Hong Kong kindergarten teachers’ attitudes towards home-school collaboration, difficulties they perceived and related suggestions: An interview study

Home-school collaboration has long been known as a crucial factor to promote children’s learning and development. However, it is noticed that most research in this area was conducted from the perspectives of parents, while limited of it explored the views of kindergarten teachers. Therefore, this study aims to reveal kindergarten teachers’ attitudes, the difficulties they faced in home-school collaboration, and relevant suggestions given by them. In this research, 5 Hong Kong kindergarten teachers who have worked in a local kindergarten for at least 2 years are recruited as participants. Semi-structured individual interviews are conducted, and thematic analysis is used as the analysis method. Upon analysis, it was found that all the interviewees agreed that home-school collaboration is important. Reported difficulties when promoting home-school collaboration mainly include low parental engagement and inappropriate education methods. Teachers suggested strategies such as involving parents in school affairs and educating parents, can be effective ways to encourage parent-teacher partnership. These findings are expected to provide a reference for policymakers to understand the situation that frontline kindergarten teachers are facing. It is also acknowledged that both parents, teachers, and schools should make efforts to improve home-school collaboration, as well as children’s growth and development.