What Differences between Parents 'and Teachers' Views about Their Relationships in Québec (Canada)

Over the past 50 years, a consensus emerged from the scientific literature regarding the positive effects of school, family and community partnerships on school achievement. However, researchers noted that the implementation of these partnerships still gives rise to tensions on the ground. This research tackled with how parents and teachers get involved in the school-family-community cooperation process to support pupils at the elementary school (age 6 to 12). The goal of this paper is to compare on the one hand, the parents' views in their narratives on parents and teachers practices, and on the other hand, the teachers' views in their narratives on parents and teachers practices as well, to gain insight on the tensions characterizing these partnerships and on the possible solutions set forth by these actors. To this end, the empirical analyses are based on a approach with qualitative interviews among 14 teachers and 45 parents of pupils at six elementary schools in the Greater Quebec City area. To this end, interviews were conducted with 14 teachers and 45 parents of pupils at six elementary schools in the Greater Quebec City area. The results suggest that practices such as school-family communication or homework are privileged among parents and teachers. The analyses also suggest that parents and teachers diverge over the tools teachers use to support parents involvement.