Abstract:

Education is a shared responsibility of family, school and society in achieving the common goal – child’s development and upbringing. One of the key aspects of creating an atmosphere of trust and mutual (united) responsibility of the school teachers, the parents and the child is psychological readiness of parents and teachers to social partnership. However, often one or both parties are not ready for equal cooperate relationship.
In this study we investigated the parents’ psychological r to partnership interaction with teachers. The emphasis was placed on the personality component. Thus, the aim of the research was to identify the parents' attitudes towards the school, as well as the parents’ personality characteristics that promote or hinder the partnerships with teachers.

The study involved 370 parents of primary school students in St. Petersburg, Russia, and their class teachers.

We used the author's questionnaire for parents that included three blocks of questions: interaction with teacher, equal communication with the child, participation in school activities. To study psychological characteristics of parents we used R. Kettell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, form C (diagnosis of personality traits), K. Thomas test, an adapted form (the tendency to behavior strategies in the conflict), and Varga - Stolin questionnaire (the parental attitudes toward the child). The data were processed by mathematic statistical methods: descriptive statistics, pair wise comparisons U-test Mann-Whitney, correlation analysis, and regression analysis.

The results showed that most parents demonstrate a personal interest in the academic achievements of the child. 82% of parents give a positive assessment of the importance of regular contact with teachers. Among them, 13% are ready to solve the child’s learning problems partly in alliance with the teacher and 11% of parents believe that relations with the class teacher should be moderate and does not play a decisive role in the academic success of children. Approximately one-fifth of parents (18%) do not want to ask the class teacher for the pedagogical council. 4% of parents do not consider teacher an ally and partner in the upbringing of the child.

The parents’ readiness to ask for pedagogical council and the frequency of their communication with the teachers is negatively correlated with parent-child interaction on the type of "cooperation" (p ≤ 0.003), parents’ anxiety (p ≤ 0.023) and tension (p ≤ 0.038). This can be determined by an inner sense of guilt because of the child’s failures, leading to a certain degree of parents’ frustration. The symbiotic relationship with the child, typical for most parents, act as the basis for the parents’ interest in equal interaction with teachers (p ≤ 0.018). Evaluation of the class teacher as an "ally" in the child's upbringing is positively correlated with the control of child (p ≤ 0.055).

The main challenges that parents face when accessing the teacher are revealed. The frequency of misunderstandings with the teacher is positively correlated with the parents’ avoidance strategy in emotionally difficult situations (p ≤ 0.008). Overall, the study revealed that the ability to emotional control, mental equability and emotional stability, purposefulness, and sufficiently high activity when solving group tasks allow us to talk about parents’ personality potential in social partnership with the teacher.

Keywords:

Social partnership of family and school, relationships between parents and teachers, psychological readiness.