Teacher-Student Relationship and Learning Satisfaction: Student Engagement as a Mediating Mechanism in Heritage Music Education among Mongolian University Students

Abstract

This study is a response to the increasing focus on students’ cultural identity, emotional experience, and learning satisfaction in the field of heritage education, examining heritage music learning at Mongolian university students in Inner Mongolia. The study investigates 1) the impact of teacher-student relationship on learning satisfaction; (2) the effect of teacher-student relationship on student engagement; (3) the effect of student engagement on learning satisfaction; and (4) if student engagement mediates the association between teacher-student relationship and learning satisfaction. Employing stratified sampling, a quantitative and cross-sectional survey design was used to sample nine universities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Considering the population size, a target sample of 350 was set for 2,186 Musicology undergraduates who attend courses related to heritage music education. The data were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS 28.0 through reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, Fornell-Larcker discriminant validity, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping to examine mediational effects. The results also reveal that teacher-student relationship and student engagement are significant positive predictors of learning satisfaction. Bootstrapping additional supports that there is a statistically significant indirect effect of teacher-student relationship on learning satisfaction through student engagement. The study contributes by bringing relational (teacher-student relationship) and psychological-process (student engagement) accounts of learning satisfaction together in a culturally specific heritage music education context, by extending engagement-based mediation evidence to ethnic minority higher education, and by providing practical implications for culturally responsive pedagogy to enhance engagement and to support Mongolian musical heritage transmission in universities.