Communicatie tussen autochtone en allochtone ouders en basisschool leerkrachten

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the quality of the communication between teachers and both non-immigrant and immigrant parents and children’s school performance (the results of children on a general achievement test in the final grade of primary education and the advice children get for secondary education from the primary school). Additionally, this study examined the impact of several background factors (Dutch language skills, educational level, number of years living in the Netherlands and acculturation) for immigrant parents on these issues. Four elements of communication (mutual communication -conversation-, emotions shown during the communication, openness of the communication and knowledge of education) have been examined. The results indicated that when there is a lot of mutual communication between teacher and both non-immigrant and immigrant parents, the advice children get for secondary education is better. When non-immigrant parents show more emotions during the communication, the results of the child on the general achievement test score and the advice for secondary education are lower. Also, when the communication between immigrant parents and teachers is more open, the result of the child on the general achievement test score is better. The results have also shown that some of the background factors of the immigrant parents (i.e. Dutch language skills of both parents and the number of years that the mother is living in the Netherlands) were positively related, while others (i.e. educational level of the parents and the number of years that the father is living in the Netherlands) were negatively related with the four elements of communication.