Home – School Cooperation
Crucial for children and young people’s learning and development
Solveig Roth
2015
The Univesal Declaration of Human Rights
Art. 26 – part 3
Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education
that shall be given to their children.
In Norway:
(Law for primary and secondary education § 5-4)
Excerpt: If parents are worried about the students learning
outcome they have the right to ask the school to look into the
matter. The school has a duty to investigate the matter and to take
proper measures in cooperation with the parents. If the school and
the parents sees it necessary they can ask for the community
pedagogical-psychological services for advice.
Purpose of the Lecture
• Refresh existing knowledge about home – school cooperation
• Present new research about the value of home – school
cooperation
• Create awareness about dilemmas regarding
 Teachers’ and school’s perspectives on educational challenges
 Parents’ and student’s perspective on educational challenges
• Seeing, understanding and solving the ‘unseen’ academic and
social challenges
• The role of the home – school cooperation
Parent-school relationships - a significant
determinant of the quality of school education.
•
Comparing demographic characteristics, research shows that higher-income,
higher-educated and majority ethnic parents are more likely to be in contact
with schools than their counterparts.
 Lower socio-economic status and minority ethnic parents are found to be less
commonly involved in schools largely because of a range of obstacles preventing
their involvement.
•
Mothers appear to be more involved than fathers in the child’s schooling,
not only because they may choose to do so, but also because they are
“appointed” such a role (except British/Norwegian South-Asian heritage
families where fathers tend to be more involved).
 Connection with school is generally presented as a female role, which is white
and middle class and parents are constructed as heteronormative.
 Teachers must take into consideration that it is not all parents/families that are
enabled to have, strong relationships with their children’s schools.
Parents’ Impact on Students' Learning Outcomes
International studies show that parents’ attitude explain much of the
variation in students' academic performance.
Cooperation home/school
Education level
Learning outcome
Parental support
Parental support includes talking about school, asking about the kids’ wellbeing and to provide help and support for schoolwork.
The Sogn & Fjordane County Study
Relationship between learning environment and learning outcome
Population:110 000
Density: 5.9/km2
What do they do?
- agriculture
- some industry
- teacher education
The Sogn & Fjordane County Study
The following learning environment factors
were investigated:
 The teacher as a leader (of teaching and social
environment)
 Relationship between student and teacher
 Relationship between students
 The use of rules and norms which are importante for
the student
 Teachers’ view on students and academic expectations
 Home – school cooperation
Methods and Findings
• Qualitative research: Number of samples: 1730 students
(93%) and 1803 parents (58%)
• Method: Measuring effect size based on differences
between S&F and Norwegian average grades (national
tests)
 Despite the fact that S&F parents have lower than
average education their children have 0.15s better
grades than the national average (grades A-F)
 Findings:Parents involvement in school is important.
Parents’ evaluation of home – school
cooperation
• Small, but significantly better information and contact with
school
• Small, but significantly better dialogue about teaching, learning and
development
Parent support and contact with other parents:
• S&F parents support their children slightly more than average
• S&F parents do not contact other parents more than average
• S&F parents show more interest in education and communicate this
to their children
Students’ impressions about parental school work support:
• The students report a small, but significantly higher support than
average
(Nordahl et al. 2015)
John Hattie (2009): Parent-related factors that
contribute to students’ learning outcome
Factors
Effect size
Socioeconomic status (pay, edu.level, position)
0,57
Engagement (expectations, level of communication, teaching
methods)
0,51
Learning environment with good social relations between the
students, and a student culture that supports learning
0,53
Cooperation between home and school, parents with realistic
expectations and that parents support their children's learning and
schooling
0,51
Home work
0,48
The teacher / the lectures
Relation to student, structured teaching methods, feedback
0,68
A systemic approach
• The student’s social ‘world’
may be hidden to both
parents and school.
Teacher with
focus on
teaching
?
?
Parents’
understanding
of childrens’
social school
world
?
Students’
social
relationships
in school
• The school and the home
must jointly look for signals





‘Whining’ children
Silent / noisy children
Academically lagging students
High achieving students
etc …
Reflect - 5 minutes
Dilemma:
One of the girls constantly ask for help. Her parents
don’t seem to help her with homework. The mother ask
if her daughter is bullied in school.
As a teacher you cannot see that the girl is bullied. You
wonder why the parents do not help their daughter
with homework. Also, you know that her parents are
about to divorce.
Possibilities for school – home communication:
• How do we check that our assumptions are right?
• How can we approach the situation jointly?
• At what point should we involve additional services?
Home – School Cooperation Principles - I
• All types of cooperation give results.
• The teacher – student relation improves if the teacher also
knows the parents (cf. Hattie).
