Parental Perspective on Developing Family-School Partnership

Both the questionnaire and the interview participants’ responses implied that the school had a positive climate. The parents felt that they were listened to, and the teachers were willing to discuss with them and had supported their involvement by giving advice and sharing information. Nevertheless, the need to develop the partnership was largely acknowledged.

Reflecting on the results obtained both from the questionnaire respondents and the interviewees, developing the partnership focused largely on increasing the amount, or quality, of communication and receiving more information, or support in the form of specific advice.

Indeed, Bastiani, referenced by Ludicke and Kortman (2012), notes that the parents’

expectations for developing the partnership often center specifically around on improving communication.

Even though most (87%) of the respondents agreed to some extent or totally agreed to have discussed with the teachers and received advice regarding their children’s language education, a lot of the parents still wished to get more information. A great majority (91.3%) agreed to some extent or totally agreed when asked whether they would like the teachers to tell them

more about how languages are taught today, and how they could support their children’s language studying.

Many parents were aware of their personal needs, having rather clear ideas about how the teachers’ support could promote their involvement in their children’s English education. Over half (56.52%) of the parents who answered the open-response questions would have liked to develop the partnership between parents and teachers. They would have liked to receive support from the teachers to be able to help with homework or have the teacher explain the homework to them—and learn English. One respondent hoped to have more meetings with the teachers.

Another argued that the parents could be taken more into account since many of the teachers are foreigners and know little about the country, and so, the parents could be involved by supporting the teachers.

Additionally, all the other interviewees but one thought that there was a need for more communication. They mentioned that they would like to get more information and be involved a bit more, so that teachers and parents could be there for the children, together.

We would like to know more about their time together, the teacher and the kids, because they spend a lot of time together, and they are a lot more than teachers to them, they are friends, so we can know if they are facing any problem or challenge. Or if they are afraid or something-- (P 1)

Every tenth (13,1%) of the parents who answered the open-response questions informed that they did not want to develop partnership, explaining that they did not feel qualified, did not know English or lived faraway. Only few (8,7%) did not want to develop partnership at all while one-fifth (21,7%) did not respond. Hoover-Dempsey, Whitaker & Ice (2010, 41–42) establish that general invitations from the school support families’ active engagement.

However, specific invitations from the child’s teacher play an even stronger role. It builds trust, thus contributing to building an effective partnership. These invitations also answer more specifically their needs and the desire for information on how to be involved and what kind of activities could be helpful in supporting the child. In these cases, specific teacher invitations could be encouraging and effective in supporting the parents’ self-efficacy and role-taking, and the teacher’s initiation of communication could be affirming.

What could make the interviewees feel unsure about communicating with the teachers was their lack of English. Even though it did not seem to negatively affect building a relationship with the teachers, to some extent it was a barrier to effectively obtain information that the parents felt they needed to support their children better. Because of not knowing English, they did not

necessarily know that much about what was going on in the classroom, as much as they would have wanted to. One of them added that she was always looking for someone to translate to be able to communicate better with the teacher. However, the teachers were learning Spanish quite fast which made communication gradually easier.

[The language barrier] the only problem there is. I would be able to talk about everything.

I think it would be easier, the communication. Would be better about the homework. To help.

(P 6)

Home visitations were considered to foster the family–school relationship and several parents would have liked the teachers to do them more; teachers visiting the families frequently was seen to be beneficial to building a closer relationship and helping parents become more involved. Perhaps home visitations were thought to be an effective and desired way to foster the parent–teacher relationship also because they might provide an opportunity to discuss specific details one-on-one with the teacher in a relaxed environment and lower the threshold to communicate and share information despite some of the language limitations.

One of the interviewees mentioned that she would have liked to have the teacher visit more since she was busy with duties at home or taking care of the baby and could not come to the school to talk—even though the teacher would have been available. When the previous teacher had visited her home, she had felt more familiarized with the child’s education. Johnson (2001) also establishes that home visits can be especially helpful in cases where the parent is not able to come to the school to meet the teacher or keep track with the child’s progress (Ziyanak &

Yagci 2015).

She's keeping up with the child but sometimes she's not very informed of what's really going on. But it has a lot to do with her, setting time, coming to the school and actually sit down with the teacher because she knows that if she comes here and talks with the teachers, they are very open to have time to speak with her. (P 4)

Parents’ meetings “offer great potential for healthy home–school relations, and for motivating effective parental involvement” (Okeke 2014, 6). Indeed, they were important for the interviewees in the bilingual school as well as they felt that they had the opportunity to discuss and ask questions, express their opinions and the teacher had time to listen to them. The teachers and parents seemed to engage in a dialogue that answered the parents’ need for information.

One of the parents gave some criticism, however, regarding the parents’ meetings, saying that they are often quite short to go through everything, which might be because it seemed to her

like lately there had been less meetings than before, and a lot of activities were squeezed in a little time frame.

Moreover, some parents recognized the resources that they had which could mutually benefit the teachers, wishing that their opinions and readiness to help were considered more by the school. The sense of being in meaningful communication derives from being heard. More time could be allotted to listening to the parents’ opinions in general, and that is something the school could possibly improve on.

-- in the town I hear what the parents' opinions are. And I feel like... I sort of feel the same way; I feel like our opinions are not counted here. -- I'm not saying that they should always take our opinions or whatever because our opinions are not always correct. But maybe, maybe to listen to opinions a little bit more. Or maybe have like a box where they receive the opinions of parents. (P 3)

When welcoming the parents to voice their opinions, the school should naturally take them into account. Shim (2018, 5) discusses how the inability to influence a teacher’s decision making can be frustrating for parents, and cites an interviewee: “They tell us that our opinions are welcome and that we are free to voice our opinions but then they do whatever they want to do anyway.” According to the findings by Barge et al. (2003), parents get a feeling of ownership and are more likely to become engaged when the school receives parental input, includes them in the development process and involves them in curricular decision making before implementing educational programmes. The parents’ meetings, for example, can allot the time and space for this.

Regarding parents’ meetings, Inglis (2012) presents also that parents appreciate approachability while neutrality, often perceived as professionalism by teachers, could be interpreted as lack of empathy. Räty (2009) establishes that a relaxed atmosphere, ability to address difficult topics in a constructive way and sharing experiences as well as solving problems together with other parents affected the parents’ positive views of parents’ meetings. On the contrary, being dominated by ‘loud’ parents, spending time on trivialities and the inability to talk about real problems were among negative experiences. Also, being assigned a passive role that did not promote dialogue or give the parents a chance to influence matters made them feel little respected.