5. Learn from Parents

To support a good collaboration between school and home, teachers and management must understand the parents’ values, perspectives, and expectations for the collaboration and, at the same time, set a clear direction for the collaboration. The school’s responsibility is to frame the collaboration, develop a dialogue with the parents, and create shared understandings.
 
Parental knowledge can give teachers a more coherent picture of the student and better understand strengths and weaknesses.
 
In concrete terms, this means that the teacher in the meeting with the parents is listening and asking about their child’s parents’ experience. When the student is challenged, the teacher must avoid interpreting the parents’ perspective either as wrong or as an expression of an inherent problem with the student or family, but instead show curiosity and empathy. The parents’ perspective can be an essential source for understanding the student and the next understanding of the student’s family culture and background. Practicing empathy here is of great signifcance.
 
Parents’ position and commitment to the schoolhome collaboration are created relationally through the school’s opportunities for participation. Therefore, it is essential that the collaboration makes it possible for all parents to be heard and does not place higher demands and expectations on the parents than they have the opportunity to live up to. In some cases, the school-home collaboration goal may be that the student attends school every day or has a packed lunch with them. Especially about vulnerable families, there may be a need for informal and fexible forms of cooperation. In concrete terms, this may mean that the school must supplement jointly written messages with personal or telephone contact so that the relevant information reaches all parents - regardless of reading skills or language background. To accommodate the parents who have negative school experiences, the teacher can also choose to move meetings and activities away from the school’s usual framework, e.g., to the sports hall or entirely outside the school. Another option may be to go on home visits and gain a greater insight into the student’s everyday life.