Familien-Schul-Kooperation zu Beginn der Sekundarstufe I: zum Aufgabenverständnis von Müttern und zur Bedeutung ihrer Passungswahrnehmung

Parent-teacher-cooperation has been identified as an important prerequisite to support students’ learning and achievement at all grade levels. Yet, in order to establish a beneficial cooperation, expectations and tasks need to be clarified. Given the changes in society and the educational system, this qualitative study examines mothers’ understanding of their tasks, their reasons for acting as well as their self-perception and perception of school fitting at the beginning of lower secondary education. The data are based on semi-standardized interviews in five focus groups (N = 25) in Baden-Württemberg. The grounded theory analyses show that the mothers in all groups share a general understanding of what specific tasks the family and/or teachers would have to take on in order to support the child’s schooling. The mothers also agree on the need to provide individual support due to structural deficiencies at school. In addition to contextual conditions, mothers’ role beliefs, norm and goal orientations, teacher prompts, child support needs, routines, and previous experiences explain their decisions for acting. Interrelations between maternal self-perception and their perception of school fitting point to the key role of teachers in coping with own perceptions of maternal role strain.