When asked, most teachers will agree that partnerships between parents and

teachers are essential in achieving the best possible outcomes for children.
However, the reality is that often these partnerships are unequal, privileging
professional knowledge over parental funds of knowledge. Critically analyse
the literature on parent-teacher partnerships and identify the key issues
contributing to the inequality, making recommendations how these inequalities
can be overcome.
Partnerships in general are an important concept within education in order to
achieve the best learning outcomes for the children. Goldstein (2006) states
that the involvement in the education and the partnership between parents
and teachers has a key impact on the childs learning. There has been great
difficulty within the partnership, an association among two or more people,
which is characterised by mutual cooperation, and responsibility, between
parents and teachers. A major factor that enhances the inequality, a rift
between parents and teachers due to factors such as, communication or lack
there of, or as stated in Lazar & Slostad (1999) the socio-historical factors can
also play a role in the miscommunication between parents and teachers.
Another factor that is shown that contributes to the inequality with in the
partnership of parents and teaches is the privileging of staffs expertise over
the knowledge of their own child; this may create a barrier between the
teacher and the parent in these situations and dampen the partnership
between them. An additional attribute that contributes to the issues of
inequality in the partnership is the lack of time that teachers and parents have
in order to communicate with each other, and hinders the contribution that a
parent can have on the impact of there childs development. This also leads
onto the silencing of the parent that may want to ask the staff member
questions, or pose their concerns on a matter concerning their child, but a
staff member may be unable to properly communicate with the parent due to

a busy pick up or drop off. The silencing of the parent contributes greatly to
the relationship between the teacher and the parent because they believe
they are not being heard and that they are just being dismissed, and that their
opinions do not matter. The partnership between parents and teachers is
important, and finding ways to get exonerate the inequality within the
partnership is essential because it is necessary in accomplishing the best
possible outcomes for the children. Contributions to the inequality of the
parent-teacher partnership are lack of communication, privileging knowledge,
lack of time as well as silencing.

Though teachers say that the partnership between parents and teachers are a
priority in accomplishing the best outcomes for children, the lack of
communication hinders it greatly. Lazar & Slostad (1999) investigated how
socio-historical factors impacted greatly on the obstacles between the parentteacher partnerships. The socio-historical factors can be shown threw lack of
communication between the parents and teachers due to each party
complaining about each other. Educators argue that parents show a decline of
parenting and parents argue that educators are neglecting to teach (Henry
1996). This shows how the lack of communication between the parent and
teachers can impact their partnership, without the communication they are
unable to know what is going on in these different setting and are unable to
properly complete the best possible learning experience for the child. Another
area that shows the lack of communication between parents and teachers that
can impact on the partnership, is the silencing of parents and teachers alike.
According to Mac Naughton & Hughes (2011) a lot of the silencing comes

from the physical barrier between parents and teachers, in the example they
state that the foyer is a physical barrier that causes a lack of communication
between them because parents feel physically excluded (Shields, 2009:
244) from the learning of their children.

Though these issues contribute to the inequality in the partnerships there are
actions that each party can take to eradicate the problems between parent
teacher partnerships. According to Lazar & Slostad (1999) a lack of education
and assumptions in teachers with communicating with parents is a factor in
the lack of communication between parents and teachers. If there was a
greater education provided for teachers to eliminate assumptions that parent
involvement in their childs education. In order to exonerate the physical
barrier, like the foyer or a gate blocking them from the classroom, silencing
parents, as well as excluding them from their childs learning, educators or
centers should create a space where parents feel comfortable being able to
express their views and ideas, or in the case that there is a gate between
them actively go out to the parent to have a conversation about what is
happening with in the classroom (Mac Naughton & Hughes, 2011).

Another key issue contributing to the inequality of parent-teacher partnerships

is the privileging of knowledge by teachers that obstructs the relationship
between parents and teachers. The hindrance comes from some teachers
believing that they are experts in the field of childcare because they have an
education in it, and they do not acknowledge the parents specific family
knowledge on their own child (Mac Naughton & Hughes, 2011). In doing this it

creates a barrier between the parent and teacher and dismisses the parents
knowledge making out as their knowledge on their own child is inadequate
compared to the staffs knowledge of children (Mac Naughton & Hughes,
2011). In privileging is assumes that the staff member is always right and
does not take into consideration that the knowledge is always changing.
Jones, White, Aeby & Benson (1997) performed a survey which showed that
90% of teachers believe that parent involvement is important within the
school, though from that 73% disagree that parents know how to help (pg.
160). This shows the privileging of knowledge from teachers stating that the
do not know their own child and how to help them further their education and
stating their inadequacy in helping their children in their education.

