How teachers and parents see each other in their mutual »co-operation«

Dr. Barbara Šteh

Summary:  In this paper, various models of teacher-parent relationships are presented: ranging from those that are playing down the involvement and active role of parents to those emphasizing it. The prevailing approach to establishing teacher-parent relationships in a particular school depends also on the dominating teaching culture of the school in question and on the prevailing educational beliefs and attitudes of the teachers. Additionally, the quality of co-operation depends on teachers’ knowledge and skills, as well as on parents’ experience, expectations and attitudes. In this paper we focus on parents’ views of teachers and teachers’ views of parents. Only when they see each other as competent persons can they accept each other as partners in mutual educational and problem-solving activities. The results acquired through polling a representative sample of teachers and parents show that this is not always the case, as only half of the parents view teachers as education experts, while the vast majority of teachers only partly agree with the statement that »parents today know how to be parents«.