Successful cooperation between teachers and parents
"Teachers are aware that the task of educating in schools is closely tied with instruction and school life. This is more successful the closer the collaboration with parents is structured. Both sides must understand each other and be ready to find constructive solutions together when it comes to educational problems or failures in the learning process."
(Standards for teacher training: Educational science, resolution from the 2004 Ministry of Culture conference)
Description of ’s dissertation research
While previous research work has frequently focused on the benefits of cooperation between teachers and parents for learners and educators, a knowledge gap still exists with respect to the impact of cooperation on the relations between family, teachers and individual students’ learning processes. Further, there are hardly any findings that take into account both the teachers’ perspective and that of parents and students. Still another research gap exists with respect to the different communication patterns in the cooperation between school and the parental home.
Within the framework of the Berlin MOVE study, therefore, classroom teachers, students and their parents at 13 Berlin schools were surveyed. The investigation took place only in the ninth and tenth grades. More information on the project can be found here.
Questions of the project
Based on the model of the overlapping spheres given by Epstein (1986) and the model of parental school engagement by Hoover-Dempsey and Sandlers (1995; 1997; 2005), the concrete aim was to examine the role of cooperation between parents and teachers in students’ motivation at the end of secondary school.
The project investigated the extent of parents’ and teachers’ mutual cooperation and the conditions under which it takes place. Here, it was of particular interest to investigate separately the different forms of cooperation observed.
To answer the question regarding how much students’ motivation is influenced by the cooperation of parents and teachers, the study addressed the question of to what degree parents’ engagement in the home and school environments is relevant for the change in learners’ motivation. The study also investigated to what extent classroom teachers’ engagement influences learners’ motivation in class.
Publications
2018
Rubach, C. & Lazarides, R. (2018). Bedingungen und Auswirkungen des elterlichen Engagements im häuslichen und schulischen Umfeld - Analysen für die Sekundarstufe I. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht. Manuskript angenommen zur Veröffentlichung.
Rubach, C., Krauskopf, K. & Lazarides, R. (in Druck). Elternarbeit vs. Erziehungs- und Bildungspartnerschaft: Perspektive Brandenburger Lehrkräfte der Sekundarstufe auf die Kommunikations- und Kooperationspraxis zwischen Schule und Eltern. Manuskript angenommen zur Publikation. In J. Stiller & C. Laschke (Hrsg.), Berlin-Brandenburger Beiträge zur Bildungsforschung 2018.
2017
Rubach, C. & Lazarides, R. (2017). Eine Untersuchung kooperativer Beziehungen zwischen Eltern und Lehrkräften an Berliner Schulen. In: Stiller, J. & Laschke, C. (Hrsg.). Berlin-Brandenburger Beiträge zur Bildungsforschung 2017. Herausforderungen, Befunde und Perspektiven interdisziplinärer Bildungsforschung (S. 177–204). Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.
Contact
Please direct any questions about the project to
Prof. Dr. Rebecca Lazarides tel. +49 331 - 977 2132 / email rebecca.lazaridesuuni-potsdampde