AN INVESTIGATION OF SPANISH TEACHERS' VIEWS ON PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION

Family and school represent the indispensable frame of reference for the incorporation of the individual into society. Due to the rapid changes at the present time, the family needs help to offer educational guidelines which respond to their children's educational needs. Teachers find themselves in a similar situation. The way to face up to this challenge can be found in the coordinated work of parents and teachers where the common goal will be the full and integral development of the child. This is why it is necessary to unite forces to make the results more efficient as they will be facilitated by participative measures adapted to the nature of their different realities. However, this goal is not easy to achieve. Researchers have shown the close relationship between the efforts of the teachers to improve working with parents and family implication. For this reason the teacher can be considered a key piece for mediating between school and family. So as to carry out this job, the teacher needs training which will help him to acquire the necessary abilities for establishing that efficient and positive collaboration. However there are few studies and publications which give information on the profile and the needs of teachers from their point of view [5] [7] [8] [21], given that almost all these studies are based on questionnaires applied to parents. This paper addresses this unresolved question, presenting a questionnaire for collecting information from the teachers about the needs they, themselves, recognize in their work when collaborating with parents. The instrument has been constructed taking into account three dimensions which are considered fundamental for encouraging parents to participate in their children's education: the teacher's technical-professional dimension, the personal dimension related to efficiency of work with parents, and a dimension about efficiency for perceiving the family's performance [18]. At the same time, in the questionnaire, the indicators, variables and items are outlined. The instrument is accompanied by an answer key prepared for use by the department of orientation for interpretation of the results and to consider possible training programs. With this information, the school should be able to deal with real needs in their teachers when establishing communication ties with their students' parents.