Finnish and Portuguese Parents’ Perspectives on the Role of Teachers in Parent-Teacher Partnerships and Parental Engagement

Abstract

The current educational reforms in Finland and Portugal require a holistic engagement of parents with learning, bringing parents and teachers together as partners. This qualitative study, which interviewed Finnish (N = 10) and Portuguese (N = 9) parents, aimed to explore parents’ views on the role of teachers in supporting parent–teacher partnerships and parental engagement with the school. Inductive content analysis was performed to analyze the interviews. From a general standpoint, three patterns were found in the parents’ narratives about the role of teachers in supporting partnership and engagement: communication, professionalism, and invitations to active parental participation. From a cross-cultural standpoint, Finnish parents evidenced partnerships and engagement grounded in little face-to-face contact but consistent online communication with the teacher, as well as trust in their professionalism and independent work. The Portuguese parents revealed rather frequent active participation within the school premises, more recurrent face-to-face communication with the teacher, and appreciation for teachers’ timely responses and support. Recommendations for a holistic approach of engagement and partnerships were brought forward within the context of teacher education, such as the need to maintain simple but regular communication with parents and the relevance of reconsidering the frequency of parental activities in the school.

Preparing Pre-Service Teachers for Family Engagement: Insights from the Initial Teacher Education Syllabus

“…FIPE is described as professionals and families collaborating to enhance children's potential in social, emotional, behavioural, and academic domains [1,25]. It is a multidimensional construct suffering from a variety of perceptions, definitions, and designations to describe the same school-family dynamics: this proliferation of terms and definitions in scientific, political, and common-sense discourses may represent one of the biggest obstacles to investigating FIPE [8,26,27].…”

“…Walker [18] even states that initial teacher education may be limiting the quantity, scope, and quality of teaching and consequent learning about FIPE. So, future early childhood educators finish their courses without feeling confident about promoting and effectively supporting this core competence, with no formal education in this area [11,27]. Therefore, despite recognising its importance, many early childhood educators find implementing and maintaining this involvement challenging [53].…”

Analyzing the Mechanisms by Which Digital Platforms Influence Family-School Partnerships among Parents of Young Children

“…Parents have indicated that they prefer to have frequent online interactions with teachers, and they believe that the responsibility for building a strong partnership lies primarily with the teachers and preschools. Parents believe that online communication is more conducive to fostering partnerships [35]. They view digital messaging positively because it enables them to receive information about their young children through digital platforms, and it creates a friendly and flowing environment for parent-teacher communication online.…”

Partnerstvo odgojitelja i roditelja djece s teškoćama u razvoju

“…Ako roditelji nisu dovoljno zainteresirani za sudjelovanje u vrtićkim aktivnostima, mogu se pojaviti problemi koji mogu negativno utjecati na razvoj djeteta, što su pokazali i rezultati istraživanja (Albaiz i Ernest, 2021;Bender et al, 2021). Posebno su ukazali na nužnost partnerskog odnosa odgojitelja i roditelja u radu s djecom s teškoćama u razvoju, što je pokazalo usporedno istraživanje procjena roditelja u Finskoj i Portugalu o doprinosu odgojitelja i učitelja njihovoj većoj uključenosti u aktivnosti vrtića i u pripremi djece za polazak u školu (Levinthal et al, 2021).…”