Frederik Smit & Geert Driessen (2005) ERNAPE Parent school community relations in a changing society

Oviedo (Spain), 16th September 2005
Parent-school-community relations in
a changing society

Bottlenecks, Pitfalls and Solutions

Frederik Smit
and
Geert Driessen
ITS, Radboud University
Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Introduction
• The debate on the primary tasks of
schools and parents in many countries.
• The more specific attention to the
pedagogical function of education.
• Pedagogical responsibilities of parents,
schools and local communities.

Research questions
• What is the primary task of schools and
what is the primary task of parents?
• How do parenting, care and education
relate to each other in a changing society?
• Is a different organisation of education
required and do schools need to be more
adequately provided for care and
pedagogical tasks?

Research design
• Review of the literature: The Netherlands,
Belgium, Germany, England, France, Sweden
and the United States.
• Email survey among 125 international experts in
Europe through ERNAPE (European Research
Network About Parents in Education)
• Email survey among 100 INET (International
Network of Scholars) - a network of mainly
American researchers and policy officers.

Key questions in the survey
1. What are, at present, the main topics in
your country regarding child care and
school-parent-community relations?
2. Are there any bottlenecks and pitfalls in
these relations?
3. What are the solutions to these
problems?

Pedagogical responsibilities of
parents and schools
1. Trend: towards the schools’ educational
tasks and the parents’ parental tasks
becoming more and more intertwined.
2. African proverb: ‘It takes the whole
village to raise a child’.
3. Partnership of parents, school and
community has a positive effect on the
pupils’ cognitive development and
performance.

Diagram 1: Differences in a number of countries as
regards the relations between parents, school and
community
Netherlands Belgium Germany England France Sweden US
Task school
Task
parents
Task
community
Education,
upbringing
and care
Actual
provisions
Desired
provisions

Diagram 1a: Differences: task school,
parents and community
Task
school
Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge
and
pedagogical
tasks
Task
parents
Partners Choice Partners Choice Partners Partners Support
Task
community
Large cities Limited Limited Limited None Limited Traditional
school of
communities

Diagram 1b: Differences: education,
upbringing, care, actual and desired
provisions
Education,
upbringing
and care
Everywhere Ample supply Ample supply Ample supply Ample supply Fair amount Much pre-
school care
available
Actual
provisions
None None None None None Own policy Professional
standards
Desired
provisions
Better More Open Better More Better Financial
support of
projects

Key concepts for adequate
collaborative relationships
Willingness Shared goals and objectives.
Developing a shared mission
statement.
Structure Agreements, procedures.
Culture Building a team. Shared beliefs
about parent involvement and
partnership.
Skills Parent-school-community partner
roles.
.

Key concepts for adequate
collaborative relationships
Willingness
to participate
Participation
structure
Participation
culture
Participation
skills

Parent roles at home (skills) - 1
Roles Goals and objectives
Nurturer Provide an appropriate environment
where the child will flourish physically,
psychologically and emotionally.
Communicator Communicate effectively with the child
and the schooI.
Teacher Assist with the child’s moral,
intellectual, emotional and social
development.

Parent roles at home (skills) - 2
Roles Goals and objectives
Supporter Helping children on home learning
activities.
Learner Learn to obtain new skills and
knowledge that will help with the
child’s educational and social
development.
Advisor Wisely counsel and advise the child
about personal ad educational
issues.
Advocator Effectively and actively advocate,
mediate, and negotiate for the child.

Collaborative relationships
between parents and school
T une in - Communication - Coordination - Coachin
g
Family School
Child

Progress in collaboration parent
and school roles
form
storm
norm
outcome
learning to
interact
negotiate role
acceptance
focus on
content
productivity

How do education, parenting and
care relate to each other in a
changing society?
• As a result of changing social relations (double-income families,
immigration), the parents’ parenting tasks and the schools’
educational tasks are overlapping each other more and more.
• The boundaries between education, parenting and care
become diffuse.
• The traditional institutional differentiation between education,
parenting and care thus comes under pressure, particularly
where pre- and early-school facilities and primary education are
concerned.

