A SWOT ANALYSIS OF TEACHER-PARENT COMMUNICATION IN EDUCATION: EVIDENCE FROM TURKEY

Abstract

This study was designed to explore strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats driven by teacher-parent communication (TPC, henceforth) from the perspectives of teachers and students based on teacher views. A phenomenological design was adopted in the study of which sampling was constituted by 10 Turkish teachers of different subject areas working at state middle schools. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews with these teachers and examined through content analysis. Based on the preliminary findings, the teachers believe that TPC has certain strengths such as enhancement of students' feeling of worthiness and their sense of belonging to the school, and improvement of their motivation and in-class performance, and facilitation of the learning process. The teachers also reported that it helps students develop a sense of responsibility and improve self-confidence, and reduce student misbehaviors. As for the TPC-driven strengths from teachers' perspective, they stated that it facilitates recognition of students from different angles, makes positive contributions to the learning process, improves teacher status and prestige, and reduces teachers' workload through collaboration with parents. The study discusses strengths, weaknesses, possible threats and opportunities of TPC in detail. Keywords: teacher-parent communication, school success, SWOT analysis