In this thesis I researched the expectations of parents towards kindergarten teachers regarding cooperation and mutual communication, what features should had a good teacher, and which are the barriers for cooperation between them, according to the parents. In the theoretical part, I firstly presented a historical overview of institutions for pre-school children across the world and also in Slovenia and then I focused on cooperation between kindergarten
and Slovenian parents, where I discussed the importance of cooperation, benefits, barriers and
educator competences. Briefly I also identified what is effective communication between
teachers and parents and which are the most common barriers when communicating. In the
empirical part I was wondering about the experiences that parents have, when working with
pre-school teachers, what are their expectations, what the qualities of a good teacher are and
which problems they see in their collaboration. For the research I used a questionnaire, which
involved parents of children enrolled in kindergarten. I have found that parents have a
relatively positive experience in cooperation with the teacher. They appreciate the most when
teachers are willing to help, even in the uneasiness. As a negative experience, parents
mentioned several bad experiences from previous kindergartens. In parents’ opinion, the
competences and features which a good teacher should have are friendliness, cheerfulness,
and easiness. Teachers should love their job, as well as children and encourage their
independence, tend to progress and take into account the level of development of the child.
Concerning the barriers between parents and teachers, there is an overwhelming opinion that
there are no barriers or there shouldn’t even be. The most common barrier mentioned by
parents is lack of time and congestion.
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