Building bridges

As part of a broader study of 115 teachers, Johnson reviewed literature on parent involvement and engaged teachers in discussions of parents

Some citations of the older literature included the following:

Teachers and parents as rivals

Waller (1932). Parents and teachers are natural enemies, "predestined each for the discomfiture of the other"

Lightfoot (1978). Parents and teachers have fundamentally different views about how children can best be school

Lortie (1975). Teachers preferred to be gatekeepers, regulating and restricting parental involvement in schools

In Johnson's study...

Teachers believed that parental involvement is essential for children's academic success. They hoped for parental confirmation that students were learning, and sought parental insight and support when they were not. They urged parental involvement in school and classroom activities. Virtually all agreed that they needed parents' presence and support if they were to educate all children

Other findings...

Most teachers thought of parents as potential partners and mediators of school success

Many teachers saw a connection between a child's readiness to learn and the family's social class

Most saw SES as the best predictor of a parent's attendance at school events

Findings...

To explain low parental involvement, teachers mentioned that working class and poor families were more likely to believe that schools would be unresponsive and intimidating, and that often these expectations were well grounded

They believed wealth did not inevitably lead to more productive home/school relations

Findings….

Teachers working in schools that served upper-middle-class or wealthy populations were more likely to report that parents challenged their practices than were teachers in working class or low income neighborhoods

Overall

Teachers were grateful for parents who were attentive to the child's experiences in school. They were annoyed by the few parents who discounted teachers' expertise and treated them like functionaries, but they were tolerant of parents who demanded more than their share of attention and influence, perceiving them as well-intentioned

Schools as mediators of parental involvement

Sometimes teachers wanted to bridge the cultural and economic distance between them and their students' families but did not know how

Open schools and active parents were more likely to be found in privileged communities where parents insisted on becoming involved, but there were exceptions

The school's role

Results suggest strongly that schools can do much to encourage or discourage, promote or impede, greater interaction between parents and teachers. Teachers who seek closer working relations with parents achieve those relations far more readily in schools where parents are often present and active in school life and where norms that endorse close home/school connections are well established

What works...

When parents are present in the school, they were perceived to have a better understanding of how the school worked and what teachers expected. Moreover, they influenced teachers' expectations. Their presence indirectly conferred the community's endorsement of formal education

What works….

Teacher seem able to achieve cooperative workshop relations with parents under two sets of circumstances

Affluent schools where parents initiate such contact or respond to teachers' invitations whether or not the school is organized to support their involvement

Less advantaged schools where principals and teachers purposely welcome parents, give volunteers meaningful work, and provide support services to those in need