Parent-teacher Conferences Research Articles

To Involve Parents in the Assessment of the Child in Parent–Teacher Conferences: A Case Study

This article explores the face-to-face interactions between parents and teachers in parent–teacher conferences in the Swedish preschool. The article highlights how the preschool teacher introduces the conference by using a specific artifact, so-called “strength cards” with words relating to characteristic behaviour and qualities. The theoretical framework is adopted from research of institutional talk and discourse analysis. The empirical material consists of two cases included in a larger study of parent–teacher conferences. The analysis reveals that the talk not only focuses on the assessment of the individual child but also is directed at the cards, the procedure, and the importance of parents being active and involved in learning the procedure. In addition, the cards are used by the teacher as a tool that governs parents towards becoming ‘good enough preschool parents’ who are cooperative and able to categorise and label their own children, that is, follow the institutional discourse. The analysis also shows that parents take control in order to overcome institutional barriers to parents’ involvement.

Talking about children’s resistance to the institutional order and teachers in preschool

This article highlights the parent—teacher conferences in the Swedish preschool and the talk about children’s inappropriate and undesirable behaviour in a preschool setting.The focus of the article concerns how teachers talk about children’s resistance to the social order in preschool and especially how children show resistance to teachers. The empirical material consists of 22 audio-taped conferences included in a larger study of parent—teacher conferences in a Swedish preschool setting. The analysis reveals five different strategies concerning the talk about children’s resistance to the practitioners and the institution: physical resistance, emotional resistance, social resistance, verbal resistance and resistance through rejection. In addition, the article discusses what is expected of a ‘normal’ preschool child.

Closing down openings: Pretextuality and misunderstanding in parent–teacher conferences with Mexican immigrant families

This paper examines a video-recorded corpus of kindergarten teachers’ conferences with Mexican-origin families in a peri-urban setting in the Northeastern United States. Examining the pretextual conditions and the communicative repertoires that families and teachers brought to these conferences, we found that the format and conditions of the encounter hindered teachers’ and parents’ flexible mobilization of their full range of communicative resources. In particular, the discourses of parent–teacher conferences, specialist pedagogical terminology, and institutional agendas that teachers deployed led to miscommunication and a lack of rapport building. We argue that teachers and parents could more flexibly deploy their available communicative repertoires to maneuver these encounters.

Conflict between truthfulness and tact in parent–teacher conferences

The purpose of this article is to explore how teachers’ and parents’ conversations are affected by their notions about truthfulness. The study is qualitative and draws on data from observations of parent–teacher conferences about pupils with special needs in a Norwegian lower secondary school and from interviews with participants. The findings show that teachers’ and parents’ conversations are constrained by positive talk, decency and silence and, especially when the pupil participates, they choose a careful point of view, gloss over it, and talk about what is OK and not unpleasant. Furthermore, teachers act communicatively in a strategic way. It is concluded that teachers and parents often choose to follow conventions of tact and that this might be in conflict with truthfulness. It is further concluded that teachers and parents do not hold dialogue as an exclusive ideal.

Listening for Details of Talk: Early Childhood Parent-Teacher Conference Communication Facilitators

Listening for Details of Talk: Early Childhood Parent-Teacher Conference Communication Facilitators

“I had no idea”: Developing dispositional awareness and sensitivity through a cross-professional pedagogy

This research scrutinized the diffusion of a medical education pedagogy to the context of teacher education. Specifically, it focused on the use of standardized parents as an emerging pedagogy in teacher education. Preservice teachers taking part in a six case, fifteen-week intervention showed advances in multicultural awareness and ethical sensitivity as they engaged in multiple simulated parent–teacher conferences. Implications center on the use of this pedagogy within teacher education contexts to further advance the professional dispositions of teachers as they prepare to teach in diverse scholastic environments schools.

