Parents and homework. The teachers’ perspective

Abstract

This study examines the perception of early childhood and primary education teachers in state funded schools as regards the involvement of fathers and mothers in their children´s learning and their schoolwork. The study also examines the possible difficulties that parents face to do this. The sample is composed of 78 teachers of 30 centres located both in urban and rural areas of the Principality of Asturias (North of Spain). To gather information, the study applied the School-Family Relationship Scale, by Martínez-González (1994), obtaining an adequate reliability Cronbach&39;s Alpha index. Descriptive and comparative analysis of two groups were conducted with Student´s t taking into account the gender of the parents. The results indicate that teachers perceived an adequate involvement of both parents in their children&39;s academic tasks and process in these early stages of school. However, these results suggest that mothers engage more and deal more frequently with difficulties arising from the conciliation between family, work and personal life. The study concludes with some educational guidelines and proposal of new lines of research, including gathering information from parents and mothers.