Parental expectations of their adolescents' teachers

In spite of increasing parental participation in their children's education , and the growing research interest in this trend, the study of one of the central components of parental involvement, namely, parental expectations o f teachers, has been scarce. The present research focuses on this important , albeit neglected, topic. We examined the effects of the sex of the parent and the sex and grade level of the specific child on parental expectations of teachers. Seven hundred and sixty-five Israeli parents of students atte nding 31 educational institutions participated in the study. They completed the Expectations of Teachers questionnaire, consisting of 12 items describ ing behavioural characteristics of teachers subsumed under three broad cate gories: Help and Assistance, Teaching Competence, and Fairness. Greater exp ectations for Help and Assistance were reported by the parents, followed by Teaching Competence and Fairness on the part of the teacher. Mothers hold higher Fairness and Help and Assistance expectations as compared with fathe rs. Help and competence expectations were higher for parents of female stud ents as compared with parents of boys. Conclusions from our study call for increasing efforts geared toward the building of a sustainable and benefici al partnership between teachers and parents for the best interest of the st udents and for the further elucidation of teachers expectations of parents. (C) 2000 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.