Parent Involvement in Children’s Education

This exploratory study examined the involvement of Chinese immigrant parents in children’s elementary and secondary education. Participants were 29 low-income, urban parents of public school children working primarily in the hospitality sector. Parents were interviewed about their academic expectations, knowledge of school performance, parent involvement, and barriers to involvement. Participants reported high academic expectations but only half had knowledge of their children’s school performance. Approximately 35% attended parent—teacher conferences, 14% helped with homework, and 10% volunteered at school. No parents participated in school decision making or community collaborations. Limited English and demanding work schedules were major barriers to involvement. Recommendations for educators are presented.

Caring Closes the Language-Learning Gap

It was a hectic August morning, the first day of work for teachers after the summer break. The secretary was helping an immigrant family register two children; an older sibling had come along to translate. The secretary seemed harried and showed little patience with this added task. She had difficulty pronouncing the child's first name and asked that it be spelled as she wrote it on the registration form. E-s-c-o-l-a-s-t-i-c-a. Once she got the name down, the secretary suggested shortening the name to Tica to facilitate pronunciation for teachers and to make it easier for the child to learn to write it. The look on those parents' faces has remained with me to this day. It was evident they were appalled that anyone would even consider the thought of changing their child's sacred name. As a new teacher, that experience taught me the importance of a family's first contact with school and how a positive and accepting environment communicates that all are accepted, important, and welcome at school. This lesson continues to be critical today. Although we've learned a great deal about literacy learning and instruction, the gap in academic achievement between English speakers and English learners continues to concern educators, parents, and legislators. The rising expectations for literacy and the increasing number of students from diverse backgrounds contribute to this achievement gap. But educators can employ a variety of strategies for reaching out to families of English learners. Many of these activities were initiated in response to the changing demographics at the school where I was principal. The numbers of English learners increased significantly within two years, and the staff had to quickly adjust and respond to this shift. Family Involvement Educators sometimes misjudge immigrant families' ability to contribute to their children's school success, especially those of English learners (August and Shanahan 2006). However, families powerfully influence the academic achievement of their children, and most take a strong interest in what happens in schools (Au 2002). Cummins (1986, 2003) found that parents' involvement in their child's school has a positive effect on academic success. However, immigrant families often don't know how to assist their children at home, especially if they speak little English. Cummins found that teachers who involve families see positive results. In addition, communicating with immigrant families demonstrates that they are important and that their language and culture are valued and essential to their child's success. Home-School Communication As a former teacher and principal, I found many ways to involve limited-English-speaking parents in school life. When any family walks into the office, clerical staff should greet them warmly and patiently offer assistance. Because our office staff was not bilingual, we arranged to have bilingual personnel available on days when we expected many immigrant families to visit the school, such as during parent-teacher conferences and back-to-school nights. We translated school newsletters, calendars, and reminders into Spanish. Our phone system had a weekly automated phone call to homes in English and Spanish, and each call ended by reminding parents of the family's positive effect on their children and the school. These small efforts helped build rapport and communicate our desire to include all families in the life of the school. As principal, I made it a priority to be in front of the school at the beginning and end of each day to greet families. The care and respect I communicated was well received and contributed to parents' feeling that I was approachable, friendly, and helpful. Families felt that they could share concerns, ask questions, give feedback, and ask for assistance, which helped build trust and confidence in the school Schools Supporting Families Igoa (1995) reported that when a family leaves all that is familiar to them and is transported to a new country, they may experience distress or shock. …

The Parent—Teacher Conference in the Swedish Preschool: A Study of an Ongoing Process as a ‘Pocket of Local Order’

This article explores the construction of parent—teacher conferences in the Swedish preschool and focuses on processes that construct and maintain these meetings. The analysis draws upon an ethnographic study in two preschools and the empirical material consists of 11 audiotaped parent—teacher conferences and observations of everyday activities related to them. By using empirical data from a wider context than the specific speech event, it is possible to gain knowledge about the complexity of the construction of parent—teacher conferences. Using the concept of a ‘pocket of local order’, it is argued that parent—teacher conferences are practices which consist of a large number of activities linked to resources and restrictions that can be interpreted as an imperative to the participants to conduct talks in preschool and at home, to fill in forms and then use these activities in the conference. In addition, parents and teachers, as well as children, contribute to the construction and maintenance of the pocket of local order, i.e. activities that can be interpreted as an imperative to the actors to reach institutional goals.

