Parent-Teacher Relationships among Low-Income Families
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Date
2014-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
This paper examines parent-teacher relationships among parents with infants and toddlers. Through data gathered via brief questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, dyadic relationships between paired parents and early childhood educators were analyzed in order to identify the major themes of a typical parent-teacher relationship among ‘at-risk’ families. Through inductive analysis of the semi-structured interviews, three key themes of the dimensions of parent-teacher relationships and influences on these relationships were found. This paper focuses on one essential part of the three themes of parent-teacher relationships, communication, as well as factors that influence parent-teacher relationships both positively and negatively. Findings show, overall, that parents and teachers have an understanding that open communication helps build effective, well-functioning relationships. Parents and teachers demonstrate a desire for open bi-directional communication as well as awareness that open communication is established through multiple communication strategies. The analysis suggests that parents and teachers of infants and toddlers felt their relationships were unique due to the extensive list of topics that parents and teachers discuss with one another, which exceeds the topics discussed by primary education teachers and parents. It was found that improvements should be made to center environments and staffing structures so that the greatest number of opportunities for parents and teachers to communication is possible.
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Keywords
Parent-Teacher Relationships, Early Childhood, Low-Income Families, Childcare