Abstract:

Public trust in the main social institutions in Russia declines over last decade: that’s the general trend, and it also affects the institute of education. Schoolchildren and their parents are the main actors of that process, and they doubt the quality and social efficiency of educational services. The second significant trend of the last decade is the growing interest of the parent community in the current situation in school education. The parent community becomes more organized and focused on solving the real problems of the current school (where their kids get basic education). In this regard, as part of our study, we reveal the connection between the quality of public participation of parents in schools, on the one hand, and their level of trust in the education institution, on the other.

Materials and methods:
The article is based on the materials of the research project "Parents and School: Interaction in the City Education System" (2019) of the Urals Federal University research team. It was carried out with the support of the Department of Education of Yekaterinburg. Parents of children from Ekaterinburg schools were interviewed online. The quota sampling was constructed: the quotas were set by the areas of the city and types of schools. The size of the sample was 7281 people.

Research results:
The authors of the article describe two types of parents according to their public participation in solving local problems in schools (classifying method - TwoStep cluster). The first category of parents is involved in problem solving in the school where their children are studying. The parent community of the first (active) cluster is involved in the wide variety of social activities, organized both for the benefit of their school and of the urban education system (both formal and non-formal). They actively participate in educational activities of the city; they assist and provide help on a voluntary basis.
The second cluster of parents acknowledge their needs for participation in school affairs, but they do not implement them in practice. Representatives of the second cluster are characterized by a low level of public participation. The authors identify objective and subjective factors that determine the differences between these groups of parents and describe, how the degree of public participation of the parent community influence their institutional trust in education.

General conclusions:
The authors conclude that "actively involved" parents have a greater level of trust in the education policy (at the federal, regional and municipal levels). To a large extent, they trust the school where their child is studying, teachers and the parent community. Parents recognize that they need extra communication skills and the deep knowledge of laws and civil rights to deal with educational management of different power levels. In general, the institutional trust of parents in the field of higher education and their activity in solving local educational problems are interrelated values that influence both the school and parent communities.

Keywords:

Public trust, public activity, parent community, secondary education, education institution.