Slovenian and Portuguese preschool teachers: the importance of cooperation with parents
Artigo de Conferência
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Ver Todos
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resumo
The objectives and strategies of cooperation between parents and preschool teachers depend on how
the cooperation is defined at the preschool institution level. In Slovenia, the participation between parents
and preschool teachers is determined by a formalized framework and legislation, whose individual
articles already contain parts of partner cooperation policies. According to the principle of cooperation
with parents, written in the Curriculum for kindergartens, published in 1999, the parents have not
only the right to information about the programs and their child, but also the right to participate in
the design of life and work in the preschool institution and even the right to actively participate in the
educational work. Similarly the preschool education in Portugal has assumed a sense of support and
social assistance to families and it is the parents and guardians’ duty to participate in the preschool
education institutions’ boards through elected representatives or representative associations; to develop
a relationship of cooperation with educators within a formative perspective; to give an opinion
regarding the working hours of the preschool education institution and to participate, on a voluntary
basis and under the institution’s pedagogical board’s guidance, in entertainment and assistance activities.
The purpose of this paper is to compare the views of Slovenian and Portuguese preschool teachers
on the importance of cooperation with parents especially focusing on some of the personal views of
preschool teachers towards different ways of cooperation with parents; towards parental influence on
the life and work of preschool institution and towards their competencies regarding cooperation with
parents. In the research carried out in 2017 in Slovenia and Portugal (N=386) we applied 100 questionnaires
in Portugal and 286 in Slovenia. It has shown that Slovenian and Portuguese preschool
teachers are aware of the importance of sharing responsibilities and powers with parents, although
formal aspects of cooperation (council of parents and council of public kindergarten) are clearly defined
in Slovenian and Portuguese legislation and therefore parents can more effectively communicate
their comments and suggestions on the work of kindergarten via their parents’ representative in the
council of parents.