Emerging authenticity: the crafting of simulated parent–teacher candidate conferences

Schools of education struggle to provide future teachers with opportunities to engage in and practice parent–teacher conferences. This manuscript addresses the diffusion of a signature pedagogy from medical education to teacher education, specifically highlighting the design and implementation considerations surrounding simulated parent–teacher conferences. Focus group data center on the training of individuals to portray parents authentically during these simulated parent–teacher conferences. Pre‐service teachers’ interview data reflect on the authenticity of this new approach to novice teacher preparation. Implications center on the connections between medical and teacher education contexts and the further diffusion of this pedagogy to prepare future school leaders for complex social interactions with parents.

Small Fry (review)

Reviewed by: Small Fry Deborah Stevenson Adoff, Jaime. Small Fry; illus. by Mike Reed. Dutton, 2008 [32 p] ISBN 978-0-525-46935-3 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad 5–8 yrs This collection of nineteen poems focuses mostly on the experience of being small in a world of grownups and taller kids. Some poems talk about adaptations (in “Movie,” “Dad brings encyclopedia/ A through C, props me up so I can see”), some about advantages (“My four foot frame/ built just for this game,” says the narrator of “Air Shortness” about dodgeball), and some just about general experiences of childhood (“Parent-Teacher Conference,” “Sleep Over”). The free-verse poems are uneven and a little prosy, with some of them rather generic; standout entries are those such as “Movie” and “Small Soldier,” which possess a compact theme-relevant story. Opaque paints textured with mottled strokes give the figures sturdy dimensionality; the faces of the multicultural cast are blandly similar, but the kids are situated in lively child-friendly landscapes suitable for reflection on their status and stature. This isn’t going to dethrone the likes of Florian or Prelutsky, but it’ll offer some humorous sympathy to young audiences, who are keenly aware of the disadvantages of being smaller. Copyright © 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Temporal landscapes of morality in narrative: student evaluation in a Thai parent—teacher conference

As many scholars have noted, narrative is a fundamental human tool for making sense of life experience. Although often described as a mode of relating experience that organizes events along temporal dimensions, research has also shown how participants in narrative activity explore the experiential logic of events by theorizing and evaluating the causes, consequences, responses and attempts to deal with problematic or unexpected situations. This article explores how educators and parents evaluate the moral identity of a problematic student through narrative activity in a Thai parent—teacher conference. Drawing on Taylor's (1989) conceptualization of `the good' as a moral space of questions within which modern persons orient themselves, the article extends Taylor's metaphor of orienting persons in moral space to orienting them in time. Focusing in particular on the use of tense, aspect and modality in temporal perspective taking, the analysis focuses on how narrators discursively configure an ideal moral landscape within which narrated persons are temporally positioned — as having realized or having failed to realize `the good'.

保護者面談における教師の連携構築プロセスに関する研究

本研究では, 保護者面談において教師が保護者との連携を構築するプロセス, およびその特徴を明らかにすることを目的とした。グラウンデッド・セオリー・アプローチにより教師の発話を分析した結果, 9個のカテゴリーが抽出され, これらは2つのプロセス, 「援助具体化」と「保護者との関係構築」にまとめられた。教師は, 保護者面談において傾聴的発言や自己開示的発言, 保護者からの情報収集等により保護者との関係を構築しつつ, 面談目的確認, 現状の情報提供, 状況の分析, 振り返り, 対応策の検討, さらに随所で行われる保護者からの情報収集により援助を具体化するとの仮説が生成された。この仮説を既存のコンサルテーションモデルと比較すると, 面談で取り上げる問題状況と深く関わりを持つ教師が行う保護者面談は, 教師が自分自身の対応を振り返り, 対応策について積極的に提案する特徴がある反面, 問題や目標設定が曖昧になる特徴があると考えられる。保護者面談で教師と保護者が共通理解を図るプロセスは, 保護者の理解や方針を取り入れながら教師が自分自身の理解や方針を修正するプロセスであり, 保護者との連携構築にはこのような教師の変容が鍵になると考えられた。