• Conflicts and negative experiences can sometimes dominate
compared to positive experiences – cooperation is a complicated
process.
• Home – school cooperation has, like all other relations, both a
positive and a negative potential.
 Example – conflict
Home – School Cooperation Principles - II
• Cooperation can succeed if parents and teachers have clear and
common goals.
• Teachers and parents must have a mutual trust relation.
• Teachers and parents must regard each other as resources for
the student’s learning and development.
• Information important for teachers:
 Children’s and family’s everyday cultural practices and interests (like
work experience, family history, activities etc)
 Cildren and parent’s thoughts about well-being and learning outcome
 Children’s future orientations
 Parents’ educational expectations
 Need thorough mapping at an early stage
 Teachers educational expectations???
Home – School Cooperation Principles - III
1. Information
•
Exchange of information between school and home and from parents to
school, for example by teachers orienting about pedagogical methods and
how the students manage.
2. Dialogue and discussions
•
A genuine and truthful communication between parents and teachers about
the students, the lectures, and learning environment and the school’s
development.
3. Democratic contribution
•
The school and the parents must influence the decissions and pedagogical
methods. It is important that the parents’ views are taken into account by
the teachers and the school.



School level
Class level
Student level
Cooperating with Parents - I
• Outsourcing av childhood
 Parents wish to leave upbringing to school. Children spend
much time in school, and a busy everyday life for the
partents may enhance this sintuation.
• Shared responsibility for the child
 School’s responsibility is teaching and pedagogical
development. Parents’ responsibility is upbringing and
social development.
• Common responsibility for the child
 Home and school has a common responsibility for the
child’s development. The parties must work together to
resolve this as equal partners. This requires dialogue
between the parties to reach a common agreement on what
should be done (Nordahl, 2007).
Cooperating with Parents - II
• The parents have the primary responsibility for the
upbringing of their own children, it is not the
community’s responsibility.
• Academic learning and social and personal development
takes place in school.
• Collaboration between the home and school is especially
important; children spend increasingly more time of their
early life in educational institutions.
• Parents are important for the students’ well-being and
results in school (Nordahl).
Cooperating with Parents - III
• School/teacher frame the cooperation.
• School/teacher use their professional knowledge.
• Parents have knowledge about the student’s well-being, interests
and future trajectories – use this fact in the education!
• Morally founded decissions create a sense of unity.
• Horizontal relationships create unity?
Strengthen the parents’ involvement and cooperation based on
possibilities and wish for participation!
Involve yourself: Contribute with your own voice, believe in
yourself, feel valued and respected.
Discuss the following - 5 minutes
Contribution: Parents work together in groups to provide the
teachers with the necessary input; all the parents will be
heard and the individual’s interests and knowledge can be
voiced. Is this possible??
What do the parents expect from school?
What do the school expect from the parnets?
Who is responsible for the upbringing?
What is the school’s and the teacher’s role in assisting the
parents in the upbringing?
• Who (and how) should initiate the school – home
cooperation?
• Who is responsible for establishing the cooperation with the
REDIGERES I TOPP-/BUNNTEKST
parents?
•
•
•
•
An equality and resource oriented cooperation - I
In families with low socio-economic background the premises are:
• All parents are significant resources for their children.
• Resource orientation implies empowerment.
• Empowerment entails that teachers meet parents so that the
parents can believe in own opportunities and qualifications in
raising their children and in supporting them in school.
An equality and resource oriented cooperation - II
• Teachers must not address parents as if they have limited
resources.
 It is humiliating
 It is impossible to show respect to a person you think have limited
resources
 It can reduce the opportunity for cooperation
• All parents have resources with respect to own children.
An equality and resource oriented cooperation - III
• All parents have the opportuity to convey information about
school, and most parents will have their own views about the
education.
• School should pay heed to the information and the views that
parents have.
• Parents notice how the children do in school, if the subjects are
difficult or easy, the pedagogical methods, the noise level, wellbeing etc.
• Such feedback is useful of all the teachers !!!
By understanding parents feedback the teacher shows that the
parents can contribute.
An equality and resource oriented cooperation - IV
• All education and upbringing is about grown-ups, whether they
are teachers or parents, will to influence children in certain
directions.
• Parents will always wish that their childrens succeed socially,
have friends, feel well and participate inside and outside of
school.
• All parents wish that their children can release their potential for
learning.
• The ideal for the school: to use the parents as a resource
(Dencik, Jørgensen og Sommer 2008).
Practical advice – I
The school must recognize that parents are the experts on their
own children. Parents need to recognize the school's responsibility
for the social and academic learning process.
