Spanish society is becoming increasingly plural with ever more diverse family structures. Some of them, such as adoptive and homoparental ones have become more visible recently. This can influence the beliefs and expectations that teachers hold about parents and families, which might affect children’s adaptation to school. Having misleading expectations could adversely affect the relationships between teachers and their pupil’s parents, and consequently, also the adaptation of these children to school. There are few studies that address the beliefs on family diversity of teachers. For this reason, the main objective of this research has been to explore what expectations of parental participation in school education future teachers have, particularly, should their pupils need close collaboration between both (family and school) to achieve the best adaptation and results. This research has been funded by EDU2012‐38588 of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
The study involved 323 undergraduates, all single with an average age of 20.63 years old (S.D. 1.79). In the sample, 51.4% were studying a Bachelor Degree in Early Childhood Teaching, and the rest (48.6%) a Bachelor Degree in Primary School Teaching. Females represented 78% of the sample and 22% were male.
The results show expectations of moderate to high participation of both parents. Overall, expectations of participation are greater for mothers than for fathers, regardless of family structure evaluated, except in those cases when the father has the custody of the children, whether he lives alone with them or with a new partner. When the male parent is evaluated, the highest scores are given to families with two gay parents where one of them has blood links with children, followed by homoparental ones where there are no such links. Expectations of lower participation are held, however, of divorced non-custodial parents. As regards mothers, their biological link, their sexual orientation, or type of structure to which they belong (two-parent or single-parent) appear to impact less on expectations. Additionally, the least contact with the school is expected from non-custodial divorced mothers.
The results show that future teachers expect to have the cooperation of parents of their pupils in order to work together to achieve the educational goals set. However, such collaboration expectations are influenced by their beliefs about family dynamics in different modalities, as well as the role that culture gives mothers versus fathers. Nevertheless, more positive attitudes are perceived towards adoptive families and homoparental ones in the new generations of future teachers.
Education and qualification of children and young people in care , Other topics
