Forms of Capital and Teachers’ Views of Collaboration and Threat Relations With Parents in Israeli Schools

Abstract

Neo-liberal ideologies have given parents influence over education. This requires teachers to find ways to engage with parents and use resources for dealing with them. Following Bourdieu’s notion of field, in which different groups struggle over resources to maintain their social position, we examine the relations between teachers’ attitudes toward parents and possession of feminine, social, and cultural capital. The sample comprised 605 who worked in 32 randomly selected schools located in two districts in Israel. Analyzing teachers answered to a questionnaire reveled that teachers’ relations with parents are diverse and include threat and collaboration. Different capitals underpin these relations.