 Important in order to achieve a good and lasting home - school
cooperation.
Working with parents – remember:
•
•
•
•
•
Cooperation based on equality! Parents are co-workers, not counterparts.
Approach the parents with an open and forthcoming attitude – listening can
be as important as talking.
Parents’ involvement is important for the children’s academic and social
development.
Parents are a resource for the school.
School must emphasise positive feedback.
Practical advice - II
A good communication with the parents involves:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Involving them as soon as possible.
Be flexible on time and place for meetings.
Show humility.
Showing that you care about their children is a good starting point.
Focus on the goals, not the problems.
Be clear, not vague.
Be sure that you are understood.
Have a common viewpoint about challenges, invite them to cooperate.
Listen!
Don’t blame the parents or the students, or defend yourself. Be
methodological and professional.
Be realistic.
Believe in change.
Follow-up, fix meeting dates and actions.
Practical advice - III
Positive parent contribution and involvement in learning:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Make groups of parents
Home visits
Parent network
Invite and involve all the parents to the classroom and excursions
Involve the parents/grandparents in the classroom teaching
Visit the parents workplace
Practical advice - IV
Communication:
• Be polite. Smile, firm handshake, see, listen etc acknowledged
respect.
• Mutual trust and respect make it possible to create unity.
Reflect - 5 minutes
Dilemma:
One of the boys constantly disrupts the tuition. Some
of the other students are afraid of the boy. He does not
do any homework.
As a teacher you know that the boy’s father has moved
to another country.
Possibilities for school – home communication:
• How can we approach the situation jointly?
• How can the parents be used as a resource?
• How to communicate mutual expectations?
• What kind of communication is appropriate?
• At what point should we involve additional services?
REDIGERES I TOPP-/BUNNTEKST
IDENTIFY A PROBLEM
WAYS TO REGARD STUDENT BEHAVIOUR
A systemic
approach
Actions and behaviour is
seen from different
perspectives
The contextual
perspective
environment
tasks
relations
friendship
The individual perspective
Individual qualifications, skills,
diagnosis, problems
Home environment
The actors perspective
The student’s interpretation of reality
The interpretation of him/herself
Levels and Areas of Cooperation
Rules
Social
development
Content
Homework
Information
(from
teacher)
1. Boy does not
do homework
Dialogue
(Home-Sch)
2. Ask parent
about the
situation
Contribution
(from home)
3. Adapt homework to interest.
Mother to follow
up.
Summary Home – School Cooperation
• School and home can together help to create a good relationship
between teacher and student, between students (a student culture
that supports learning), between parents, and between parents and
teachers.
• School and home can together create appropriate expectations for
students' school work and learning (academic and social). It is
important to think about motivation along with expectations.
• School and home must appear as safe and predictable.
• School and home must use appropriate guidelines for:
 schoolwork
 feedback to students – containing encouragement and support
Education in a Modern Society
New Home – School Relationships?
Identity In Modern Society
• One generation ago your future was, to a certain degree,
«predestined» - the job in the warehouse was there – you
became what your father was. Your identity (who am I?) was
fixed.
• Today, young people increasingly learn to live with many
different structural norms as well as to compensate for them.
• Youth react to structural norms with own counter measures –
they seek stability, transparency and belonging.
• For many, the choices are more about evation than realization of
positive future wishes.
• The youth of today need more structure and fewer choices
(Ziehe 2011)
Home-School Relations - I
gendered, classed, raced and heteronormative
•
How recent awareness of changes may affect the predominant
understanding of the ‘parent’ in relation to schools, like:





family characteristics and structures
growing “fatherhood movements”
the increase in full-time employment of mothers
the recognition of same sex couples
increasing changing ethnic demographics globally
The predominant understanding of the ways different parents engage with
the school and how home-school relationships are perceived by the
teachers, is likely to alter.
 We know:
•
 The way teachers relate to parents has an impact on children regarding academic
achievement, emotions and in relation to respect and social standing.
 These attitudes and behaviours, in turn, can impact on the parents’ engagement.
Home-School Relations - II
gendered, classed, raced and heteronormative
• Neo-liberal international education policies makes it increasingly
necessary to consider:
 Different ways of parents’ engagement
 Different roles of the home – school cooperation
• In a modern and global context parents’ engagement in schooling
concerns:
 engagement of schools and families in communities
 the possibilities for parent agency
 implications for local democracy and participation
• One must address and debate:
 changes in parent and family characteristics and structures
 the effect of parents engagement in school and education
• The predominant understanding of home – school relationships is
changing
Reflect - 5 minutes
How to handle own attitudes to home-school cooperation
1. Local guidelines for home-school cooperation?
2. Local experience/practice for home-school cooperation?
3. Differences between school’s practice and assumed
parents’ experience?
