ABSTRACT

It is fashionable to talk about the importance of co-operation between parents and teachers. The Plowden Report.on Primary Schools is eloquent on the subject. ‘Co-operation’ appears to mean persuading parents to accept the views of teachers. The Plowden Committee, like the teachers whose views they solicited, had no doubt that parents should not ‘run the schools’. 1 While the demands of vocal minorities of (mainly middle-class) parents are known to teachers and education authorities, little is known of the demands of parents in different social situations. This chapter reports an inquiry conducted in i960 by one of the authors of this book into parents' expectations of teachers in contrasted social areas. 2