THE QUALITY OF COOPERATION BETWEEN A PRESCHOOL INSTITUTION AND A FAMILY

Abstract

The quality of cooperation between a preschool institution and a family implies the involvement of parents in educational activities in the family context. Numerous studies indicate the importance of cooperation between teachers and parents for the development of preschool children. The aim of this paper is to review the experience and opinions of parents and teachers about their mutual cooperation. The descriptive method and survey technique were applied. Two online questionnaires with multiple choice and open-ended questions were constructed, which were used to compare the views of teachers and parents. Quantitative data processing was applied, which referred to the basic measures of descriptive statistics (f, %), while qualitative processing involved categorizing the answers to open-ended questions. The research sample consisted of 107 parents and 47  teachers of preschool institutions in Serbia. The results indicate that most parents and teachers most often cooperate through individual conversations. It was determined that workshops are established in kindergartens in which parents are active participants in planning and implementation. Most respondents point out that live communication is better, more honest and more relaxed than online communication. Comparing the proposals for improving mutual cooperation, which was mentioned in the last question, teachers and parents mostly mentioned the need to organize more frequent individual conversations, as well as a larger number of joint workshops. It is concluded that positive communication has a significant role in establishing quality cooperation between parents and teachers.