Program Enrollment Options and Teacher Self-Efficacy for Promoting Partnerships with Parents in Preschool Programs

Abstract

Positive parent-teacher relationships are associated with positive child outcomes (Minke, 2010).  Teacher characteristics such as self-efficacy and their work contexts, such as the number of children/families each teacher serves may influence teachers’ abilities to build those relationships. Participants in this pilot study included families of children enrolled in publicly-funded preschool programs and their teachers. Teacher and family demographic information, class schedules, and enrollment numbers were collected through survey. To assess their perceptions of self-efficacy regarding parent-teacher relationships, preschool teachers completed the Teacher Efficacy for Promoting Partnerships Scale (Moen, Sheridan, & White, 2016).  Findings suggest that early childhood programs using single session models with fewer children and families assigned per teacher, may permit teachers to more quickly establish partnerships with parents or at least establish a confidence in working with parents sooner in the relationship than teachers assigned to double sessions/day.