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A significant body of previous research shows that the teacher-student relationship is important for both teacher and student well-being and learning. Hence, teachers’ relational competence is key to social sustainability in education. Today, there is an epidemic of mental health problems among university students. Furthermore, drop-out rates when university courses are carried out in digital learning environments are high. 

This study is about how teachers can understand and develop their relational competence in relation to different conditions and framework factors when teaching goes digital, i.e. teachers' digital relational competence for teaching in digital learning environments. The questions are thus about what digital relational competence is, how it relates to the learning context, how we can develop this competence, and, consequently, how we can teach it to teachers and student teachers in effective ways. 

Although there is a relatively good consensus on what relational competence means, there is still some variation in how it is described in a general sense and what terminology is used. However, these conceptualisations are mostly based on traditional teaching situations. Nonetheless, these will form the basis of our operationalisation in collecting data. These concepts include for instance: facilitation of development and learning, social presence, pedagogical imagination and tact, tactfulness, care, psychological safety, adaptation to relational pace and space, seeing the student, being relationally responsible, being authentic, being able to differentiate professionally, communicative, and manage socio-emotionally difficult situations. 

Interviews will be carried out with 10 university teachers in both Finland and Sweden during the spring of 2025. These will be analysed using reflective thematic analysis and compared to results from a prior interview study on students’ experiences and thoughts about teacher-student relations in digital university courses. Results will be finalized and presented at the conference.