FOSTERING TRUST. PARENTS AND TEACHERS COOPERATION AS A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The changing European context challenges the education system in Poland. Schools and parents are supposed to cope effectively with increasing expectations, neoliberal pressure, and lack of time (Graham-Clay 2005). Being a teacher involves continuously seeking new solutions and ways to respond to these challenges throughout the whole teaching practice. Parenthood is also a lifelong learning process constantly shaped by communities around parents and the world at large (Mendel 2016). In these rapidly changing times, even the well-established concepts of traditional family and teacher roles are being redefined. In the paper, the author will comment on the results of research, which shed light on trust as a key factor in fostering cooperation among parents and teachers in the context of Poland. The methodological framework (Mouffe 1999; 2013; Koczanowicz 2015) which the author has chosen allowed her to achieve certain positive effects, such as establishing meaningful partnership and thus challenging the existing educational reality.