This study builds on and contributes to research on student teachers' relational concerns in teacher education, as four Grade 3 Norwegian student teachers were followed during their internship for two periods of two weeks each. The article presents and discusses data from interviews and student teachers' logs, while the aim of the study is to investigate the underlying motives for the student teachers' relational concerns. The analysis indicates that the student teachers' motives for their interpersonal relations with pupils are more sophisticated than what has been found with other research and are driven by personal and perceived pupil needs. (Contains 2 figures.)