Abstract:

The partnership between parents and schools is a proclaimed value that schools declaratively strive for, but still do too little to achieve. Parents in formal and informal social structures share common themes about their children’s education. By recognizing the specific interests of parents defined by conversation topics with people they trust outside their child’s school and the number of contacts they have with other parents in the school community, it is possible to encourage greater parental involvement and create conditions for parent-school partnerships. In the research of 700 parents of second and sixth grade students of ten primary schools in north-western Croatia, typical conversation topics of parents were identified, which are mostly related to a particular school, or to some specific characteristics of parents and students. The research highlighted the significant role of the school in recognizing the interests of parents and raised questions about how to respond to them.

Keywords:

Parent conversation topics, parent-school partnership, parent community.