Abstract
The regulatory education system of the past has left a legacy in which disadvantaged families require learning support. Nineteen years after the dawn of democracy in South Africa, parental involvement in the education of their children is still facing challenges in eradicating the huge gap left by the previous education policies. Support for learning plays a critical role in improving the education of the child. Siblings, grandparents and other extended members of the family fulfil a major role in the cognitive development of the child who is never isolated in the extended family. This article investigated the extent to which African parents were supportive in the education of their children. The findings revealed that during the ethnographic observations, some parents appeared to be impatient and harsh towards their children once they realised their children had made a mistake during reading supervision, whereas a few seemed to be more patient and allowed their children more time to correct their mistakes. Furthermore, there was definite evidence of a lack of playing a supportive role by African parents in the education of their children. The ethnographic observations of learners and their educator in the classroom situation indicated that some learners were active and used their own initiative by asking their own questions that were not part from the classwork. During each day of the ethnographic observations, a structured behaviour schedule, based on a five-point scale, was used. The schedule was completed at the end of each school day, reflecting the overall impressions of the learners’ learning behaviour on the relevant points. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n10p460
Highlights
According to Souto-Manning (2010), all children always find themselves living in two worlds, that is, the world of home and world of school
This study distinguished between family involvement at home and family involvement at school in order to test whether each type of engagement was differentially related to the Foundation Phase learners’ acquisition of problem-solving skills
When learners experience a sense of belonging at school and supportive relationships with teachers and classmates, they are motivated to participate actively and appropriately in the life of the classroom (Anderman & Anderman 1999; Birch & Ladd 1997; Skinner &Belmont1993)
Summary
According to Souto-Manning (2010), all children always find themselves living in two worlds, that is, the world of home and world of school. Uniformity in the classroom can be maintained in order to fuse the learners’ different backgrounds, based on the ethos of the school’s vision and mission This suggests that social contracts of this nature will require quality agents (i.e. teachers) who are familiar with the vision and mission of the school in line with the Department of Basic Education’s (DBE’s) primary school policy, which puts the needs and aspirations of the learner first. It follows logically that educational outcomes for children from minority backgrounds can be improved both when schools value and integrate the children’s home strengths, beliefs, goals and practices into the school community (Souto-Manning 2010), and when families understand and support the school’s expectations (Civil 2007). In order to achieve this goal, schools need to take the initiative to create effective family and school partnerships
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