New Barriers in Home-School Relationship

• In Event: Digitalization and Its Impact on Home-School Partnership and Parental Involvement

Abstract

The organisation of home-school relationship in Iceland seems similar to that in other Nordic countries.The communication between parents and teachers in compulsory schools is systematic and regular, with two or three parent-teacher meetings per year in addition to communication via emails, letters and phonecalls (Jónsdóttir & Björnsdóttir, 2019). The use of diverse digital platforms to communicate with parents about students studies, homework etc. has increased rapidly during last years. But communication, and possibilities for cooperation, seem to be surprisingly alike in schools, regardless of differences such as school size or the age of the students.
Diversity in Icelandic society has grown rapidly in recent years, and immigrants are ca 14% of the habitants (Hagstofan, 2021). That has given the school professionals new challenges and new opportunities to development in pedagogy and didactics. Teachers union has asserted that the increased responsibilities, due to diversity of all kind, are neither recognized nor rewarded. A research in Reykjavík brought forth that teachers feel, firstly, overloaded in class, and secondly, challenged by some parents that are apparently demanding (Reykjavíkurborg, 2017). Reykjavik municipalities´ reaction was to introduce guidelines for parent-teacher relations, arguing that the increase in communication between parents and teachers could be disturbing to teaching and learning in the compulsory schools. The authorities recommended rules to be implemented regarding mails, phone-calls, reaction time to be expected by parents etc. All in all, trying to set borders or shield teachers from the demanding parents.
The feeling of being able to influence the school’s decisions and future vision is important to parents (Jónsdóttir, Björnsdóttir, & Bæck, 2017), and study shows that equity in Icelandic schools is disputable, amongst children and their parents. A new study shows that compulsory schools have increased their use of online teaching and communication during Covid-19 (Jónsdóttir, 2020). Findings revealed that immigrant students, and those with weak social background, were much more likely not to attend online and not to communicate digitally with their teachers, than other students. The question to discuss is if new steps in digitalisation are causing new barriers in home-school relationship to rise.

Author

• Kristín Jónsdóttir, University of Iceland