Barriers to establishing partnerships between preschool teachers and parents in kindergarten

Prce, Ariana. (2018). Barriers to establishing partnerships between preschool teachers and parents in kindergarten. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Pedagogy. [mentor Šagud, Mirjana].

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Abstract

Collaboration between the family and the institution is a reciprocal dynamic system that occurs between parents and individuals within the educational system that jointly make decisions regarding the welfare of the child (Cowan et al., 2004; as cited in Maleš, 2015). In contemporary pedagogical literature, the concept of partnership is often used instead of the concept of cooperation, emphasizing the importance of equal communication, negotiation and mutual respect between parents and professionals in the process of education (Babić Pezo, 2004). According to Ljubetić (2014) and Maleš (2015), partnership is the highest level of collaborative relationships between family members (mostly parents or guardians) and kindergartens (educators or professional associates) aimed at achieving a common goal (child welfare). Barriers in pedagogical work pose difficulties in establishing partnerships and balance between the family, the educational environment and the community, and they are caused by various stereotypes, fears, lack of time, lack of confidence and competence, earlier bad experiences, language difficulties, psychological problems in the family etc. The aim of this study was to examine attitudes of preschool teachers about the main barriers to establishing partnerships between parents and preschool teachers, and 56 preschool teachers were involved in the research. The obtained results point to the fact that insufficient and inadequate training in initial and lifelong education of the educators is the cause of the barrier arising during the establishment of partnerships. Furthermore, according to the results of this study, preschool teachers believe that parents do not work with them sufficiently and that the inflexible working time of parents is one of the causes of creating a barrier, and the results also indicate that mothers are much more involved than fathers in cooperation with them. Although almost all preschool teachers agree that parental collaboration in child rearing is extremely important, they are not satisfied with the current relationship between them and parents, and they think that the partnerships between them should be better. Finally, the study confirmed the premise that job satisfaction affects openness to cooperation and reduces barriers to parents.

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