Education and the development of the individual are configured from the interaction with the environments in which people manage (Bronfenbrenner 2002). In the case of children these environments are fundamentally two: family and school. In our research, we have focused on the relations that could be set between these two environments. Having said that, we have analyzed the reality in educational centres at the level of resources of participation and communication channels. Our team have also observed the attitude that parents, course tutors and heads of schools maintain about family-school participation.

We are aware that there may be a large gap between formal participation (which occurs following and implementing the rules enacted), non-formal participation and the real or effective participation of families in educational centres (see Martin Bris, 2005). Then, we wanted to focus our attention on the study of effective participation paths,  analysing how they are used as well. Therefore, we developed an ad- hoc questionnaire, which has been filled by headmasters, course tutors of early childhood education, and parents of students in this stage. Therein, requesting respondents identify participation and communication resources, as well as that they are asked to value knowledge, use and satisfaction, using a Likert type questionnaire, where 1 = very poor; 2 = poor; 3 = good; 4 = enough good; 5 = very good.

What fails if existing ways of participation and a desirable attitude are not achieving a satisfactory educational participation in educational institutions?

Bronfrenbrenner, u. (2002). The ecology of human development. Barcelona: Paidós. Kñallinsky Ejdelman, e. (1999). Educational participation: family and school. Palm of Gran Canaria: University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Martin Bris, M. (ed.). (2005). The participation of parents of students at the municipal level and schools. Madrid: School Council of Castile-La Mancha.