Is a different organisation of education required
and do schools need to be more adequately
provided for care and pedagogical tasks?
• Increasing social need for integrating education, care
and pedagogical tasks.
• A balanced supply of education and care is required.
• Schools ought to develop an outlook on the
harmonisation of education and pedagogical tasks, as
well as strategies to continue and improve the dialogue
between parents, school, care providers and the local
community (‘partnership’).
• Parties involved should also be better equipped to meet
these increasingly higher expectations.
• Evaluation of the professionalisation of the contacts
between schools, parents, care providers and the local
community on an annual basis.

Barriers between parents, school,
care providers: willingness
1. Mutual expectations Providing information,
home-school-
cooperation.
2. Responsibilities of each
partner
No role acceptance, no
signed contracts which
pledges cooperation and
outlines responsibilities
of each partner.
3. Communication Lack of communication,
one -way
communication.

Barriers: structure
4. Collaboration Single - dimensional
involvement.
5. Teacher’s position vis-à-
vis parents
Not addressing each other
about capacities. Problems
with power and trust.
6. Lack of good
communication.
No structural discussions
on (the cultural) differences
and problems at schools.

Barriers : culture
7. Vision on partnership and
pedagogical approaches
‘Missing families’:
parents finding home-
school-cooperation to
demanding. Differences
of opinion on child
rearing between
parents and teachers.
2. Cultural diversity Not addressing each
other about capacities
responsibilities and
agreements made.

Barriers : skills
1. Parents Lack of skills and
knowledge to interact,
negotiate, role
acceptance, focus on
content in partnership
relations.
2. Teachers Lack of specific
communication skills to
deal with parents with a
heterogeneity of foreign
cultures, languages
and religions.

Wishes parents
1. Better informed about learning activities
standards and values current at the
school.
2. More involvement, creating two-way
communication and more influence on
educational ideas of the school .
3. More involvement in governance,
decision-making and advocacy.

Recommandations: willingness to
participate
1. Parents should be considered less as suppliers of children
and more as serious partners, whom schools need to make
sure that pupils feel at home and also do well at school.
2. More than they do now, schools should take into account
the increasing diversity of backgrounds, wishes and
expectations of parents.
3. Parents should be made aware that they have the obligation
to maintain contacts with the school in their children’s
interest and to collaborate in upbringing and education.

Recommandations:
partnershipstructure
4. Parental involvement in education ought to be placed
much higher on the policy agenda in the plans of
schools and school boards.
5. Education and child rearing should become more
integrated; upbringing at school and upbringing at
home need to be harmonized
6. Schools have to create a situation in which a school’s
vision, views on moral standards and values, the
relation between socialization and qualification, mutual
expectations of teachers and parents, and tasks and
responsibilities are made much more explicit.

Recommandations:
partnershipculture
7. Create a learning community. It is essential that
teachers and parents are open towards each other,
become acquainted with each other’s cultural and
religious backgrounds, and consider education and
upbringing their joint task and responsibility.
8. Teachers and parents ought be more aware of the fact
that they need each other to communicate better
about the pedagogical climates at home and at school,
and about how to integrate each other’s contributions
and develop respect for each other’s contributions to
the children’s upbringing and education.

Recommandations:
partnershipskills parents
10. Empowerment. Strengthen, reinforce, empower parents to
feel competent as partners of teachers and care providers.
11. Support to parents might consist of providing information on
the rights and obligations of parents and schools regarding
education and upbringing.
12. The goal of training for parents might be to provide them with
tools that allow them to improve the roles that they can play
in their children’s affective and cognitive development.

Recommandations:
partnershipskills teachers
10. Through peer supervision, teachers might help to improve
their colleagues’ expertise in this field within the context of
their own work situation.
11. Further training of teachers should be aimed at optimizing
the communication and interaction between teachers and
parents.
12. More attention should be paid to the teacher’s position vis-
à-vis parents and also to such aspects as a customer-
oriented approach to work, making mutual expectations
explicit, and addressing each other about capacities,
responsibilities and agreements made.

Frederik Smit & Geert Driessen (2005) ERNAPE Parent school community relations in a changing society

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