From a distance—How Norwegian parents experience their encounters with school

Influential factors behind parents’ general satisfaction with compulsory schools in Iceland

“…From the Finnish context, Poikolainen and Silmäri-Salo (2015) pointed out that global education policy has brought national education closer to the consumer to whom the educational goods should be available. With reference to the Norwegian context, Baeck (2009) pointed out that parents have been allocated a more significant position in schools, both in regard to decision making and as partners in their children's learning processes, at least in the formal sense. However, Sahlberg (2011Sahlberg ( , 2014 noted that the ideology of open market-based education has expanded parental choice and school autonomy, but has also introduced stronger measures of control over schools.…”

“…Böök and Perälä-Littunen (2015) described discourses where teachers and parents were seen as polar opposites: teachers as experts and parents as laymen. Baeck (2009Baeck ( , 2010 described the relationship between home and school as sometimes a distanced one. Similarly, Baeck (2013) and Jónsdóttir and Björnsdóttir (2012) described the relationship between teachers and parents as occasionally stressful.…”

“…Furthermore, teachers' opinions of parents are often ambivalent; parents are either a support or a barrier to successful teaching (Rasmussen, 2004). As pointed out by Baeck (2009), failing to include parents in important decisions in school may indicate that they are not respected as equal partners. It is important to note that it can be a barrier to parental involvement if teachers do not recognize the social and cultural preconditions that affect participation, and respect the differences in the parent group.…”

“…That does not mean, however, that parental support in education is unproblematic, or even that all parents have the same expectations when it comes to their role in education. Parents should therefore not be viewed as a homogenous group (Baeck, 2009), and school culture, and parents' characteristics such as social status, gender, educational level and cultural values, have a great impact on the rationale and practice of parental involvement (Baeck, 2010;Pepe & Addimando, 2014). Formal education plays a part in whether and how parents cooperate with school.…”

“…Formal education plays a part in whether and how parents cooperate with school. According to a Norwegian study, parents in lower-secondary schools with more formal education are more likely to take part in home-school cooperation compared to those with less education (Baeck, 2009). These parents are also often more likely to acknowledge that parental support is important in education.…”