Reframing Parent-Teacher Relationships in Rural African Schools

Abstract Positive interactions and relationships between parents and teachers have the potential to deepen parents’ involvement in children’s learning. However, not much is known about the scope of the interactions between parents and teachers in rural public primary schools in Africa. Specifically, little is known about the spaces in which parents and teachers relate and inter-act; who participates in these interactions; and the types of relationships which underpin or emerge from such interactions. This article explores the natural (i.e., not interventionist or programme-driven) interactions and relationships between parents and teachers in North Central Nigeria. The findings draw from a two-phased ethnographic study of parental involvement in two rural schools and communities with parents of upper level primary children and the teachers and head teachers of the children. The main methods were partly structured interviews and participant observations while thematic analysis was used to identify themes around which narratives were represented. The findings revealed affective, economic, and official relationships between parents, teachers, and head teachers within and outside schools, though to a limited extent in one of the school-communities where there was significant instability of school leadership. Importantly, these relationships were embedded within the religious, social, and cultural ways of life in both communities. The study underscores the criticality of school heads for parent-teacher relationships, and for realising the promises of parental involvement in schooling.