Teachers and trainee teachers’ beliefs about family-school relationships

Abstract

Teachers’ and trainee teachers’ beliefs have been capturing the attention of researchers for the last few decades but beliefs about family-school relationships are not often addressed. Our aim was to compare teachers and trainee teachers’ beliefs about family-school relationships and their self-efficacy to relate with families. Participants were 133 teachers and 194 trainee teachers. We used the Beliefs about Family-School Relationships questionnaire comprised of 22 items that explore beliefs about collaboration, subordination (families should accept the teacher’s authority), delegation (families leaving education to the professionals), and self-efficacy to relate with families. Participants felt highly able to relate with families and support collaboration beliefs, but trainee teachers believed more in collaboration than qualified teachers did. Preschool teachers and trainee teachers believed more in collaboration and less in subordination and delegation compared to primary teachers and trainee teachers. These results have implications for teachers’ undergraduate training and lifelong learning about family-school collaboration.