronting – “External factors can influence the way that pupils behave in the classroom, if a child faces a range of experiences that they have no control over, the behaviour that they exhibit during their time at school may be the only way that a child is able to externalise their feelings” (Shelton and Brownhill, 2008, p. 68). Thus, the ability for teachers to delve into their students feelings and experiences is a significant factor in managing their individualised behaviour. A partnership between teacher and pupil subsequently enables practitioners to articulate constructive and appropriate feedback concerning children’s learning or behaviour (Rogers, 2011, p. 140).Thus, as the app favours the classification of behaviours, pupils’ achievements and areas of concern are condensed into categories which aim to police children’s’ behaviour. Therefore, it can be argued that the application forces pupils to accept the rising levels of surveillance and control within education and society.