The construction of moral and social identity in immigrant children's narratives-in-translation

In this article we examine the complexities of immigrant children's role as translators and linguistic mediators between their parents and their teachers during parent-teacher conferences. In our analyses, we first examine the linguistic structure of teachers’ narratives about the children, and then look at how children construct their moral and social identities as students in their translations of these narratives, and how parents respond to their children's translations. We found that in their translations children consistently downgraded their teachers’ praise and exaggerated their responsibility for any problems the teachers identified; parents in turn took up the problem focus and underscored children's responsibility. Implications for the socialization of immigrant children and parents into educational institutional ideologies, as well as the impact of these practices on children's development are discussed.

We Need to Talk: Strategies for Successful Parent-teacher Conferences

We Need to Talk: Strategies for Successful Parent-teacher Conferences

Peer Tutoring in a Multiethnic Classroom in the Netherlands: A Multiperspective Analysis of Diversity

Previous articleNext article No AccessPeer Tutoring in a Multiethnic Classroom in the Netherlands: A Multiperspective Analysis of DiversityMariëtte de Haan and Ed ElbersMariëtte de Haan Search for more articles by this author and Ed Elbers Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull TextSupplemental Material Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 49, Number 3August 2005 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/430262 Views: 123Total views on this site Citations: 8Citations are reported from Crossref © 2005 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Zana Vathi, Veronika Duci, Elona Dhembo Homeland (Dis)Integrations: Educational Experience, Children and Return Migration to Albania, International Migration 54, no.33 (Jan 2016): 159–172.https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12230Ed Elbers, Mariëtte de Haan Parent–teacher conferences in Dutch culturally diverse schools: Participation and conflict in institutional context, Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 3, no.44 (Dec 2014): 252–262.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2014.01.004Karen Nicholas, Jo Fletcher, Niki Davis Raising numeracy and literacy to improve vocational opportunities, Journal of Vocational Education & Training 64, no.44 (Dec 2012): 433–451.https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2012.727850Kennedy Tielman, Perry den Brok, Sanneke Bolhuis, Bertha Vallejo Collaborative learning in multicultural classrooms: a case study of Dutch senior secondary vocational education, Journal of Vocational Education & Training 64, no.11 (Dec 2011): 103–118.https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2011.622448Mariëtte de Haan The Reconstruction of Parenting after Migration: A Perspective from Cultural Translation, Human Development 54, no.66 (Jan 2011): 376–399.https://doi.org/10.1159/000334119Mariëtte de Haan, Renske Keizer, Ed Elbers Ethnicity and student identity in schools: an analysis of official and unofficial talk in multiethnic classrooms, European Journal of Psychology of Education 25, no.22 (Mar 2010): 176–191.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-010-0016-7Kate Ferguson‐Patrick Writers develop skills through collaboration: an action research approach, Educational Action Research 15, no.22 (Jun 2007): 159–180.https://doi.org/10.1080/09650790701314585Mariëtte De Haan The Authoring of School: Between the Official and Unofficial Discourse, Culture & Psychology 11, no.33 (Jul 2016): 267–285.https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X05055500

Utilizing parental observations and computer technology in developing a child‐screening instrument in Singapore

It is widely known that parent–teacher partnerships are vital to children's progress in their development and learning in schools. These partnerships involve parent–teacher conferences, parents helping in the classroom, teachers making home visits and parent education seminars. However, partnerships rarely extend to having parents involved in the assessment process of their children in a significant way. In Singapore, opportunities for parents to be involved in the assessment process exist but only when invited by a professional, and this is only to a limited extent. Routinely, when professionals assess a child, parents are asked for their observations of their progress at home. However, such information gathered from parents is informal, unorganized and used on a supplementary basis. Hence, it was the purpose of this research project to develop a child‐screening instrument that utilized observations of Singaporean parents in an organized fashion by the help of computer technology. With this, it is hoped that the involvement in the assessment process will educate and empower parents to make decisions and play a more active role in the identification of their children's learning needs. This paper reports the use of parents' observations of their children across five developmental domains in the device of a computer‐based child‐screening questionnaire in Singapore. The Developmental Screening Questionnaire (DSQ) is developed as an initial screening tool to detect potentially at‐risk children within the age range of one to six years. This paper also describes the validity and utility of the instrument, making use of computer technology in the test administration process.

