One in Two Elementary School Teachers Say "It's Tougher Than for Middle School Teachers"... Here's Why

Korea Educational Development Institute Research Report
"Strong Sense of Helplessness in Relationships with Parents"

An analysis has found that elementary school teachers experience greater difficulties in their relationships with parents compared to middle school teachers. While one in three middle school teachers reported feeling helpless in dealing with parents, the ratio was higher among elementary school teachers, with one in two expressing such feelings.

According to Yonhap News on June 21, Geum Jongye, a research fellow at the Korea Educational Development Institute, released a report last month titled "Difficulties Faced by Elementary School Teachers in Responding to Parents Based on a School Education Status Survey" in the 395th issue of the Korea Educational Development Institute's "Education Policy Forum." In this report, Geum emphasized, "Compared to middle school teachers, elementary school teachers tend to perceive greater difficulty in interacting with parents."

Previously, the Korea Educational Development Institute conducted the "School Education Status Survey for Public Education Monitoring" targeting both elementary and middle school teachers in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The 2023 survey, conducted from September to November, included 5,578 teachers from 297 elementary schools nationwide. The 2024 survey, conducted from September to November, included 6,779 teachers from 292 middle schools across the country.

To the question "Are you concerned about complaints or reports from parents?" 40.7% of elementary school teachers answered "very much so," and 28.2% answered "yes." In other words, 7 out of 10 elementary school teachers expressed significant fear regarding complaints or reports from parents. On the question "Do you feel helpless in your relationship with parents?" 28.3% answered "very much so," and 21.1% answered "yes," with the combined positive response rate reaching 49.4%. Additionally, 53.4% responded that they "feel emotional pressure in their relationship with parents," and 51.6% said that "conflicts with parents often have a negative impact on their work."

Among middle school teachers, the rate of positive responses ("yes" or "very much so") was relatively lower. 44.6% of middle school teachers answered that they were "concerned about complaints or reports from parents," which is 24.3 percentage points lower than the rate among elementary school teachers (68.9%). For other questions, such as "Do you feel helpless in your relationship with parents?" (31.7%), "Do you feel emotional pressure in your relationship with parents?" (33.2%), and "Do conflicts with parents often negatively impact your work?" (34.6%), the positive response rates remained in the 30% range.

The survey also found that even as elementary school teachers gain more experience, the difficulty of handling parents does not significantly improve. The percentage of teachers who responded that they were "concerned about complaints or reports from parents" was 78.0% among those with five years or less experience, 77.3% among those with 6 to 10 years, and 72.6% among those with 11 to 15 years, showing little difference. For the question "Do you feel helpless in your relationship with parents?" the response rate was actually higher among those with 6 to 10 years (58.1%) and 11 to 15 years (56.0%) of experience than among those with five years or less (51.7%).

Among elementary school teachers, 39.1% said they were satisfied with their profession, a higher rate than those dissatisfied (30.6%). However, when focusing on those who feel a significant burden in dealing with parents, 50.2% responded that they were not satisfied with their profession.

Research fellow Geum pointed out, "The difficulty of responding to parents is not an issue limited to teachers with little experience or those still adapting to teaching, but rather a challenge shared across various experience levels." He further suggested, "The difficulties teachers experience when interacting with parents may be linked to their overall job satisfaction, so it is necessary to continuously improve and strengthen practical support measures that teachers can feel in the field."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.