Parent and Teacher Relationships: From Blame to Working Together

In 2018, TDP fellows conducted a series on one-on-ones which laid the basis for a report on Parent and Teacher Relationships: From Blame to Working Together. The basis for our findings consisted of 659 interviews with parents teachers, other school staff, community members, and students about their experiences in Baltimore City Schools. The interviews were conducted and summarized by 25 Teachers’ Democracy Project (TDP) parent and teacher fellows in the Summer of 2018. They were then coded and analyzed by TDP staff.

Though the largest single concern shared by all was the issue of a lack of resources, five of the concerns in the list related to school culture and the quality of relationships. We noticed that among these 5 categories--unlike the sentiments expressed when talking about facilities and resources--parents and teachers, expressed their concerns differently and demonstrated different understandings about the root cause of problems. We found there was often implied blame embedded in their concerns and some revealing contradictions and differences in perspective. These differences have proved to be the most illuminating finding of the study. (Excerpted from the Executive Summary of the report)