Relationships Between Parents and Schools: A case study

Abstract

The complexity of the relationships between parents and teachers rests not only on the ambiguity of their shared interests but in the way in which official policies affect them. This study, based on qualitative ethnographic research, explores teacher's, headteacher's and home/school liaison worker's experience of and attitudes towards the relationship between schools and parents. The research focuses on the differences between the desire to have closer and mutually supportive relationships and the various impediments, both psychological and the result of government policies. Only by understanding how deeply relationships are affected by the different barriers can the latter be overcome.