Parental involvement in schools and class inequality in education: some recent findings from Hong Kong

Abstract

AbstractEmbedded in a new understanding of the concept of parental involvement is that parents work as a collaborator with the school to improve student learning; through involvement in school activities, parents tend to better understand the curriculum and be more closely connected with teachers. However, the literature shows that opportunity available for parental involvement can be better seized by those who are of a higher socio-economic status (SES). In addition to SES factors, there are also studies that attempt to relate parental involvement to their behavioural dispositions. In this study, we 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 school life, simultaneously, based on a data-set comprising 921 parents of Hong Kong primary school leavers. Discussions and implications of the findings in the cultural and political contexts will be in...