The topic of the doctoral dissertation is the parenting styles of parents and teachers and the reading literacy of pupils at the end of the third grade of primary school. Parents have a primary role in education, and the school as an educational institution has a secondary role. The research is based on the thesis that the education provided by parents or teachers depends on the parenting style: permissive, authoritarian or authoritative. On the other hand, it includes the reading literacy of pupils in Slovenia, which is improving, but we are still lagging behind most European countries. We investigated the teaching of literacy in first, second and third grades of Slovenian schools and the reading literacy the pupils achieve. The research task of the doctoral dissertation was to find out whether different parenting styles of parents and teachers are associated with the achievements of the pupils in the field of reading literacy at the end of the third grade of primary school. We designed an age-adjusted reading literacy test for pupils at the end of the third grade. The sample included 69 teachers, 929 pupils and 968 parents. According to the results of the research in Slovenia, more than 52 % of parents use the permissive parenting style and the least number of parents (19.0 %) the authoritative parenting style, although many studies point to the latter style as the most suitable. The influence of parents on the pupils' reading literacy at the end of the third grade was found to be statistically significant. 38.4 % of parents do not read books, which raises the question of what kind of example they can be for their children in this respect. 13.9 % of parents do not read fairy tales to their children. The results show that the pupils whose parents use a permissive parenting style, on average, achieved worse results on a reading comprehension test, compared to the pupils whose parents use either an authoritative or an authoritarian parenting style. In the group of parents using the permissive parenting style, the pupils whose parents finished high school or elementary school achieve worse results in reading literacy compared to parents who completed university education or the second Bologna cycle. The results of the reading test showed that at the end of the third grade of primary school, pupils scored an average of only 59.3 % of the total number of points and only 2.9 % of pupils scored more than 90 % of the points, with which we cannot possibly be satisfied. The results of the research show that teachers (according to their self-assessment) mostly apply the authoritative parenting style, while the permissive parenting style is used the least. In the research, it was determined how the teacher's parenting style was related to the pupils' reading literacy. The results show a statistically significant (low) difference between the individual achievement in the reading comprehension test and the authoritarian parenting style of the teachers. Since this connection was very low, we further investigated the average scores of the pupils whose teachers used an authoritarian parenting style. The difference is not statistically significant, i.e. higher, compared to the average scores of the pupils whose teachers used either the permissive or authoritative parenting style. The results of the research also show how the parenting style of the teacher and parents affects the pupil's reading literacy. A statistically significant positive mutual impact of the parenting styles of teachers and parents on the achievement, which is used to measure pupils' reading literacy, was demonstrated with the following combinations: parents with an authoritarian parenting style - a teacher with a permissive parenting style, parents with an authoritative parenting style - a teacher with an authoritarian parenting style, parents with a permissive parenting style - a teacher with an authoritative parenting style and parents with an authoritarian parenting style - a teacher with an authoritative parenting style. A negative mutual impact of the parenting styles of teachers and parents on achievement in reading literacy is also statistically significant in the case when the teacher's parenting style was authoritarian and the parents' parenting style permissive. In this case, the pupils achieved a lower score on the reading comprehension test. The subject research is the first to connect the field of initial literacy teaching and parenting styles in the Slovenian educational system and social context, contributing, within these frameworks, completely new information about their connection. The used conceptual apparatus and tools enable comparability and a meaningful transfer of the obtained results to equivalent educational and social contexts. We have created instructions for teachers and parents on how they can improve children's reading literacy. The results of the research can be used in the organization of the educational system as well as in various types of training for both educational professionals and parents.
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