CLASSROOM TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS ON THE EDUCATIONAL INVOLVEMENT OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

This present research seeks to find out the perceptions of teachers/tutors regarding the educational involvement of immigrant families that have children in Primary Education in the Autonomous Community of Pais Vasco (Spain). The arrival of pupils of immigrant-origin families has revealed the importance of establishing bridges of interaction and communication between family and school. The empirical study, of qualitative nature, was carried out with 123 teachers at 24 schools from the three provinces of the Autonomous Community mentioned. The discourse of the teachers underlined that educational involvement of the families was, above all, of academic nature and involved also social support. The educational involvement of the families at school was smaller than the one addressed in the homes of those families. In this sense it lied down fundamentally on the personalised relationship with the teacher, rather than participation in meetings and other activities organized by the school. The teachers believed that educational involvement should include, apart from the academic and socio-affective dimension, the linguistic-cultural one. That responded, in some extent, to the social and educational bilingual situation of the Educational System from Pais Vasco, and to the importance tutors attribute to that dimension as a key factor for integration of the inmigrant families.