The Analysis of Parents’ Ideas about the Role of Educational Psychologists in an Educational Institution
The article treats parents’ attitudes to educational psychologists’ professional duties. The article highlights that in order to effectively solve education-related tasks, educational psychologist and parents should cooperate and coordinate their efforts. The article reviews and summarizes research dedicated to the investigation of people’s stereotypes about psychologists and their work. The authors underline that people’s expectations about psychological support are largely underinvestigated.The research analyzes expectations parents of preschool and school children have about educational psychologists’ work in educational institutions. The article maintains that parental unawareness of educational psychologists’ work hinders teacher-parent collaboration and negatively influences the cooperation between parents and educational institutions. The article underlines that families usually have limited understanding of educational psychologists’ work. The majority of respondents who have never received psychological support have perverse ideas about educational psychologists’ responsibilities and competencies. Parents rarely seek psychological support. The article underlines the discrepancy between parents’ conviction that psychological support is beneficial and important and their extreme unwillingness to resort to professional psychological help.The authors generalise parents’ comments and propositions related to psychological support in educational institutions and draw conclusions on the basis of theoretical results and experimental outcomes.