Home-School Relationships: Valuable or Problematic (original) (raw)
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School Community Journal, 2002
Home-school liaisons in Cyprus have not yet been systematically studied. This paper presents the main findings of a nation-wide questionnaire survey, which investigated the issue among teachers and families in Cyprus primary state schools. Teachers' and families' perspectives on how these relationships are currently implemented are identified, as well as their views on whether, and if so how, these liaisons need to be transformed.
Parental involvement in schools: The perspectives of Cypriot principals
Journal of Educational Administration and Policy …, 2009
This paper presents the findings of a survey study conducted in Cyprus primary state schools, which aimed at outlining principals' perspectives concerning parental involvement in school life. The research involved a representative sample of principals of the schools concerned. The analysis and interpretation of the data indicated that current home-school links are extremely limited. It was also found that even though the principals express a need to modify their schools' relationships with the pupils' parents, their suggestions still imply mild modes of family involvement, and not broader levels of participation. These views were found to relate to certain personal characteristics of the principals and a number of external variables. The findings are discussed within the current context of vivid surge within the Cyprus educational system for the introduction of relevant innovation and change.
2002
This paper presents findings from a nationwide survey of Cyprus' elementary school teachers and families regarding home-school liaisons. Data analysis reveals that both teachers and families feel that currently implemented practices linking home and school in Cyprus are restricted. At the same time, they express a need to modify their relationships, even though their suggestions still imply low levels of family involvement. Both parents and teachers agree on the utility of further informing families about general educational and pedagogical issues and on the importance of opening the class and the school to families in order to provide them with a first-hand view of the work done within the school. Families, however, prioritize receiving immediate and direct information about their own children, something that teachers do not appear willing to further pursue. The analysis also indicates that the nature and extent of family-school liaisons in Cyprus primary schools might differ according to a number of external variables relating to the school and teaching context, as well as to some demographic characteristics of teachers and families. Findings are discussed within the context of efforts to introduce innovation and change into Cyprus' educational system. (Contains 58 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
IHome-School Relationships in Primary Schools Parents' Perspectives
This paper presents the results from the second phase of a case study exploring home-school relationships in Cyprus based on parents' perspectives. Interviews with parents indicated that they understood that home-school co-operation might benefit children's attainments, emphasising the family's role in education and in formation of character. Parents confirmed that current home-school relationships were limited to parents' meetings and routine communication with teachers. Many parents however emphasised that the nature of homeschool relationships depended upon the teachers' approach and suggested that teachers should initiate more contact and increase the frequency of meetings. Some parents were also critical of other parents who were seen to create problems and not accept teachers' views. This suggested that improvement of home-school relationships would be challenging and could vary from a parent to parent. The relationship between school culture and orientation of the family to that culture is not straightforward and mediated implicitly through the child's social behaviour and academic achievement. The current situation in Cyprus suggests that school teachers bring two key constructs to home-school relations: one relates to children's conduct, character and manners; the other to learning, acquisition of knowledge and academic attainment. Where there are concerns about either of these, teachers regard it as the parents' responsibility to address them. Parents meanwhile acknowledge the dominant role of teachers in defining the homeschool relationship and accept that the nature of the relationship depends upon the parent as well as the teacher. However, they would welcome more opportunity to renegotiate this role.
International Journal about Parents in Education, 2007, Volume 1, Number 0
ernape.net
This paper describes the findings of a comparative study of rural and urban communities in Cyprus concerning the perceptions of primary school teachers and community stakeholders as regards school-community relations. The data were collected via a semi-structured interviewing technique amongst primary school teachers and community stakeholders. The analysis of the qualitative data demonstrates that both primary teachers and community stakeholders whether in a rural or an urban area consider school-community cooperation as a positive and important factor in their respective spheres of interest. However, teachers were found to maintain a more conservative stance towards relationships with the local community, believing that their professional autonomy is threatened by interferences of community stakeholders and agents. Furthermore, there was a divergence of perceptions between rural participants and their urban counterparts as regards to the extent to which such a cooperation should take place; both teachers and community stakeholders in rural areas seemed to be more willing to extend their communication and their relations in additional fields. On the contrary, teachers and community stakeholders in urban sites seemed more conservative towards such a situation; they regard that such a cooperation and such relations should be limited. The findings come to validate similar findings reported in the limited literature in Cyprus (Georgiou, 1998; Symeou, 2002) and indicate that there is a lot of ground to be covered towards extending and improving school-community relations for the benefit of all institutions concerned.
2013
Based on the view that parental participation in the educational process enhances learning, school success and children prosperity, we conducted a preliminary exploratory research, so as to examine the current home-school relations in Cyprus regarding parents with disabled children. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews with six parents of disabled children. The interviewees revealed some gloomy aspects regarding the implementation of the special education law in Cyprus. In particular, the six parents reported that disabled children in Cyprus are often considered incapable of learning and unable to approach the prevalent normality. Such views seem to reflect the prevalence of prejudice and negative stereotypes, which often define home-school relations and teachers' expectations from disabled children in Cyprus. Secondly, the six parents discussed some segregation education practices, related to unequal power relations, which seem to hinder inclusion. In particular t...
The Family-School relationship in Europe: A Research Review
2012
The literature on research carried out in the field and parents\u2019 and teach- ers\u2019 declarations all point in the same direction: good collaboration be- tween home and school is useful to the child-student for his education and learning. Despite this, parent-teacher relationships in Europe (and elsewhere), from Spain to Sweden, from Ireland to Greece, and from Italy to the Czech Republic, represent an unresolved issue. This is a com- plex relationship that calls into play various social spheres: macro (so- cial), intermediary (institutional) and micro (relational); in fact, there are as many diverse realities as there are schools. In Europe, the relation- ship between individual behaviours (parents vs. teachers), social orien- tations (neoliberalism) and institutional frameworks (school markets) appears significant: scarce parental participation, lack of adequate forms of home-school communications, and the need to make investments in parent and teacher training. Nevertheless...