Analysis of the school-parent relationship based on parental perceptions in a peripheral rural area of Szeklerland

Abstract

The study analyses the school-parent relationship in the focus of rural development and development policy. For this reason, semi-structured interviews were conducted among parents (N=25) in Kászon Basin, between 2020 and 2021. It briefly reviews professional approaches towards social acceptance and reinterpretation of the social role of rural schools, including parental involvement. The doctoral research that forms the background of the study is an analysis of parental involvement based on the Epstein’s (Epstein, 1987) parent-school partnership model, which distinguishes five dimensions of parental involvement. Related to this research, this paper presents parents’ attitudes towards school and cooperation based on three analytical aspects: (1) educational activities, (2) institutional operation, (3) partnership. The results of the analysis suggest that the target group is characterised by a distancing, perfectionist attitude towards schools, associated with expectations that seem unrealistic compared to the current school-operation model and with rudimentary ideas about partnership. The conclusion of the study is that parental involvement in school life can be an important starting point for the development of school-parent relations and the establishment of a framework for cooperation. In the long term, this can have a positive impact not only on the functioning and competitiveness of rural schools, but also on the development of local community.