Building bridges in the first stage of vocational secondary education

Within primary education, bridge figures have become an established value in working on parental involvement in schools. Its positive impact on cooperation between schools and families inspired the City of Ghent to explore the use of bridge figures within the first stage of vocational secondary education. In the meantime, bridge figures are deployed in 8 secondary schools in Ghent with a B stream of the 1st degree.

Research theme: Together works

Field of interest: Education; People and Society

Duration: 1/02/2018 - 31/01/2019

Financing: PWO

Within this research project Artevelde University College and the Education Center Ghent together researched how parents and young people experience the actions within these schools, as well as to what extent these experiences match their expectations regarding the partnership with the school. We collected data from parents and young people using in-depth interviews, structured questionnaires and focus groups. We also conducted in-depth interviews with mediators and school-internal actors, such as teachers and principals. The data analysis was done in two phases: a descriptive and an interpretive phase. Through triangulation of the results from the various data sources, 4 categories of success factors were identified when building a partnership model: working on support, acknowledging and reducing barriers, focusing on connecting and strengthening, and a (wider) view of the student and the family.

The results of the research were translated into an inspiration book for the professional field, which lists the basic ingredients for a strong partnership, together with concrete practical examples of successful and supported actions. An online toolbox was also developed to inspire school teams around the theme and to allow them to reflect on the perspective of the different actors (school teams, young people and parents) within their own school.