A New Order of Co‐operation and Involvement?: relationships between parents and teachers in the integrated schools

The numerous reforms of the education system over the last few years are having a profound effect on the nature of the relationship between parents and teachers. The practical implications of this shift in power will take a considerable time to become fully apparent, but the new ‘planned integrated schools’ in Northern Ireland provide some evidence about how new relationships are negotiated. Case studies in three of the schools suggest that both groups find the situation challenging but also frustrating. It seems clear that parents in particular have a wide range of different models of what parent/teacher co‐operation should be. In addition significant differences seem to be emerging between the ways in which co‐operation is developing in primary and secondary schools.