Communication Barriers in the Context of School-Parents Cooperation

<p style="text-align: justify;">The purpose of the present study was to determine the communication barriers, the reasons and results of these barriers, and solution proposals for communication barriers faced in the context of school-parents cooperation. The case study was used in this study. The data obtained from the interview forms were analysed according to the method of descriptive analysis. The findings were presented in the form of themes and subthemes. The study group consisted of 42 teachers working in the central districts of Erzurum in the 2019-2020 academic years. According to the research results, the participants think that communication barriers in the context of school-parents cooperation are related to parents and to teachers. Most of the participants express the reasons for communication barriers resulting from parents while some of the participants express the reasons for communication barriers resulting from teachers. Participants think that the results of communication barriers faced in the context of school-parents cooperation are related to students, school administrators, parents and teacher. Most of the participants think that results of communication barriers in the context of school-parents cooperation are related to students while the other participants think that results of communication barriers in the context of school-parents cooperation are related to school administrators, parents and teachers. Most of the participants propose solutions for communication barriers related to teachers while other participants propose solutions for communication barriers related to school administrators and parents.</p>

The Impact of Leadership and Targeted Interventions to Close the Achievement Gap of Disadvantaged Pupils: A Case Study

<p style="text-align: justify;">This research explores the impact of effective leadership and targeted interventions in closing the achievement gap of disadvantaged pupils in primary schools. Findings suggest that the case study schools use effective school leaders and a range of targeted interventions including early intervention, small group additional teaching, one-to-one tuition, peer tutoring, parental involvement, booster class, mastery learning, pastoral care, and enrichment programmes. Each of the above success factors and intervention strategies was explored in detail in the paper. The overall conclusions of this study are that the case study schools have closed the achievement gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers through providing effective school leaders and the use of a range of effective intervention strategies. We would suggest that the case study schools’ stories of how they have closed the achievement gap through providing strong school leaders and the use of targeted interventions are of local and national significance. Our research also suggests the possibilities for further research. The recommendations from the study are that there is a need to replicate and expand this research with a larger sample of the study, in order to explore in detail what works in schools.</p>

Variety of Strategies in Primary Education: The Responses of the Four UK Nations to the COVID-19 Crisis

<p style="text-align:justify">This article analyses the strategies of the four United Kingdom (UK) nations to mitigate the impacts of primary school closures and the shift to remote learning due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. A theoretical framework based on a combination of the field literature of strategy and public value was developed to analyze their initiatives. This is a qualitative and exploratory study, and its data was collected from each country’s website, research papers, and media news. The findings reveal five key areas of action: remote learning; keeping schools open to assist vulnerable students and key workers’ children; access to the Internet and electronic devices to mitigate the digital divide; free meals to disadvantaged learners; and students’ assessment. The analysis suggests that the four nations initially adopted a coordinated action and gradually followed three different paths: deliberate strategies, adjustment to the pandemic situation, and development of emergent strategies. The variegate of strategies show the innovative capacity of the countries and the search for public value. Further research is suggested to address the impact of the strategies.</p>

Willingness to Communicate and Collaborate: The Key Role of Educational Leadership in Primary Education

<p style="text-align:justify">This article aims to explore the views of primary school teachers regarding the educational leadership exercised by leader teachers at the human resource management level, and how this can affect their willingness to communicate and collaborate. The theoretical framework analyzes the dimensions of human resource management by a leader teacher, as a communication channel, team empowerer, and creator of a climate of trust. The research was carried out using quantitative method, with a closed digital questionnaire which was completed by 693 primary school teachers from whole Greece. Initially, the analysis was carried out through descriptive statistics and then selected questions were analyzed by statistical inference test. The findings show a shift towards the model of a transformational leader, despite the country’s education system remaining highly centralized. In addition, the findings show a correlation between democratic and cooperative staff management, with the axes of inspiration and responsibility on the teachers’ side. This article highlights whether the communication skills of a leader teacher affect the functioning of the school. The research was carried out during a pandemic and thus it was not possible to collect qualitative data using interviews with leader teachers so that we can have a comparative approach to the issue.</p>