The privileging of knowledge from teachers creates a great involvement in the

inequality between parents and teachers, though there are actions that
teachers can do to conquer these inequalities. Mac Naughton & Hughes
(2011) suggests that teachers and parents should assume that there are
equal rights to express their ideas on how to educate the children. According
to Amirali Jinnah & Henley Walters (2008) parent involvement in early
childhood programs creates a positive impact on the childs education
because they feel more comfortable with their parents. This further shows that
the involvement of parents with in the centre community is essential to better
further the education of the children. If staff members believe that parent do
not have enough knowledge in childcare then they should educate them and
create an environment where parents feel more comfortable and more
included in their childs education. Staff members and teachers alike can

welcome parents into the centre to further heighten the importance of the
relationship between the teachers and parents as well as teachers to further
their knowledge of a certain child that the parent is most likely to now on a
more personal level. This will shatter another barrier between the inequalities
of the parent- teacher partnership and will further build a greater outcome for
the childs learning experience while in an early childcare program.

An issue that further contributes to the inequality of the parent-teacher

partnership is the problem of time, which also contributes to the silencing of
the parents. Mac Naughton & Hughes (2011) identifies that early childhood
settings and childcare settings with deficient time for parents and staff to
effectively communicate with one another, sufficiently producing the unfair
thinking habit of silencing, which constricts an individual or group from being
heard. This is a key contribution to unfairness with in the parent teacher
partnership, in the middle of pick up and drop off it become to busy for staff
members to talk with parents therefore silencing parents question, queries
and concern that are happening with their child. Not only does the busyness
of the pick ups and drop offs hinder the relationship between parents and
teachers due to the lack of time to communicate with each other about the
child. Carlisle, Stanley & Kemple (2005) draws the attention to the parents
work schedules is another factor influences the level of parent involvement
with the childs learning, as well as the lack of time to communicate with the
staff members, showing that it is not only the hindrance from the staff
members side but also with the conflicting work schedules of parents.

Further more though time is an issue that supplies to the inequality within the
partnership between parents and teachers there are actions that both parties
can take in order to counter the time issue. As Mac Naughton & Hughes
(2011) highlights that there are different ways that staff members are able to
communicate with parents and involve them without clashing with their work
schedules. They state that there should be a staff member available during
drop off, in doing that the staff member can greet the parent or parents and
the child as well as give or receive information that is important for the child.
In doing this it creates reassurance for the parent leaving their child with the
staff member due to being able to talk to them and building on the partnership
between them in the exchange of information provided during the interaction.
Whiren (1992) sates that with the stresses of being a working parent, the
centre should respect their time constrictions and prepare the child for pick up
before the parent is there in order to create time for the parent and staff
member to talk about what had happened during the day and create a
conversation to further expand the best possible outcomes in the childs
leaning and education. This not helps create time for the parent but also helps
staff members further expand their knowledge of the child, and further
provides a positive aspect in the partnership among parents and teachers to
help further accomplish the best possible outcomes for the childrens
education.

Ultimately, the issues contributing to the inequality within the partnerships

between parents and teachers can be further extinguished if the right actions
can be applied to the situation. If teachers and parents are able to come up

with solutions to further extinguish communication, the socio-historical factors,

the privileging of knowledge that is shown within the centre where the staff
members believe the parents knowledge is inadequate compared to theirs
because they have an education in child care, where as the parent would
know the child on a more personal level, as well as the factors of time and the
silencing of either party. These hindering factors can be worked out if each
party is willing to create the solution because as explained in Mac Naughton
and Hughes (2011) parent teacher partnerships are necessary in order to
further enhance the learning outcomes for the child, as well as creating the
best environment for the child to achieve the best outcomes within their
learning development. This shows that the partnerships between parents and
teachers are essential to creating the best results for the childs education.

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