Beyond the Fancy Cakes. Teachers’ Relationship to Home-School Cooperation in a Study From Norway

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the relationship between teachers and parents. Seen from teachers’ point of view, relating with parents can sometimes be difficult, demanding and stressful. Relating with parents may therefore affect teachers’ understanding and experiences of their own profession and may consequently affect teacher supply. The paper starts by exploring what has characterized the parent-teacher or parent-school relationship over time. As schools have opened up towards the surroundings and increasingly consumer oriented and demanding parents are setting the standards for the parent-teacher relation, this increases the pressure on the teaching professions. This leads us to ask how teachers experience the encounters with parents in school, and in this article, the relationship between teachers and parents is pursued, as viewed from the perspective of the teachers. How do teachers relate to home-school cooperation and how do they experience the interaction with parents? The analyses are based on data collected through qualitative interviews of contact teachers in lower secondary schools in Norway. Forty contact teachers (27 women and 13 men) from seven lower secondary schools in Norway were interviewed. A main result is that even though teachers acknowledge the importance of parental involvement and home-school cooperation, this part of their job is often deprioritized due to lack of time and resources.