Weaving bridges between school and family. The role of the teacher

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. This paper aims to present teacher performance as a mediator and main launcher of the family involvement. It will analyse each of the educative stages of the teaching practice, the teacher’s training on dealing with families in regards to the type of centre. It begins with the analysis of the construct of “Involvement”, moving from the coexistence to the coeducation of the Educational Community. Our approach considers involvement as an element of quality and educative inclusion and the study follows with a review of previous studies on this matter. METHOD. For this study a non-experimental method has been used. Specifically, this is a descriptive study (based on an interview of an exploratory nature) which has used a questionnaire designed ad hoc in a national sample. 755 Spanish teachers of Pre-school, Primary Education and Secondary Education have been selected at random. RESULTS. Teachers have been found to facilitate significantly less family involvement in the different learning centres School as they progress towards higher stages. Such facilitation is quite higher in teachers with more training in dealing with families and only Secondary Education teachers from statesubsided schools and private centrers are found to promote the involvement of parents in the school more than the ones from public schools. DISCUSSION. This study shares with recent studies the need of including interpersonal relationships such as that of family-school as one of the topics to be dealt with in teacher’s initial and Continuing Professional Development so it will promote the involvement of the families in the school life.