Child's home preparation for school - views of parents. Followed, or unheeded issue in education?

Abstract

The aim of this article is to address a rarely researched area of home preparation in the Czech environment. The area has a significant role in the education process of the child. The article focuses on the shift in the parent’s approach to this joint effort of the child and parent and the research description of strategies parents apply to reach the goals set for home preparation. The theoretical bases for the article are the main subjects of home preparation–parents accenting the social context of their family and the specification of the parent’s involvement in home preparation in the context of differences in education, sociocultural environment of the parent and the influence of home preparation on the child’s success in education. In the qualitative research through interviews with selected parents of lower primary school pupils we show the means of the parent’s intervention in home preparation influenced by individual strategies of the parent. The forms and means of involvement in home preparations perceived by parents are presented as particular examples of the research results. The results of interviews with 15 mostly university educated parents show that the aspects of the parent’s involvement in home preparations are clearly structured according to the differences in personal and professional conditions and preferences of the parent with the child at lower primary school.