School-Family-Community Partnership: Preliminary Findings

Abstract

—This preliminary study identifies the level, urgency, form, and problems that exist related to school-family-community partnerships especially for improving instructional effectiveness in the elementary school context. This study was a qualitative inquiry that sought to illuminate the perspectives of Elementary school principals in the Bogor area, West Java province, Indonesia toward their school partnership with family and community. The research employed semistructured interviews with two principals in Bogor city and two principals in the Bogor district. Data analysis employed thematic network techniques. The results of the study indicate that a positive perspective regarding the improvement of school-family-community (SFC) partnerships is founded. The partnership is both a formal and informal approach while most elementary schools in rural more informally than in urban schools. The form of partnership is more of a complementary nature because a school especially a teacher must be the leading actor in the instructional process. The involvement of SFC partnership in the instructional process is a big challenge for the schools and a required model is needed to grow it.