Abstract:

Some of the significant areas of cooperation between schools and parents are activities connected with parents’ engagement in the educational process, participation in school management or supporting parents in child rearing. As individuals, parents in Poland have the full right to make decisions concerning their children. From the perspective of legislative system (The Act on the Education System) the key role for parents’ participation in the life of school is carried out through the Parents’ Board. Parents’ Board may put forward motions and opinions regarding all school matters to the school principal, all school bodies and all supervising pedagogical bodies. Another crucial legal document regulating the matters of relations between schools and parents is the Regulation on Pedagogical Supervision and, from 2015 - the Regulation on Standards for Schools and other Educational Institutions. The paper describes this context of educational law in parental involvement in Poland. The main question we seek to answer in our research concerns how the idea of cooperation between schools and pupils’ parents is applied in Polish schools, both as far as it is stipulated by law and in ways that exceed the rigidly interpreted rights of parents as laid down in legislation. In our analyses, we used data from external evaluations carried out in Polish schools. The results gathered do not permit the drawing of definite conclusions concerning the exercise of the rights of parents to make decisions at schools. The parents' responses indicate the exercise of the fundamental rights of parents as stipulated by law to make decisions concerning their own children and to take part in making decisions in regard to the activities carried out on the lowest level of the school structure, i.e. the class level (in particular decisions concerning school excursions and ceremonies). In these areas the highest level of parent activity is visible, and they most frequently mention issues related to making these types of decisions.

Keywords:

Participation, cooperation between school and parents, representative participation, educational law.