Parents’ own school recollections influence their perception of the functioning of their child’s school

This follow-up study set out to examine whether parents’ recollections of their own school would predict their degree of satisfaction with the functioning of their child’s school. A group of academically educated and vocationally educated parents with a child in preschool (N=391) were asked to think back to their primary school days and evaluate their school; these parents were then asked to indicate their satisfaction with the functioning of their child’s school once the child had reached the first, the third and the fifth grade. The parents’ recollections were found to influence their degree of satisfaction: among the academically educated respondents, the parents with relatively positive recollections showed higher levels of satisfaction than the parents with relatively negative recollections did; and among the vocationally educated respondents, the mothers with relatively positive recollections indicated higher levels of satisfaction than the mothers with relatively negative recollections did. It was suggested that parents’ recollections may be seen as an experience-based component of their general attitude towards education.