Preschool Teacher Education Students’ Assessment of Their Own Views on Parents and Teacher-Parent Cooperation

Abstract

This paper deals with the self-assessment of the views held by students of Early and Preschool Education at the University of Zagreb on parents and teacher-parent cooperation. The aim of the research was to determine if there are differences in the views among the preschool teacher education students regarding parents, the role they play, and the characteristics that may enable or hinder positive relations with parents, given the students’ age and their year of study. The research was conducted among the undergraduate students (N=190) (1st and 3rd year) of Early and Preschool Education, as well as amomg the students on the 1st year of their Master’s studies at the Teacher Education Faculty of the University of Zagreb. The research was carried out by using a survey questionnaire adapted in accordance with the Meehan and Meehan instrument (2017). The obtained results indicate that, depending on their age and the current year of study, there are statistically significant differences in students’ perception of parents and teacher-parent cooperation. Keywords: early childhood and preschool education, parents, self-assessment, students, teacher-parent cooperation.

Keywords

• early childhood and preschool education
• parents
• self-assessment
• students
• te-acher-parent cooperation