Parents', teachers', and students’ roles in parent-teacher conferences; a systematic review and meta-synthesis

The primary objectives of this review are (1) to provide an overview of what characterizes the research on Parent-Teacher Conferences (PTCs), and (2) to contribute to the understanding of the roles of parents, teachers, and students during PTCs. A systematic literature search was conducted in five databases, yielding 33 studies that met the inclusion criteria, representing 13 countries. Analyses of the data resulted in the identification of seven roles for teachers, nine roles for parents, and three roles for students. Across contexts, topics discussed during PTCs were found to be similar. These results have implications for the development of teachers’ communicative competence, home-school collaboration, and the emphasis on PTCs in teacher education. Limitations of the study and areas for future research are discussed.