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 of 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 attending 31 educational institutions participated in the study. They completed the Expectations of Teachers questionnaire, consisting of 12 items describing behavioural characteristics of teachers subsumed under three broad categories: Help and Assistance, Teaching Competence, and Fairness. Greater expectations 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 fathers. Help and competence expectations were higher for parents of female students as compared with parents of boys. Conclusions from our study call for increasing efforts geared toward the building of a sustainable and beneficial partnership between teachers and parents for the best interest of the students and for the further elucidation of teachers' expectations of parents.