Teacher-Parent Collaboration: What Strategies for Fostering Harmonious Relationships?

Abstract

Over the last forty years, much research has been carried out on school-family relationships, but they have primarily focused on the collaboration or the involvement of parents without necessarily dealing in depth with the relational dynamics between parents and teachers. In this paper, we present the results of a research conducted with parents (n = 18) and preschool (kindergarten 5 years old) or primary school (1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle, 6 to 11 years old) teachers (n = 18). The research focuses on relational strategies to promote harmonious relations between parents and teachers. We first present the context and obstacles to school-family relations. We then outline the strategies that promote harmonious parent-teacher relationships and we identify the common and specific perceptions that emerge.