Evaluación y mejora de la facilitación docente para la participación familiar en los centros educativos

Resumo

Participation of families in the education of their children is a right that democratizes education and brings numerous benefits to the educational community as a whole. Given the different ways of involvement that parents have at their disposal and the differentiating characteristics of each family, there are several types of profiles when it comes to taking part in educational centers. Although not all families know how to collaborate at the educational level in an adequate manner, this participation is relevant to improve the quality and results of the teaching and learning process. Teachers, as mediators between the educational center and families, should focus their work on motivating them to become actively involved in all of the dimensions that make up family participation, in spite of the symbolic or non-existent training that teachers receive to improve their relationship, and guide them in this participation. In coalition with the above, the objective of this doctoral thesis is to evaluate and improve teachers' promotion of the educational participation of families. For this purpose, teachers from Torre Pacheco (Spain) and Manizales (Colombia) were approached to detect their training needs and to design and implement contextualized intervention projects in each school. In the first phase of the research, the results indicate that the dimensions related to involvement from outside the center are the most promoted, while those involving closer collaboration with the institution are the least promoted and demand a greater need for training. The situation described above is similar in the two contexts studied. Differences have been detected in the teaching facilitation of family participation depending on the characteristics of the teaching staff. In turn, these differences have made it possible to establish two profiles of teachers in terms of promoting family participation, which is of great value for training design. In the present research project we have responded to the previously detected needs by developing contextualized training projects of extended duration, which have been applied through a collaborative action-research approach, with a methodology of co-training between teachers and families in which both groups have worked cooperatively. The results, although different among the centers, imply an improvement in the participation of families in the educational institutions, with very positive effects on the climate of the participating centers. The success of this doctoral thesis, which is part of an R+D+I project of the Compartimos Educación team, although it focuses on the role of teachers in promoting family participation, it also takes into account the ecological context and involves the entire educational community. The results encourage expanding the areas of study and motivating more institutions to include families as collaborating agents.