Abstract:

Parents' perspectives are an essential source of feedback for schools and educators. Researching their views on the learning environment helps identify areas of strength and areas that require improvement. Thus, gathering feedback from parents enables schools to continuously adapt, and refine educational practices to better meet the needs of children and parents. For this purpose, 26 parents in Ankara (central districts) were reached with convenient sampling method and data were collected with semi-structured interviews. During the interviews, parents were asked what their expectations were from an ideal school environment in terms of physical (material, class size, number of students, financial expectations) and educational (supporting development areas, communication with the school) according to their own perceptions. The findings obtained after the interviews were analyzed with the thematic analysis method. As a result of the analysis, based on the answers given by the families, two main themes were developed as (1) physical expectations and (2) expectations in terms of education and learning. The findings of the study showed that parents had different levels of expectations about adequate materials and paid fees. Especially the parents whose children are educated in private institutions stated that the materials in the schools are insufficient and the money paid is too high compared to the public schools. On the other hand, it shows that the expectations of the parents in terms of education are mostly in the areas of self-care (reflection of what they learn at school to home) and social (sharing with other children, communication) development. Based on the findings of the research, it is recommended that schools give information seminars to families about their physical and educational conditions, make regular meetings at the beginning of the semester to determine the expectations of parents about the educational environment, and establish a regular communication link by employing technological opportunities in order to keep the bond between home and school strong.

Keywords: