Parent-Teacher Collaboration: A Literature Synthesis

Introduction to Parent-Teacher Collaboration

Involvement of parents in the education of their children — both in the classroom and at home — has the potential to greatly enhance a child's education. It is important for schools to tap into the potential of parents to support their child's learning, as this can contribute to more effective teaching. Conversely, when parents work in close collaboration with teachers at school and follow the suggestions and directions prescribed for students while supporting their education at home, children also tend to perform better academically (Hendricks, 2013).

Researcher Susan Graham-Clay, in her article titled "Communicating with Parents: Strategies for Teachers," claims that teachers often try to develop a partnership with parents in order to create a support system for student learning (Dubis & Bernadowski, 2014). Researchers claim that one of the major factors in the development of this partnership is strong communication, which is fundamental to building a relationship between teachers and parents and to fostering a sense of community and continuity between home and school. Teachers as well as parents therefore need to continue striving to develop communication skills in order to expand the scope of effective communication between themselves. This would help maximize effective communication in these times of change (Lazar & Slostad, 1999).

Teachers, educationalists, and researchers have also identified a range of communication opportunities that are available to teachers and parents, including the use of emerging technology for the purpose of efficient communication (Dubis & Bernadowski, 2014). Apart from traditional parent-teacher meetings, schools and teachers today also utilize a number of other ways to communicate and reach out to parents. These include various forms and communication means such as homework contracts, letters to families, field trip permission forms, good news reports, parent request forms, parental contact records, and parent-teacher conferences, along with considerations and documents shared with parents before, during, and after such meetings ("Teacher-Parent Collaboration," 2016).

Communication as the Foundation of Partnership

The partnership between home and school is not always easy to create and maintain, even as its value to student education is universally accepted. The value of parents and teachers collaborating — where parents continue the work that teachers do in school while teachers learn about students' behaviors, attitudes, and perceived strengths and weaknesses from parents and incorporate that knowledge into classroom education — is well established in the literature on parent-teacher relationships.

To forge a partnership and build a bond between them, both teachers and parents need to communicate efficiently with each other. Researchers have pointed out that communication — through a number of channels including modern communication technologies — can help parents and teachers better bridge the gap between school and home with respect to students (Hendricks, 2013). According to Susan Graham-Clay, economic pressures, increased expectations, and time constraints are factors that schools, teachers, and parents must negotiate and respond to in today's society. Therefore, effective partnerships between parents and teachers assume even greater importance in these changing times for meeting the needs of the children that they both "share" (Griffin, 2009). The development and cultivation of the teacher-parent relationship are very important for the growth of schools and effective learning for students (Schussler, 2003).

Bryan G. Cook, Katharine G. Shepherd, Sara Cothren Cook, and Lysandra Cook, in their study "Facilitating the Effective Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices Through Teacher-Parent Collaboration," best summarize the rationale for this involvement: "because parents know the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of their children more than anyone else, they are in a unique position to contribute to making an informed decision regarding whether the characteristics of participants in studies supporting an EBP are meaningfully similar to their child" (Cook, Shepherd, Cook, & Cook, 2012).

Barriers to Effective Parent-Teacher Collaboration

In their article titled "How to Overcome Obstacles to Parent-Teacher Partnerships," Lazar and Slostad note that while there are a number of practical suggestions that can help in the development of parent-teacher collaborations for students and their performance, there are often instances that exhibit a lack of knowledge — on the part of both teachers and parents — regarding how to make use of the available modes of communication. Researchers and educationalists frequently consider barriers to effective communication alongside potential means and solutions.

A. M. Patino-Fernandez, J. Hernandez, M. Villa, and A. Delamater, in their research paper "School-Based Health Promotion Intervention: Parent and School Staff Perspectives," published in the Journal of School Health, identify the factors that impact a teacher's ability to develop a smooth parent-teacher partnership (Patino-Fernandez, Hernandez, Villa, & Delamater, 2013). They argue that the challenge for both major stakeholders in children's education is to continue establishing, maintaining, and developing a working relationship despite the presence of problems that tend to impede relationship development. One of the major factors researchers have identified as a hindrance to effective collaboration is the degree of match or mismatch between teachers and parents in terms of values and culture. Societal forces that affect families and schools, as well as differing understandings of the roles of both parents and teachers in education, are additional factors that influence communication and the degree of collaboration (Patino-Fernandez, Hernandez, Villa, & Delamater, 2013).

The literature on parent-teacher partnership elaborates on its necessity while also identifying gaps and factors that hinder collaboration, such as the lack of communication between the two key stakeholders in education. Literature also addresses the relative importance of greater collaboration between parents and teachers in the context of special needs students and particularly vulnerable segments of society. Research further identifies the factors that tend to promote parent-teacher collaboration and those that tend to hinder it.

Conclusion

The above discussion clearly points out the importance and critical nature of collaboration and partnerships between parents, teachers, and schools for the enhancement of student learning outcomes. The review and synthesis of literature clearly point to the factors that have made this more important in the present day, where social diversity is greater than ever before and relationship development has become more complex compared to a time when social communities were smaller and more closely bonded.

The review of literature also highlights the fact that efficient communication is the primary means of building working bonds between teachers and parents, and that teachers serve as the essential glue that holds these relationships together. There is ample evidence in the literature — as demonstrated through multiple research references — of the real-life impact of parent-teacher collaboration in achieving better learning for students. Apart from citing the possible barriers to effective teacher-parent communication, the review of literature also identifies the ways in which teachers can better develop relationships with parents.

The importance of the evidence-based information found in the literature on this topic could provide the foundation for teachers, parents, and schools to attach greater priority to the development of collaboration between them, and to the creation of strategies to do so for the benefit of children's learning and development.

References

Cook, B., Shepherd, K., Cook, S., & Cook, L. (2012). Facilitating the effective implementation of evidence-based practices through teacher-parent collaboration. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 44(3), 22–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/004005991204400303

Dubis, S. & Bernadowski, C. (2014). Communicating with parents of children with special needs in Saudi Arabia: Parents' and teachers' perceptions of using email for regular and ongoing communication. British Journal of Special Education, 42(2), 166–182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8578.12061

Griffin, S. (2009). Communicating with parents. Practical Pre-School, 2009(106), 15–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.12968/prps.2009.1.106.44936

Hendricks, C. (2013). Improving schools through action research: A reflective practice approach (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.

Lazar, A. & Slostad, F. (1999). How to overcome obstacles to parent-teacher partnerships. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 72(4), 206–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00098659909599393

Patino-Fernandez, A., Hernandez, J., Villa, M., & Delamater, A. (2013). School-based health promotion intervention: Parent and school staff perspectives. Journal of School Health, 83(11), 763–770. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/josh.12092

Robinson, E. & Fine, M. (1994). Developing collaborative home-school relationships. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 39(1), 9–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1045988x.1994.9944944

Rule, A. & Kyle, P. (2008). Community-building in a diverse setting. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(4), 291–295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-008-0290-z

Schussler, D. (2003). Schools as learning communities: Unpacking the concept. Journal of School Leadership, 13, 498–528.

Teacher-Parent Collaboration. (2016). TeacherVision. Retrieved 22 June 2016, from https://www.teachervision.com/education-and-parents/resource/3730.html

Tunison, S. (2013). The Wicehtowak Partnership: Improving student learning by formalizing the family-community-school partnership. American Journal of Education, 119(4), 565–590. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/670966

Virginia Department of Education. (2002). Collaborative family-school relationships for children's learning: Beliefs and practices (pp. 5–15). Richmond.