Taking dialogue-based communication as a precondition, this study aimed to analyse Estonian parents’ attitudes towards the school communication. By using the empirical data from six focus group interviews this study proposes five communication patterns that take into consideration the degree of activity and the positive-negative attitude towards interacting with the teacher. The results showed that parents with low communication activity were concerned mainly about grades and health issues. Active parents were also discussing the feedback and evaluation system. Different patterns would enable teachers to apply different communication strategies to efficiently involve parents in supporting the development of their child.
Bauch, Jerold P., ed. (1997) The Bridge Project: Connecting parents and schools through voice messaging. (Monograph of the Betty Phillips Center for Parenthood Education.) Nashville, TN: Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
Baxter, Leslie A. and Chitra Akkoor (2011) “Topic expansiveness and family communication patterns”. Journal of Family Communication 11, 1–20.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15267431003773523
Boeije, Hennie (2002) “A purposeful approach to the constant comparative method in the analysis of qualitative interviews”. Quality & Quantity 36, 391–409.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1020909529486
Epstein, Joyce L. (2001) School, family and community partnerships: preparing educators and improving schools. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Epstein, Joyce L. and Mavis G. Sanders (2006) “Connecting home, school and community”. In Handbook of the sociology of education, ch. 12. Hallinan, M. T., ed. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36424-2_13
Fan, X. and M. Chan (2001) “Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: a meta-analysis”. Educational Psychology Review 13, 1, 1–22.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1009048817385
Graham-Clay, Susan (2005) “Parent teacher cooperation; educational strategies; parent participation; parent school relationship; information technology; computer mediated communication”. School Community Journal 16, 1, 117–129.
Harris, A. and J. Goodall (2008) “Do parents know they matter? Engaging all parents in learning”. Educational Research 50, 3, 277–289.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131880802309424
Hughes, Anita and Veronica Read (2012) Building positive relationships with parents of young children: a guide to effective communication. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Jennings, N. and E. Wartella (2004) “Technology and the family”. In Handbook of family communication, 593–608. A. L. Vangelisti, ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Johnson, Doug (2000) “Techno-parenting”. Library Talk 13, 64.
Kilgore, Amanda J. (2010) Teachers’ perspectives on using e-mail to communicate with parents. Ed. D. Dissertation. Walden University.
Lynch, Alicia Doyle, Richard M. Lerner, and Tama Leventhal (2013) “Adolescent Academic achievement and school engagement: an examination of the role of school-wide peer culture”. Journal of Youth Adolescence 42, 1, 6–19.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9833-0
Nichols, Susan and Phillip Read (2002) “‘We never knew it was that bad’: parent-school communication about children’s learning difficulties”. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 25, 49–63.
Oostdam, Ron and Edith Hooge (2013) “Making the difference with active parenting; forming educational partnerships between parents and schools”. European Journal of Psychology Education 28, 2, 337–351.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0117-6
Shinn, K. (2002) “Luring high school parents onto our turf”. Education Digest 67, 34–36.
Shirvani, H. (2007) “Effects of teacher communication on parents’ attitudes and their children's behaviours at schools”. Education 28, 1, 34–47.
Thompson, Blair C. (2007) Applying social information processing theory to parent-teacher relationships. Ph.D. Thesis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
Thompson, Blair C. and Joseph P. Mazer (2012) “Development of the parental academic support scale: frequency, importance, and modes of communication”. Communication Education 61, 2, 131–160.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2012.657207
Tveit, Anne Dorthe (2009) “A parental voice: parents as equal and dependent-rhetoric about parents, teachers, and their conversations”. Educational Review 61, 3, 289–300.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131910903045930
Vornberg, James A. and Shelley Garret (2010) Instructional leaders bridge the communication gap. Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association. Available online at <http:// c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.tepsa.org/resource/resmgr/imported/InstructionalLeader/ilsample-jamesvornberg.pdf>. Accessed on 05.14.2015.
Webber, Charles F. and Bill Mulford (2007) “School and community”. In Intelligent leadership, 119–142. J. Burger, C. Webber, and P. Klinck, eds. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Zhang, Qiping and April Hatcher (2011) “Cross-cultural comparison of blog use for parent-teacher communication in elementary schools”. In Engineering psychology and cognitive ergonomics, 263–272. D. Harris, ed. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer.