Abstract

Parents’ expectations from the school are generally expressed in the meetings with teachers and it becomes significantly important to understand how do these expectations are met by the school administration. The purpose of the present research is to explore parents’ expectations from the school and how does the school address these expectations. Qualitative approach was employed to seek parents’ perspectives on their expectations and their understanding how does the school care for their concerns. Fifteen participants including school children’s fathers and mothers aged between 30 to 45 were purposively selected through snowball sampling. A semi-structured interview guide was used for collecting the data. As a result of thematic analysis of interview transcripts, themes were identified on parents’ expectations about (a) parent-teacher meetings (PTMs) and (b) the expectations about their children’s education and development. The emergent themes include managing PTMs, unwelcoming and discriminatory behavior, follow-up mechanism, socialization of children, sports and co-curricular activities and implementation of school vision. The study has implications to improve teaching-learning process through the expectations the parents hold and how does the school address their concerns that may lead to school improvement.

Key words: Parent-teacher meeting, parental expectations, school, feedback, school improvement, Pakistan.