The Parents and the Schools — alternative role definitions

Abstract

The role of parents in respect of schools and education is defined in starkly contrasting ways in different countries and within particular countries. There is a repertoire of role definitions from which selections are made. These include parents as problem, as police, as para‐professional aide, as partner, as preschool educator, and as the prime educator. Some role definitions are rigid and limiting, others more flexible and developmental. Defining the parent as the prime educator is the most daring, and only a country confident in its practice of democracy in everyday life can have the courage to make this the normal rather than the exceptional.