Current issues on parental involvement in schools: a multicultural perspective

Abstract

Family interaction is probably one of the most intriguing subjects in the field of educational research. Whenever I visit a for a research or for a teacher-family conference, I am always interested in the school's climate for parents. At all times, I want to know what this climate adds to the effectiveness of the and students' improvement. That is why, last year, I participated in the school-family association of my daughter's to see what parental involvement means and how it works in real context and to look over that deep meaning of parental involvement. Also I shared my proposal with Shirley O'Neill, the editor, to publish this special issue to find out recent issues on parental involvement in different contexts.We can easily claim that parental involvement is one of the most debated issues in education or Rosenblatt and Peled (2002) indicated it is one of the most prominent issues in our schools. Researchers of different educational settings have recognized the importance of parental involvement or parental engagement to reveal whether parents have influences on their children's schooling and more specifically to see if this partnership positively affects educational achievement and effectiveness of a school. Additionally those studies, using the terms engagement and involvement interchangeably, have been trying to grab and/or explain the meaning of the concept (Beveridge, 2005; Castro et al., 2015; Christenson & Reschly, 2010; Griffith, 2001; Harris, Andrew-Power, & Goodall, 2009; Hornby, 2011).There are different definitions or conceptualizations of parental involvement in the literature. Castro et al. (2015), for example, consider parental involvement as the active participation of parents in all aspects of their children's social, emotional and academic development (p. 34). They also clarify that,parental involvement concerns a wide range of issues, such parental expectations about their children's academic future, control over homework, the extent to which they become involved in helping children to learn for assignments or to do the homework, or the frequency with which parents are physically present at school. (p. 34)Similarly, Kaplan Toren and Seginer (2015) conceptualized parental involvement as a multidimensional construct, including parental educational aspirations, future plans for their children, educational decision-making, and support with work, parental knowledge and parental participation in the school (p. 812).We could briefly infer that it is clear that parental involvement contribute to effectiveness of a and to the students' success. However, it may differ in every culture. That is why I assume that this special issue could be an outlet to get a deep understanding of parental involvement issues in different contexts.The authors have contributed to the issue with their partial research conducted in their unique context or they have contributed to the issue with their conceptual papers. For example, Janet Goodall, examining the literature in the fields of parental engagement, communication and technology, aims to reveal the linked concepts of school-home communications, and parental engagement in children's learning, both of which are vital for supporting learning, particularly at times of transition.Paula Kwan and Yi-Lee Wong seek to link parental involvement to both SES and parental behavioural dispositions, namely their expectations in their children, self-efficacy in helping their children, and understanding of their children's life, simultaneously, based on a data-set comprising 921 parents of Hong Kong primary leavers. …