Educational partnership in Kosovo: Organisational efforts, teacher beliefs and perceived experiences with parental involvement in schools with varying levels of socioeconomic status and cultural student compositions

Abstract

The present study compared the organisational efforts, teacher experience and beliefs on parental involvement among (pre)schools comprising a student population of different levels of socioeconomic background and ethnicity of. Further, it examined the effect of organisational efforts on teacher experience and beliefs. For this purpose, 123 directors and teachers working in 32 schools of Kosovo answered a questionnaire. Overall, (pre)schools reported moderate organisational efforts for parental involvement and positive experience. Only 35.8% of them agreed that child education is a shared responsibility among families and parents. Teachers working in preschool consisting of high socioeconomic student background and teachers working in schools of high cultural minority student background scored significantly higher on teacher experience than those working in low SES preschools and low cultural diversity, respectively. Moreover, the organisational efforts in preschools and ethnicity in schools predict teacher experience. Further research is recommended to understand the contextual factors behind these findings.