A seminar that included a series of multinational workshops for parents was organised by the Centre for International Parent Co-operation (CIPCO) on the theme "For the children's sake: how to supply parents with the necessary competences".
CIPCO is the result of a partnership created between the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of Stella Maris College, Gzira, and other groups of parents and educators from Austria, Estonia, Finland, and Norway as part of a project funded by the European Union through one of its programmes - Grundtvig. Funding for the Maltese participation was obtained through the national agency responsible for the administration and promotion of the Socrates programmes in Malta.
The Maltese group included Br Mario Zammit (Brother Provincial of the De La Salle Brothers), Lawrence Zammit (chairman of the college PTA), David Musù (vice-chairman), Marlene Camilleri (secretary), Violet Vella (treasurer) and members Tania Mercieca, Charles Briffa, and Louisa Grech, together with Philip Grech (parent for special needs), and OSA member Mark Grech.
The programme consisted of a series of lectures for impetus and a number of workshops dealing with the learning experience. The lectures and workshops dealt with parents' needs, the fact that education needs fathers too, communication between parents and school in an information society, school-based support of children with special psycho-social needs and their environment, and gifted learners.
The highlight of Dr Brigitta Srncik's contribution on "Parents have needs: Have all parents the same needs?" was her academic exposition on motivation which she correlated with performance. Psychologically the term refers to the arousal and maintenance of behaviour directed towards goals which may be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsically, the behaviour can be satisfying in itself and extrinsically the behaviour can lead to subsequent rewards or avoidance of subsequent punishments.
She explained the three main categories of human behaviour: namely the biologically-based motives, sensation-seeking motives and complex psycho-social motives. Basic human needs (like food, water, pain avoidance) force people to search the environment effectively to satisfy those basic needs. Sensation-seeking motives, like curiosity and exploration, have educational implications, and it is beneficial for parents to know about these to help their children in their development.
However, in a formal learning environment it is the psycho-social motives (like the need for achievement and affiliation) that are mainly aroused. Dr Srncik's concluding point related to the importance of students having the support of family and school.
The second speaker, Dr Olaf Kapella, attempted to address the issue of the father in the education of the child. The issue, according to Dr Kapella, is becoming increasingly important because of the changing nature of family relationships.
Moreover, society is becoming increasingly mobile with women taking a more active role in the labour market and society in general such that the traditional role of the father can no longer apply.
There is evidently an increasing need for the father's role to become more partnership-oriented and eventually moving to a stronger interaction with one's partner and child. The need for fathers to understand this changing role is further accentuated by the changing patterns of family relationships. In most countries, the most prevalent pattern is that of the nuclear family, with, however, an increasing incidence of fathers being single parents, of fathers not having custody of the child, and of fathers taking on the role of stepfathers.
Michael Katschnig talked about the special psycho-social needs of children. The task of professionals in this area is to tackle psycho-social difficulties within the school environment. Children's reactions in certain cases can be violent but they can pass through periods of anxiety, truancy, extreme timidity, psychosomatic disorder and sometimes there could be some self-destructive behaviour. This requires specially trained teachers who must be available for counselling and teaching emotionally and/or socially disturbed students.
Dr Christine Kisser's presentation was on communication between parents and school and she started her talk by giving the mission statement of Austrian schools.
She believes that schools are meant to help youngsters develop their moral, religious and social values. The school has to provide youngsters with tools required for life and future education which would enable them to become independent thinkers able to eventually find an occupation.
The school is to encourage in youngsters an open-mindedness towards different mentalities and an understanding of the social realities that exist.
The system is to be one that instils in youngsters the love for liberty and peace. If these aims are to be reached, there must be close co-operation between the school partners, in other words: the child, the teacher, and the parents. In accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights to the Child, the centre of all educational efforts is the child. The child has a right to a good education.
All that is done should be focused in a way as to ensure his well-being. A child should be helped to develop and one way to do this is to take into account the childs opinion in all matters which concern him/her. The parent has the right over the child, until he comes of age, and has the duty to commit himself to support the child in his education. Parents' representatives are to enjoy consultative and decisive rights. Their role should not be limited, for example, to fund-raising.
Teachers have the educational freedom to choose the educational methods, which they consider best suitable for their students. The three partners operate in a different background but if the aims of the schools are to be fulfilled, there has to be a spirit of co-operation. And the basis of co-operation is communication, which Dr Kisser defines as the exchange of thoughts, opinions, knowledge, experience and feelings and the transfer of messages by language and symbols of all kinds.
She was mainly interested in social communication: interpersonal, or the exchange of information between at least two individuals; media-bound communication, or the exchange of information in and between groups; and group communication or communication within an organised group. Basic to every type of communication, she believes, is the need that each partner understands his or her specific role and sticks to it.
Parents are recognised as being the prime educators who are there to ensure that the child is given the appropriate direction. The teacher has the primacy in teaching and is responsible for the quality of teaching. The headteacher is there to give direction and to ensure co-operation within the school. In other words, with his or her style of leadership, he or she is to bring about the co-operation required to encourage a positive school climate.
The last speaker was Dr Shaukat Anjam who tried to answer the question "Are Finnish children more intelligent or do they learn more quickly?" He listed the factors that directly contribute to the educational success of Finnish children as maternity and child health, pre-school education, the school system, TV and radio teaching programmes, libraries, and health and social care follow-up. Two teachers from Finland then explained the system in their respective schools.
Then followed the workshops: "Education needs fathers too", led by Svein Ole Sataoen (Norway), "Com-munication between parents and school", led by Dr Charles Briffa (Malta), "How can we support parents of children with special needs?", led by John-Ingvard Kristiansen (Nor-way), and a "Radioworkshop", led by A. F. Gatnar. The Maltese delegation participated actively in the first three workshops which were conducted in English.
The first workshop tackled three main issues: the role of fathers and of men, fathers at home (in the families) and fathers in chidlren's lives outside home. The second workshop dealt with the communicative rationality in education that fosters understanding between parents and school and the notion that communication between parents and school is a democratic and active mode of participation. The third workshop dealt mostly with the feelings, challenges and difficulties those parents of children with special needs face and the support that can be given to them.
Everyone participated willingly and positively as they extracted from the resources of their personal experiences. For the two days of the conference the five countries became one team trying to understand present educational systems and endeavouring to discover other possibilities of how parents can take a more active role in the educational formation of their children.