Dialogue With Parents of Students According to Future Teachers

Abstract

The article stresses on the importance of dialogue with the parents of students in teacher’s work. A qualitative study was conducted in order to show the characteristics of dialogical interaction between the teacher and parent from the perspective of students training to become professional teachers. The study, which involved students of pedagogy at Ignatianum University in Krakow (Poland), was carried out in the academic year 2022/2023. The research was exploratory and examined how future teachers perceive dialogue with students’ parents. The concept of three-layer data analysis by Maria Szymańska was helpful in capturing the different shades of the studied reality. Based on a qualitative analysis of student surveys, the study identified the facets of teacher-parent dialogue with students' parents, the skills that teacher trainees believe are useful in building teacher-parent dialogue, and the advantages of dialogue in the teacher-parent relationship that prompt teacher trainees to develop their skills. It was shown that good teacher-parent communication helps in working with the pupil. Hence, it is crucial for a teacher to be able to initiate communication and then sustain it. He or she should know how to create community processes and build the school’s organizational culture in such a way that it is conducive to establishing constructive and close relationships with pupils’ parents. The survey respondents mentioned the following as skills conducive to building teacher-parent dialogue: creating an atmosphere of trust, empathy, encouraging cooperation, and the ability to reduce feelings of discomfort, anxiety and powerlessness in parents. From the analysis of the data obtained in the course of the study, it is advocated that communication skills need to be improved in teachers, as well as in pedagogy students. This recommendation is also consistent with the findings from the theoretical analysis of the scientific literature. Improving skills to establish constructive cooperation with parents is a response to the existing barriers in the teacher-parent relationship, especially in view of the fact that modern realities pose a challenge to the partnership between family and school, rendering the relationship between teachers and parents increasingly complicated.