Building strong parent–teacher relationships in primary education: the challenge of two-way communication

ABSTRACT

This study investigates which subjects teachers talk about with parents in parent–teacher conferences and other contact moments, and how they communicate with regard to these subjects. Fifty-five in-depth interviews were carried out with teachers from special education schools, at-risk schools serving low socio-economic status children and mainstream primary education schools in the southern part of the Netherlands. The results illustrate that (1) two-way communication is used the most in at-risk schools, (2) teachers find it difficult to involve parents in the decision-making process concerning special care for the child, and (3) the teachers’ attitude towards parents is best when it comes to difficult discussion topics. When situations are really difficult, teachers stand alongside the parents instead of addressing them from their expert role, asking them ‘How can we solve this together?’. Teachers should be more aware of this quality, and not be afraid to address difficult subjects or conflicts.

KEYWORDS:

• Primary school teachers
• inclusive education
• social class

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the teachers of Kindante and INNOVO for making this study possible. This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Taskforce Practice-Oriented Research (NWO-SIA, Field Initiated Study Grant No. 2015-02-39P)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In 2014–2015 semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with a total of 22 mothers and five fathers, eight with parents from two at-risk schools (three with a low and five with a medium education level), 11 with parents from two mainstream schools (six with a medium and five with a high education level) and eight with parents from two special education schools (three with a low, three with a medium and three with a high education level). The sample represents the parent population of each school, based on education level. We consider parents with a low education level when the highest educated parent has a maximum of pre-vocational secondary education. Parents are considered medium educated when the highest educated parent has at least secondary vocational, senior general secondary or pre-university education. Finally, parents are considered highly educated when at least one parent has a minimum of higher professional or university education (Leenders et al., 2018).

2. In the Dutch school system, children with minor learning or behavioural difficulties are included in mainstream primary schools, whereas children with learning disabilities (IQ rate 50–90) or behavioural disorders attend special education schools.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [Field Initiated Study Grant No. 2015-02-39P].