ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with parents and their position with respect to school, at the level of pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education in the Czech Republic. The discussion is based on a research project1 whose objective was to help find answers to a number of questions addressing the role of parents in school processes at contemporary Czech maternal and basic schools.2 The project focused mainly on arriving at a better understanding of the real position of parents compared with the different theoretical concepts known mainly from the literature published internationally, and learning about the possibilities parents have when they want to act as – educational or social – partners of the school, and recording further potential positions of parents as seen by parents themselves and by representatives of school. We were also interested in understanding the possibilities available to parents wishing to put through their own concerns in school, and we tried to record activities through which the position of parents in schools can be supported and developed, whilst also considering the variety of conditions in rural and urban settings, in maternal and basic schools. Not all of the questions formulated on the onset of the research project will be mentioned here;3 only questions at the core of the project will be discussed, providing a backbone to the chapter.
