engleski

Parents’ Perception on Parent–Teacher Partnerships

Taking the parental perspective, this paper explores the experience of partnership between parents and preschool teachers. The aim of this study was to examine the parental perception of parent–teacher partnerships and to establish the relation of the parents’ socio-demographic characteristics and length of their child's attendance of preschool. This study examined a sample of 271 parents of children of early and preschool age. The Scale of parental perception of parent–teacher partnerships was designed for the purpose of this study. Maximum likelihood factor analysis using Cattell-scree test obtained three factors: mutuality in building partnerships (α = .93 ; N=14 ; M=5.48), provided support in parenting (α = .92 ; N=6 ; M=3.84), and parents’ receptivity to advices in upbringing (α = .73 ; N=4 ; M=5.38). As expected, the mutuality in building partnerships and the parents’ receptivity to teacher’ advice on upbringing have a high positive correlation. The parental perception of quality parent– teacher partnerships is related to the parents’ level of education and parent's frequency of attending parent-teacher conferences, length of their child's attendance of preschool, but not to the parents’ marital status. Results show that parents perceived that partnerships with teachers are on a relatively high level. Parents also differ in their capacity to develop and maintain partnerships with teachers depending on the level of education, length of their child's attendance of preschool, and the parent's frequency of attending parent-teacher conferences. Despite considerable theoretical and policy promotion of parents-teacher partnerships in inclusive settings, pre-service teachers in Croatia generally receive little preparation for involving parents. Therefore, suggestions are provided for preschool teachers that will help them to establish and maintain productive relationships with individual needs of families.

parents, partnerships, support, teachers

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