Browsing by Author "Watson, Lauren Lacey"

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    Exploring the role-player expectations of the parent-teacher relationship within a multicultural primary school
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) Watson, Lauren Lacey; Daniels, Doria; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept of Educational Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis explored role-players’ expectations and experiences of the parent-teacher relationship at an urban multicultural public primary school in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Literature on the topic attributed poor parent-teacher relationships to misunderstood and/or miscommunicated educational roles and expectations, teachers’ deficit views of parents based on assumptions, teacher professionalism and training, and the role of power, bias, and privilege that favours the school and its teachers. South African research on the topic overlooked the urban multicultural school setting. The aim of this study was to gain a critical understanding of how the parent-teacher relationship is navigated in a former monoracial school. After nearly 30 years of a new South Africa and with parental involvement tributed as a crucial aspect of a child’s healthy development and academic success, a critical race theory lens was used to understand the influence of parent-teacher relationship expectations and experiences on parent-teacher interactions and parental involvement. This study assumed the bio-ecological model’s mesosystemic conceptualisation of the parent-teacher relationship and approached the education of children as role-players’shared responsibility as represented in communities of practice. A constructivist paradigm was adopted and a qualitative case study research design with components of narrative inquiry was employed. Purposeful sampling was used to select five parent participants and five teacher participants at one multicultural primary school. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, focus group discussions, and artefacts. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Data analysis uncovered five themes representative of role-players’ expectations and experiences of the parent-teacher relationship, namely (i) open communication, (ii)displaying an attitude of care, (iii) meeting each other halfway, (iv) our way of doing things: challenging divisive attitudes and rules, and (v) parental participation at school. The findings revealed that open communication is highly valued by all the role-players in the parent-teacher relationship and leads parents to feel a sense of involvement in their children’s schooling, encouraging greater parental involvement and action. An attitude of care presented as a significant aspect of the parent-teacher relationship for parents. Parents establish a sense of trust in teachers they perceive to display care towards them and their children. Likewise, teachers are more likely to engage with parents whom they perceive to display an attitude of care. Teachers feel unsupported by parents who do not meet them halfway in the education of the children, attributing it to parents having relinquished parental role responsibility to educate children at home. Engaging parents is often teacher-/ school controlled,which perpetuates ‘our way of doing things’ and resembles traditional practices.Therefore, parents who challenge divisive attitudes and rules are often left unsatisfied. The expectation of parental participation at school through meetings, committees, functions, and sport events often overlooks extenuating circumstances inhibiting and discouraging many parents from active participation. The findings motivate for reimagining the parent-teacher relationship as a community of practice, necessitating the exercise of cultural humility and sensitivity by schools and their staff to generate authentic parent-teacher interactions, improve parental involvement, and promote genuine inclusivity.