4. Teacher and school culture / attituteds for cooperation?
How to handle parents with:
• Strong demands and expectations
• Negative/positive school experiences
• Reluctance to cooperation
REDIGERES I TOPP-/BUNNTEKST
How parents guide their
childrens’ learning trajectories –
parental support
Supporting learning trajectories
•
•
•
•
•
Educational expectations
Homework aid
Focus on leisure activities which can support school learning
Talk positively about school and education
Explain subjects to the children







Read novels and news papers
Visit the library
Stimulate learning languages, mathematics and sciences
Travel
Encourage learning and using technologies
Encourage building social relations
…
CASE HISTORY EXAMPLE
Amirtha
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
15 years old
Data from 10th grade to 2nd year in high-school
Born in Norway, parents from India (refugees).
The family belongs to the Sikh community.
She was very good in chess – played on a competetive level
High educational ambitions
Amirtha’s younger sister was born with a disorder. It had a
major impact on the family’s view of Amirtha’s future.
My mother’s religious views got stronger due to this while my father
started to question our religion. It has made my father ‘understand’ the
Norwegian society better than my mother. I follow my father; he is my
‘hero’. […]
I really love my mother, but I feel that I am very different. […]
When my father lost faith in God, I did the same; because I’m daddy’s
girl I follow him […]
I believe religion is something that somebody has invented. My mother,
she really believes and I hate it. But I really love my mother, don’t
think anything else.
Amirtha and her parents negotiate her
educational and future family life
1. Rooted in her parents different view on their religion the family
negotiated her future trajectory
1.
2.
Her father valued education
Her mother valued arranged marriage and care giving
2. Amirtha followed her father and thus focused on education

Gave a ‘focus on school’ attitude.
1. Her father guide her educational trajectory and with increased age
she gradual took control: Her father’s guiding helped Amirtha
solve her challenges as a learner in the transition between 10th
grade and high school.

This resulted in quitting chess because she had to focus on education to
secure the future for the family.
The increased focus on education was not only for
herself
In India, girls become housewives. In my family, I am the only one can
get a good job. It is my duty to be responsible for my sister when my
parents grow old. My educational project is therefore important. I have
no siblings who can help me. I do not question this.
• Amirtha regarded education as a way of providing for her family in
the future, implying that she might stay in the local community.
• Opportunities, like chess, that had created engagement came to an
end.
Different future positions given by her parents
 Amirtha’s mother positioned her to take care
of her family and to marriage according to the
Sikh practices (arranged marriage)
 Her father positioned her to become a
breadwinner, to educate, get good grades,
choose natural sciences, find a good balance
between leisure activities and school work and
to decide whom to marry herself
 Different positions gave tensions :
Amirtha took the following future positions:
• Breadwinner resulting in a focus on good grades, apply to a
good high school and future education
 She discussed with her father – how to succeed with her
education
Father: ‘After upper secondary school Amirtha can chose the
occupation she wants to. But it is important that she chose a
profession were it is easy to get employment. Immigrants can’t
choose whatever they like’.
• Decide whom to marry
 She read novels to increase her understanding of the topics
• Take care of her sister
 Limited her leisure/future possibilities (e.g. to stay home)
After the transition to high school
 Amirtha felt positioned as weak by her
teachers in natural science
 got poorer grades
 missed her friends and felt lonely
• Strategic positioning
 Amirtha and her father discussed how to deal
with the situation. They made a strategy:
In the participation observation with her old friends
Amirtha was more ‘quiet’ than before. Amirtha said :
“ I am not as smart as I thought I was”. ‘if the
situation does not improve I will change to the local
school the next year’. My father has not said ‘alright’
but we have decided to do something.
Gradually, Amirtha took control over her
educational trajectory
The following year Amirtha continued in the same school,
but she had decided to change from the natural to the
social science program. Even though her father said natural
sciences were important subjects she had chosen subjects
more in line with her interests.
After having changed, she felt that her academic situation
had really improved. At this time, although Amirtha could
still not say where she would be in five years, she
emphasized that she wanted to study. Amirtha did not see
herself leaving the local community.”
Today – Amirtha studies economy at a good university
Discussion
• The tensions she experienced regarding her future made
her aware of the necessity of education
• The educational expectations - burdensome and
inspiring
• The family involvement (father) in planning her education and
support in choosing school and friends might have been important
for her; she probably learned how to control her learning identity
and educational trajectory strategically.
• Amirtha’s high educational expectations and complex gendered and
family situation and the teachers’ little knowledge about her
situation probably did not give her an optimal learning trajectory.