Questioning honor: a parent–teacher conflict over excellence and diversity in a USA urban high school

Parent–teacher relations are often characterized as highly conflictual in the educational literature, with scant empirical evidence of how the disagreements occur in everyday talk. Close analysis of a teacher's account of an intense conflict with a student's mother over the National Honor Society grounds the abstract discourses of merit and difference in the worlds of parents, teachers and students. Narrating primarily through reported speech, in a ‘she said, I said’ fashion, the teacher recreates her conversations about the National Honor Society and the graduation ceremony. Creating the social milieu through reported speech and the inner reality by telling what she left unspoken, she captures the derision between parents and teachers. Moreover, the adult struggles obscure the adolescents' initial concerns about elitism. Exposed to reform debates, the teacher reveals her consciousness about diversity and privilege. The mother's understanding reflects traditions of individualism and meritocracy without regard to barriers created by race, sex, class and disability. The encounter ends without opportunity for fuller articulation. Notwithstanding these tendencies, the individual parent–teacher conference remains the most widely employed format in US schools, emblematic of an extremely privatized notion of that relationship. The author frames the conflict in terms of school community and public education at large to identify possibilities for more generative communication.

Translating Bourdieu into the American context: the question of social class and family-school relations

This paper affirms the relevance of Bourdieu's arguments concerning schooling and inequality to the sociology of education in the US. In doing so, it eschews abstract debates about “reproduction theory” in favor of an empirically grounded treatment. We begin by noting that Bourdieu's theoretical account of the educational system's role in perpetuating inequality was tailored to an institutional arrangement which is highly distinct from that presently found in the US in at least one key respect: whereas for Bourdieu connections between the school and the domestic sphere are “hidden” or “masked,” in the contemporary US they have become the focal point of a vast amount of educational research, discourse, and policy. Indeed, numerous institutional mechanisms exist which are intended to “harmonize” the environments formed by the home and school with respect to educational goals and practices. Our paper subsequently analyzes one of the most widespread such mechanisms: the parent–teacher conference. Using a set of detailed transcriptions of conferences between teachers and parents of middle-class children, on the one hand, and working-class and poor children, on the other, we examine the interaction that occurs in such conferences at the micro-level. It is our contention that, despite the institutional arrangement which prevails in the US, Bourdieu nevertheless provides the conceptual tools necessary to understand this interaction. Thus, within our data, stark differences are apparent in the amount and quality of the information exchanged in conferences as a function of the amount of cultural capital held by the parents. Similarly, parents’ symbolic capital (relative to that of teachers) is associated with differences in the authority situation that characterizes the conference, with middle-class parents exhibiting a pronounced willingness to criticize teachers, advocate on behalf of their children, and demand customized pedagogical assistance for them. On the basis of this data, we conclude that institutional mechanisms such as parent–teacher conferences can function as an indirect avenue through which social class impacts children's school experiences.

Restructuring Routine Parent-Teacher Conferences: The Family-School Conference Model

In this study we compared traditional parent-teacher conferences with an alternative collaborative model that included students as participants (family-school conferences). Data were drawn from a 3-year project conducted with 15 teachers and 346 parents from a suburban elementary school (K-4). We collected surveys from parents regarding traditional (N = 199) and family-school (N = 84) conferences and conducted intensive training with 10 teachers and 16 target families. Interview and videotape data were collected from these teachers and target families, who were chosen in part because their children had mild learning or behavior problems. Data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative methods. Results indicated that teachers and parents valued traditional conferences as opportunities for information exchange; however, both groups reported experiencing anxiety in ways that may interfere with communication. Although the family-school conference model was not fully implemented by teachers as anticipated, these conferences appeared to be characterized by increased communication among adults, increased learning about children, and a positive, conversational style. Implications of the model for developing positive family-school relations are discussed.