The Role of Professional Knowledge and Skills of Preschool Teachers in Building and Developing Partnerships with Parents / Uloga profesionalnih znanja i vještina odgojitelja u izgradnji i razvijanju partnerstva s roditeljima
Authors: Miković Ivana Mavračić , Tot Daria 
Published: January 2021

Partnership is considered one among the most important factors in educationalwork. For its formation and improvements, appropriate competences are expected. Inthis research we seek to highlight the need to strengthen the professional knowledgeand skills of preschool teachers for building and developing partnerships with parentsseen as a higher form of collaboration. Therefore, the aim of this research was toexamine the perceptions and attitudes of parents and preschool teachers abouttheir mutual cooperation and partnership. The sample consists of 203 parentsand preschool teachers working in kindergartens in the City of Zagreb and ZagrebCounty. Hypotheses were set with regards to recognition or knowledge of cooperationand partnership concepts, the assessment of the role of preschool teachers as partnersby parents and preschool teachers in mutual cooperation and partnership, andthe assessment of the importance of cooperation through the participants’ ownresponsibility. Once the data was analysed, the obtained results showed that bothgroups of respondents did not consider the role of preschool teacher as partner asone that was the most important. Also, the results of the research have shown thatparents, but also preschool teachers, do not understand the difference between theconcepts cooperation and partnership. Although both parties have agreed on theimportance of a partnership or the collaborative relationship, there is also a smallnumber of participants who consider such a relationship irrelevant or less important.Keywords: cooperation; lifelong learning; parents; partnership; preschool teachers.-Partnerski odnos smatra se jednim od najvažnijih čimbenika odgojno-obrazovnogarada za čiju se izgradnju i unaprjeđenje očekuju odgovarajuće kompetencije. Uovom istraživanju želi se ukazati na potrebu osnaživanja profesionalnih znanjai vještina odgojitelja za izgradnju i razvijanje partnerstva s roditeljima kao višegoblika suradnje. Stoga je cilj istraživanja bio ispitati percepcije i stavove roditelja iodgojitelja o njihovoj međusobnoj suradnji i partnerskom odnosu. Uzorak čini 203roditelja i odgojitelja koji rade u vrtićima na području grada Zagreba i Zagrebačkežupanije. Postavljene su hipoteze koje se odnose na (pre)poznavanje pojmovasuradnje i partnerstva, procjenu uloge odgojitelja kao partnera od strane roditeljai odgojitelja u međusobnoj suradnji i partnerstvu te procjenu važnosti suradnjekroz vlastitu odgovornost sudionika. Rezultati dobiveni nakon analize podatakapokazuju da obje skupine ispitanika nisu ulogu odgojitelja kao partnera procijenilenajvažnijom. Također, rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da roditelji, ali i odgojitelji,ne shvaćaju razliku između pojmova suradnje i partnerstva. Iako su se obje stranesložile o važnosti partnerskoga/suradničkoga odnosa, postoji i manji broj onih kojismatraju takav odnos nevažnim ili manje važnim.Ključne riječi: odgojitelji; partnerstvo; roditelji; suradnja; trajno učenje.