Amirtha was, perhaps, not able to take full advantage of her
potential in upper secondary school.
Reflect - 5 minutes
Dilemma:
The identities and different future expectations
students bring to school – do they fit into the everyday
school context and the curriculum?
- Why ?
- Why not?
- Which identity and educational expectations do you
find in Estonia?
- How can you get to know the students’ future
expectations?
- Can their expectations be used as a resource?
- How can we maintain the students’ well-being and
social development?
Topics for Meeting with the Parents
• Releveant questions:
• Is there a discussion about attitudes and values that you want to
relay to the students?
• Which attitudes and values should be relayed?
• What do you and your school do to have a good home – school
cooperation
• Concrete tasks / work that can give an even better cooperation?
 Between the parents
 Between the home and the school
 Between the teacher and the student
Tutoring the Parents
•
•
•
•
•
Explain why we need an improved home – school cooperation
How will the children benefit?
Advice on how to get the children to improve in homework
Which parents will be positive to this work?
And … who won’t?
Development talks – encourage and support the
parents
• What are the parents’ expectations
 Are they too high?
 Too low?
• How is the child really doing in school?
3 T’s by Danna Suskind (Prof.) - I
WE ARE NOT born smart - we become.
Suskind believes an essential part of parents' duties is to read, talk, sing,
reasonable and rant with kids. Even reading aloud of the oat meal nutritional
declaration develops a child's brain.
A newborn is already a computer genius, but like a pc, the human brain has to
be programmed. It is the parents' job.
Man is born with billions of nerve cells that will grow into a dense network of
nerve connections. Activity is highest in the first three years. Words are
biological building blocks for the brain.
 Language is the most important part in building the network of rain cells,
which in turn lays the foundation for learning ability, emotional regulation,
thinking, logic, language and mathematics understanding - in short: everything
needed to survive reasonably well in life.
3 T’s by Danna Suskind (Prof.) - II
Suskind’s method involves the three t's:
• tune in
• talk more
• take turns
Tune in means that the caregiver puts down her smartphone and
concerns, and strives to see the world through the child's eyes.
Talk more means to "pour" words over the child and talk about
everything that happens in real time, much like a football commentator.
Take turns means having a conversation with your child.
A 4th T by Danna Suskind (Prof.)
A fourth ‘t’: technology
Monitors can be great learning tool, but can also make us introverted.
When the whole family sits with techno gadgets, they have less time to
the enriching, brain-building small talk between parents and children:
"Just try to talk to someone who is concerned with a screen. It is
impossible.”
Low socioeconomic children tend to have a small vocabulary which
gives the following challenges in school:
• a word gap
• an achievement gap
Preparation and prevention are the solution. Suskind’s charity
organization “Thirty Million Words Initiative” educates parents in the
three t's.
Home – School Cooperation
What kind of grades are
these?
What kind of grades are these?
Studies from Sweden and Canada:
• Parents reveal that school wanted involvement
• School had demands to how involvement should
be
• School supervised how parents could support
own children
School and the parents should be viewed as
mutually dependent partners in realizing the
potential for the childrens’ learning
Shaping the School – Home Work
Two stages:
• School gives the parents information
• Dialogue between school and the parents
 Ensure that parents can influence – become
partners
 Have goals for the cooperation
 Joint decisions
 Heteronony – avoid autonomy
 Commitment
Parents’ Involvement / Engagement
Parents are proactive or reactive
 Parents’ involvement can depend on the
child’s situation in school
Parents’ attitude to school influence the children’s
motivation in school
 Expectations
 Ambitions
 School must take measures to ensure parents’
involvement and engagement
Results
Recent research documents improvements:
 Outcome of learning and ambitions
 Control of situation
 Well-being and behaviour
 Abscence and work effort
 Student-teacher relationship
 Attitude to school and to homework
The results are valid in all levels of schooling.
Through parent involvement and input the school can
adjust, improve and optimize the teaching for the
students.
References
• Nordahl, Thomas, & Knudsmoen, Hege. (2015). Læringsmiljøet i
skolen og foreldrenes involvering i elevenes skolegang. In G.
Langfeldt (Ed.), Skolens kvalitet skapes lokalt. (pp. 255-270).
Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.
• Nordahl, T. (2015): Hjem og skole. Hvordan etablere et
samarbeid til elevenes beste. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
• Roth, Solveig & Erstad, Ola. (2015) Positional identities in
educational transitions: connecting contemporary and future
trajectories among multiethnic girls. Ethnography and Education.
• Dencik, Jørgensen, Sommer (2008). Familie og børn i en
opbrudstid. ISBN: 9788741203898