This study examines the encounter of Somali parents with their children's teachers and how these relations "affect" their possibility of supporting their children's attaining a successful school ...experience. The study is inspired by and combines the insight and concept of social capital developed by Coleman and Bourdieu. The parents realize that they lack the knowledge and expertise to support their children in their educational endeavor and have neither the material nor ideational support to compensate individual limitations to support their children in the encounter with the Swedish school. KEYWORDS: social capital, educational support, parent-teacher relation, academic achievement, Somali immigrants in Sweden
This study examined the extent to which teacher ratings of the frequency of parent–teacher contacts and quality of parent–teacher relationships in prekindergarten were associated with teachers' ...perceptions of the quality of their relationship with children and children's social development. Participants were a diverse sample of 2966 four‐year‐olds who attended publicly funded prekindergarten programs in the USA. Results indicated that after controlling for child and family characteristics, the perceived quality of the parent–teacher relationship during prekindergarten was associated with prekindergarten teachers' ratings of children's social development during prekindergarten and kindergarten teachers' ratings at the beginning of kindergarten. Furthermore, the association between quality of the parent–teacher relationship and reductions in problem behavior was stronger among children who experienced social/economic risks.
Scholars have paid little attention to the strategies used by parents of gifted children who learn in mixed-abilities classroom when interacting with their teachers. In this research we studied how ...parents of gifted children in mixed-ability classrooms position themselves with their children's teachers in conflicted situations. By using multiple case studies and positioning theory as an analytical framework, this research revealed three strategies used by parents in tense interactions with teachers: Law Enforcers, who point out stated regulations, Motivators, who seek teacher cooperation, and Mentors, who avoid interactions with teachers. This knowledge is important for teachers to advance dialogue with parents of gifted children.
This article analyzes a programmatic effort in teacher education, “The Community Teaching Strand” (CTS), to engage local community members as mentors of teacher candidates (TCs) in two postgraduate ...teacher preparation programs in a large research university. Three different conceptions of the nature and purpose of teacher–family–community relations frame the analysis: involving families and communities, engaging families and communities, and working in solidarity with families and communities. Three primary research questions are explored in this article: What do TCs learn through their participation in the CTS? To what extent and how do TCs bring community teaching into their classrooms during the program and as first-year teachers? What programmatic features encouraged and/or constrained TC learning from the community mentors? After describing Mountain City’s “Community Teaching Strand,” the article identifies a set of TC learning and practice outcomes as well as a number of tensions that arose in the programs in the attempt to implement engagement and solidarity approaches to working with families and communities. Finally, the implications of this work for teacher education are discussed.
The current study aims to test the ideas that parental self-efficacy is associated with parenting style, parents' help-seeking orientation from teachers, and subjective well-being. Based on the ...literature background presented, two hypotheses were examined: First, autonomy help-seeking orientation, the authoritative parenting style, and high subjective well-being would be positive predictors of parental self-efficacy. Second, dependent help-seeking orientation and non-authoritative parenting styles are negative predictors of parental self-efficacy. One hundred and thirty-two parents of school-age children answered questionnaires measuring the research and background variables. A multivariate regression analysis found that the independent variables explain about 53% of the variance of the parental self-efficacy scores, with subjective well-being and the authoritative parenting style being uniquely associated with high parental self-efficacy, and the permissive parenting style being uniquely associated with low parental self-efficacy. The present study focuses on parental self-efficacy as an important parental component, demonstrating the personal characteristics of parents that may affect their perceived efficacy, and offers an integrative portrait of factors that can describe parents' attitudes and behavior toward their competence as parents. Implications for intervention are discussed.
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