Browsing by Author "Tuominen, Maria"

The meaning of home-school partnership is to support the students school achievement. Home-school partnership is defined by law and by different curriculums. Recently there has been studies of residential and school segregation. Residential segregation affects on segregation on student basis. In Helsinki, there lives more than half of the foreign language population of metropolitan area. Multiculturalism has increased significantly. Between regions there are large differences between the residents of immigrant background as well as sosio-economic status. The aim of this study is to find out teachers conception of home-school partnership in differentiated residential area. The study examines the factors that teachers feel to support to complicate the home-school partnership. In the addition, the aim is to find out how student base and neighborhood affects on home-school partnership. The study was conducted in a qualitative case study in Helsinki. This case study research data was collected by interviewing four teachers. In addition, the school social worker was also interviewed. The form of the interview was theme interview. Interview data analysis was carried out by using a theory content analysis. The teachers felt that home-school partnership was important. The factors that support home-school partnership are five-day school social worker, work phone and positive attitude towards home-school partnership with immigrant families. Teachers felt that parents passivity, language problems, as well as the differences between home and school complicated home-school partnership. Teachers and school social worker felt that the area was divided in two different areas. It can be concluded that residential are as well as student background has an impact on home-school co-operation, because student base of the school represents the areas population base.