Promoting cooperation between schools and parents, but how?

International studies show that parental involvement can have a positive effect on children's success at school. Families support their child's development at school by helping their child to organise time for homework, motivating them to learn or discussing topics at home that will be covered at school. For this reason, it has long been recommended to promote educational partnerships with the parents of pupils in schools and pre-school childcare centres. In terms of shared educational responsibility, it is important to ensure a mutual exchange of information, transparent processes and regular dialogue about the children's learning development. Ideally, parents should not only be involved in the family learning environment, but also in the school environment. This can be in the school's parents' council, for example, or by supporting school activities.

«For an «educational partnership» to be successful, it is crucial that parents contribute their expertise.»

However, before such partnerships can flourish, there are often hurdles to overcome. In practice, it has been shown that not all parents (can) get involved to the same extent. The degree of their participation can depend on many factors, such as their own educational background or lack of language skills. These factors are also currently being discussed in educational research. For an «educational partnership» to be successful, it is crucial that parents, regardless of their social background, contribute their skills and assume joint responsibility for the children with the teachers. To ensure this, circular cooperation processes are useful so that individual challenges, personal expectations and common goals can be reflected upon and adapted on the basis of joint discussions. In addition, communication and accessibility should be ensured via suitable media (e.g. email, telephone, letters to parents in different languages of origin) and low-threshold support services (e.g. cross-class parent networks) that meet the individual needs of parents.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected «educational partnerships» ?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning during the lockdown, many mothers and fathers found themselves even more in the role of learning support for their children. The pandemic also highlighted the need for efficient communication channels and trust-based relationships between schools and families to ensure children's success at school.

Regardless of school closures, educational partnerships between teachers and parents are regularly put to the test. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the training and professional development of teachers was criticised as inadequate in this regard. Prospective teachers also feel that they are not well prepared for the task of counselling parents.

Empirical studies indicate that parents are often unsure of how to support their children and sometimes avoid direct contact with teachers. A German study of 1,126 parents at general education schools showed that over half of socially disadvantaged parents feel unsure about how they can best support their children at school. At 54%, this is more than twice as many as among socially better-off families (24%).

«From an educational policy perspective, schools have a special responsibility to involve all families and to strive for a successful «educational partnership» with them.»

There can be various reasons for a lack of parental involvement. There is a group who trust their own skills and knowledge enough or even more than the school. Others hesitate due to language barriers and still others feel unwelcome when they perceive a kind of «expert-layman» hierarchy.
Our working group asked parents about their experiences and perceptions of school learning support during school closures. The survey revealed that the frequency of communication between parents and teachers was low overall, but that the quality of communication was perceived rather positively by parents.

The current situation underlines the importance of sensitising teachers to the needs of their pupils and their parents in their training and professional development. In addition to structural changes, more research-based reform approaches need to be established in order to sustainably strengthen the communication and counselling skills of prospective teachers. From an educational policy perspective, schools have a special responsibility to involve all families and to strive for a successful «educational partnership» with them.

BOLD Blog

The blog, an initiative of the Jacobs Foundation, has set itself the goal of familiarising a global and broad readership with how children and young people learn. Top researchers and young academics share their expert knowledge and discuss with an inquisitive readership how children and young people develop and flourish in the 21st century, what they struggle with, how they play and how they use technology.

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