The twitches in school communications. Teachers’ and families’ perception

Abstract

This paper is focused on one of the less studied consequences of the arrival of ICT to educational world: the changes are producing in family-school relationships due to new forms of communication or, in parallel, different ways to enlarge their involvement and participation. Particularly, it is analyzed the perception that families and teachers of different educational stages have about ICT in their communications, according to their use, adequacy and themes addressed. It also investigates whether the perception of the relationship between the educational community is related to the perception of the suitability of ICT in communications. Data show differences depending on the stage analyzed, as well as certain similarities and concordances in the perceptions of families and teachers. In this way, it identifies that the communication in secondary education is more concentrated on the control and monitor than in primary, in which the exchange of information on extracurricular activities, materials or different aspects of the center are the common subjects teachers devote more attention. Tools perceived as less suitable are social networks and WhatsApp. It is concluded by evaluating the need to promote the participation at school by reinforcing the proper use of ICT, in order to favor the treatment of topics that go beyond control and monitoring.