Tartu, Estonia, February 2010
Kim Aas
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Contents:
• Learning enviroment and cooperation home- school
• Perspectives on cooperation home-school
• What is cooperation home-school really about?
• Some important principles/strategies
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The Learning environment and
cooperation home-school
• The Learning environment is more than
the classroom
• Ecological system theory as a way of
understanding the learning environment
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Three perspectives on
cooperation home-school
1. An ethical/morale perspective
2. A legal perspective
3. An empirical perspective
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An ethical perspective
• The students best interest
• Let`s use the methods that work best
• Parents love their children
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The legal perspective
• Parents have the main responsibility for rasing their children
- Children Act §30
- UN declaration on Human Rights, article 26
• The school has the responsibility for the educational (methods) and the
learning of skills in different subjects.
But the school must cooperate with the home and it is the school who has
the responsibility to initiate the cooperation
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The legal perspective - 2
•
Education Act, §1-1: Education and training in schools and training establishments
shall, in collaboration and agreement with the home, open doors to the world and
give the pupils and apprentices historical and cultural insight and anchorage.
•
National Curriculum for Knowledge Promotion in Primary and Secondary
Education and Training ; the School and training establishments are responsible for
preparing for cooperation with the home and secure parents opportunity to take
responsibility in school.
•
The provisions to the Education Act, : § 3-2: Contact with the home; at least two
meetings pr year.
•
FUG; Organization working for parents with children in primary and secondary
education
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An empirical perspective
• Jonh Hattie (2009);
- Parents have major effects in terms of encouragement and
expectations that they transmit to their children
- Many parents struggle to comprehend the language of learning, and
thus are disadvantaged in the methods they use to encourage their
children to attain their expectations
- Parental aspirations and expectations for children`s educational
achievement seems to be of most importance
- Communication (showing interest in homework and school work etc)
also have an important influence on the childrens achievement
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An empirical perspective -2
International research, and studies conducted in Norway, concludes that a
good cooperation between home and school may have a positive influence on;
-The students achievements in different subjects
- The students satisfaction in school
- Relation between student and teacher
- Relation between students in a class
- Learning of social skills
(T.Nordahl 2007)
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An empirical perspective -3
• Several studies indicates that sosioeconomic status has an
influence on students achievements, especially the parents
education (Hattie 2009, Nordahl 2007)
• Social dissimilarity seems to continue, or even increase, in the
education system (Nordahls 2007)
• A good cooperation between home and school can reduce these
dissimilarities ( ex Flaxmere Project, Clinton, Hattie and Dixon 2007)
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Bourdieu
• Habitus: acquired knowledge that makes a system for how we act
in, and understand, our surroundings with meaning
• Cultural capital: forms of knowledge, skills, education,and
advantages that a person has, which give them a higher status in
society. Parents provide their children with cultural capital by
transmitting the attitudes and knowledge needed to succeed in the
current educational system.
• Social capital:resources based on group membership,
relationships, networks of influence and support.
• Economic capital: cash, assets
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The teachers experience of
cooperation home-school
Bouakaz (2007) found in his study that;
- teachers were of the opinion that parental involvement should be parents helping school
making students understand how importent school is for their future
A study conducted by T.Nordahl (2007) showed that ;
- many teachers thinks positive of cooperating with parents
- they experience parents as a support for their practice
- they report that they have a good comunication with parents (dialog)
- they report that parents have influence on the education and that they see parents as
equals in meetings regarding school
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The teachers experience of
cooperation home-school -2
• Teachers report that they know they have a potencial great power in
the cooperation. Some teachers makes use this potencial power to
determine…. and strengthen their own position
• Teacher often makes social construtions and categories parents
(parents with plenty of resources/socially deprived
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The parents experience of cooperation
home-school
T. Nordahl (2007) found in his study that parents
• with children who face difficulties (learing difficulties/behavioral problems etc) rarely
experience that they are beeing heard/taken seriously by the teachers
• is satisfied with the information they get from school
• seldom or never discuss circumstances related to the education (ca ¾)
• experience that they have non or little influence on conditions related to the
education or learning enviroment (80%)
• are insecure of expectations school has to them as parents in school (50%)
• have a clear understanding that school has much power
• seldom experience positiv feedback and encouragement from school for their effort
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What is cooperation?
Levels of cooperation:
1.
2.
3.
Exchange information
Dialog/genuine discusion
Contribute/Right to be consulted
Different types of cooperation:
1. The representative cooperation – eks; class contact/parent contact, The
Parents council (FAU), Woorking Commity
2. The direct cooperation – eks; parents meeting, letters to the home,
telephone to the home etc
3. The non contact cooperation – parental support and help to their own
childrens education
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Power in cooperation
• The goal should be to establish a joint responsibility
or a partnership in the cooperation between home
and school, not divide the responsibility
- Parental power +
Fig 1.
information
dialog
partnership
delegation parent control
+ school power -
The Professional teacher and
cooperation home-scholl
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Always have the student in focus
Use relationskills when cooperating with parents
Take responsibility for making a good cooperation with the
parents
Clarify roles and expectations
Be professional also when tings are difficult
Avoid categorizing
Awareness of the institutionel power
Reflection and a open minded attitude with professional
arguments.
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Cooperation when things are difficult
Some effective principles/strategies that promote better
cooperation:
1. Develop a strategy for establishing better/more positive relations
2. Focus on the situation as it is now – and the future
3. Empowerment; see, and use, the resources parents have, see parents as
equals, be supportive, encouraging, give both positive and negative feedback
4. Have an overall perspective; find the students resources and weakness, use a
balanced presentation and a social ecological approach Helhetsperspektiv;
styrker og svakheter hos eleven, balansert fremstilling, sosialøkologisk helhet
5. Focus on solutions; realistic actions
6. Consider thoroughly a strategy for comunication
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A model for cooperation
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Fig 2: T. Overland
Focus on solutions
1. Status
2.Goals
7.Evaluation
3.Analyze
6. Actions
5.Cooperationagreement
4. Plan
Focus on the situation; in presens and
future
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