The mesosystem refers to interactions between microsystems, such as communication between teachers and herder parents. This section discusses goals and forms of communication between the school and the family in general.
Teacher-parent communication and pupil learning
An extensive research literature has documented the importance of school-family communication over the years (Epstein, 2010; Farrell & Collier, 2010; Hornby & Lafaele, 2011; Loudová, Havigerová, & Haviger, 2015; Ozmen, Akuzum, Zincirli, & Selcuk, 2016;
Ratcliff & Hunt, 2009; Sukhbaatar, 2014, 2018b; Symeou, Roussounidou, & Michaelides, 2012). School and family share a common goal which is “a harmonious development of the child’s personality” (Loudová et al., 2015, p. 1245). When pursuing these common goals, teachers and parents use various forms of communication. Researchers described one-way communication and two-way communication (Graham-Clay, 2005); written or oral communication (Symeou et al., 2012) among teachers and families using letters, report cards, notices of special events, communication books, telephone calls; teacher home visits (Stetson, Stetson, Sinclair, & Nix, 2012; Wright, Shields, Black, & Waxman, 2018); one-to-one basis communication (Symeou et al., 2012); and parent-teacher conferences or meetings (Gastaldi, Longobardi, Quaglia, & Settanni, 2015; Kim & Chin, 2016). Efficient communication is necessary:
Especially communication between teachers and parents regarding students’
performance in the class bears vital importance in better understanding students’
problems, increasing parents’ support in education, performing effective counselling and guidance, and ultimately increasing students’ motivation and success. (Ozmen et al., 2016, p. 28)
Epstein (2010) identified six types of home, school, and community involvement. These are (a) parenting; (b) communicating; (c) volunteering; (d) learning at home; (e) decision-making; and (f) collaborating with the community. Recent studies conducted in Mongolia (Sukhbaatar, 2014, 2018b) identified three parental involvement dimensions: (a)
home-31 based involvement; (b) school-based involvement; and (c) the dimension of parental resourcing. These parental involvement dimensions were adapted from three indexes of parental involvement in Cambodia by Nguon (2012). Interestingly, the dimension of parental resourcing involved monetary contribution, labor contribution, and material contribution from parents. Sukhbaatar’s studies (2014, 2018b) indicated that home-school communication forms the basis of the three parental involvement dimensions, and this communication appears to be vital to foster parental involvement. When parents and teachers communicate, understand each other, recognize each other’s expectations for the child, and work together in order to pursue goals for the child, the child’s learning outcomes are improved. Research shows that successful schools play the primary role in initiating communication and partnership with families (Farrell & Collier, 2010). However, there are challenges in communicating when both parents and teachers are too busy to discuss about pupils and their learning (Pang, 2011).
The Mongolian government emphasizes that teachers have the main duty of fostering and developing every child’s talents and interests (MES, 2012). Teachers are expected to carefully examine problems they face during their teaching in order to develop the talents and interests of each child. Teachers also play a vital role in promoting the development of every child (MES, 2012).
There are a number of activities aimed at parental involvement practiced at schools in Mongolia that facilitate teacher and parent communication. A survey (Sosorbaram, 2010) including more than 500 teachers and school education managers from rural and urban areas in Mongolia found that current parental involvement practices include the following: (a) parents attending regular meetings; (b) parents watching classes; (c) parents helping decorate classrooms; (d) parents attending pedagogical workshops; (e) parents receiving regular reports on their children’s performance; (f) parents competing in sports competitions or quiz contests with their children; and (g) parents attending graduation day. If parents miss these activities, the channel of communication usually shifts to telephone conversations between parents and teachers (Sukhbaatar, 2014).
Goals and forms of communication
Parents and teachers share the common goal of increasing the child’s academic achievement and development. The parents’ goals are more likely to be focused on improving their children’s performance and learning more about school life. The teachers’ goals for parental involvement focus on involving parents in homework; providing a nurturing environment;
32 raising money; and having parents attend school events and parent-teacher [P-T] meetings (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011). The goals of communication for teachers also include discussing the child’s progress and difficulties; learning from parents how the child is coping with school; discovering how parents can help their child at home; and learning about any potential conflicts with parents (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011).
One important responsibility of teachers is to provide all families with proper information about the child and the school, and communicate this information using the most appropriate method considering each parent’s situation (Symeou et al., 2012). There are different forms of communication between teachers and parents. Graham-Clay (2005) defines two categories of interaction between teachers and families: one-way communication and two-way communication. One-two-way communication occurs when teachers inform parents about school or classroom events; communicate pupil’s progress using letters; send home classroom or school newspapers, report cards, communication books; or create school Web sites. Two-way communication involves interactive conversations between teachers and parents. These conversations mainly mean telephone calls, home visits, and parent-teacher conferences.
Recent studies note that advancement in technology enhances frequency and forms of parent-teacher communication. Examples include weekly e-mail messages (Thompson &
Mazer, 2012) and daily communication using the Internet, Wi-fi, and smart phone (Guo, Wu, & Liu, 2018). E-mail messages appear to work more effectively to communicate secure information about pupil’s grades or homework completion (Thompson & Mazer, 2012).
WeChat, a mobile app, is the most commonly used form of teacher-parent communication in China and it has replaced older communication forms such as phones, agenda books, face-to-face meetings, and home visits (Guo et al., 2018). WeChat provides opportunities to teachers and parents to share information both within a group and one-on-one private chat.
However, this chatting tool does not work well for all parents. Parents in rural areas do not have access to WeChat and also some people, usually grandparents who take care of their left-behind grandchildren, often do not know how to use it.
Parent-teacher meetings are one common form of school-family communication found in many countries. In Italy, Gastaldi et al. (2015) report that it is stated in the Education Law that teachers are required to conduct parent-teacher meetings on a regular basis in order to discuss children’s academic improvement and to inform parents about difficulties children have faced recently regarding their learning and their relationships with teachers and peers.
In Korea, parent-teacher conferences and school briefing sessions are two main forms of
33 parent-school communication and they have different educational purposes (Kim & Chin, 2016). The school briefing sessions present issues at the school level to parents. The briefings include school policies and the principal’s educational vision and principles in order to help parents better understand the school and establish home-school partnerships.
The parent-teacher conferences are more personalized informal meetings where parents can freely consult with teachers about their child’s difficulties.
The most common form of communication between teachers and parents in Mongolia has been collective parent-teacher meetings (Sosorbaram, 2010; Sukhbaatar, 2014, 2018a, 2018b). Even though parent-teacher meetings are a means of two-way communication, these meetings have been practiced as one-way communications where all parents sit together quietly and the teacher is in front of the parents providing information about the school and the class, and sometimes about the problems of some particular pupils (Sukhbaatar, 2014, 2018a, 2018b). As Symeou et al. (2012) states, “the aim should be for teachers to be able to talk with parents instead of only talking to parents in order to cooperate and be in true dialogue” (p. 82).
Herder parents, however, usually could not attend these meetings due to their remote location (Sukhbaatar, 2018a). The herder parents usually visit schools only once a quarter to pick up their children for quarter breaks or to take their children back to school after the breaks (Sukhbaatar, 2018a). Other forms of communication such as phone calls, however, may not be a practical form of communication with herder parents since pastoralists make seasonal migrations and stay in remote areas where there is limited cell phone reception (Ahearn, 2018).