A multidisciplinary body of literature has established that students’ affective

relationships with teachers are associated with important academic and developmental

outcomes. In this article, we explored late adolescents’ active interpretations of what

we call "being known" in high school. Distinct from a generalized perception

of the school environment, namely, sense of school belonging, the concept of being known

may provide a cohesive and efficient framework for understanding the intersections of

developmental tasks, psychosocial perceptions, and effective teaching. Our focus group

data with adolescents (M = 16.65 years old, N = 77) yielded three

robust findings (a) moving beyond "just teach" teacher relationships; (b)

providing instrumental support; and (c) engaging a benefit-of-the-doubt treatment of

students. We examined each of these key themes to probe how connectedness is created

or undermined through the moment-by-moment experiencing of relational structures

characterized by students’ perceptions of being known by adults in an educational

context.