Abstract:

The processes of development of civil society in Russia stimulated the activity of parents in the field of education. Parents of schoolchildren have become real actors who can individually or collectively declare their interests and the right to participate in the management of education. However, the system of Russian education is inertial. It still does not consider parents as equal subjects of education. This situation creates contradictions in the interaction between the school and the parents' community.

The aim of our study was to reveal the problems of interaction between schools and parent communities and to search opportunities for its development.
The objectives of the study were:
1. Analysis of forms and strategies of interaction between parents and representatives of school organizations.
2. Identification of contradictions between the interests of parents and the administration and teachers of the school.
3. Study of parents' views on the possibilities of constructive dialogue with representatives of schools.
The empirical base of the study was the results of sociological surveys of teachers and parents of pupils in Yekaterinburg (2017, 2019). In the 2017 survey, the sample of teachers was 338 people, parents – 160 people. The sample of parents in the 2019 survey was 7.281 people. An additional method of research was the analysis of the content of parent' social networks, forums of web-sites, phone applications WhatsApp, Viber.

The article reveals the following results:
1. According to the level of readiness for active interaction with the school, parents of Russian schoolchildren are differentiated community. Most of them are still implementing individual adaptive strategies to solve the problems of their children. However, there is a clear tendency to increase the activity of parents' communities. They collectively and in an organized manner defend their own interests and the rights of their children. There is a difficult search for constructive forms of interaction with teachers and school administration, representatives of the departments of education.
2. The study show the key contradictions between:
1) the readiness of parents to actively realize their interests and rights of children and the school's unwillingness to respond adequately to these requests;
2) the expectations of parents to recognize them as equal subjects of education and the aspiration of the school to use parents solely as a source of resources to solve organizational and financial problems;
3) the aspiration of the school to shift the responsibility for the quality of education of children to parents and the desire of parents to share this responsibility equally among all subjects of education.
3. Identified the possibilities of forming optimal interaction between parents and schools through:
1) informing parents about the possibilities of their participation in the management of education;
2) increasing the transparency of the school and the processes of decision-making in the field of education;
3) forming of institutional communication channels that help clarify and harmonize the interests of parents and schools.

Keywords:

School, parents, interaction of school and parents, parents' communities.