QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SCHOOL COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STAFF AND PARENTS IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

<p><strong>Background:</strong> School-community relationship is the presence of an intelligent connection between teaching instructors, school administrators, the community where the school is situated and parents. The success or failure of the school system, involving the (principals, teachers, students and parents) depends to a large extent, on the general educational environment of the communities and their value system. There is a dearth of studies on parents’ involvement in schools in Nigeria. This study was a qualitative study that investigated the factors influencing the implementation of school-community relationships among school staff and parents in Ibadan Nigeria. <strong>Methods:</strong> In-depth interviews were conducted with 49 participants (28 school staff and 21 parents). A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents from five (5) government-funded (public) schools and (2) private schools. Consent was obtained for the use of audiotapes, which were transcribed verbatim with a thematic analysis of data. <strong>Results:</strong> The majority of the participants (67.8%) were female school staff between the ages of 25-60 years. Most of the parents were females (90.7%) between the ages of 25-46 years. The level of knowledge of both the school staff and parents about the school-community relationship was limited. Despite their limited knowledge, both the school staff and parents had a positive attitude toward the school-community relationship, and the schools involved the parents in the school activities. However, poor communication, type of parents’ job/schedule, poor parent-teacher relationship were factors influencing the implementation of school-community relationships in the schools. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> This study emphasizes the importance of advocacy and policy changes that will enable school staff to be more receptive to parents and surrounding communities and to foster behavioural changes in both parents and school staff. Additionally, health promotion and education programs focusing on the importance of school-community relationships should be implemented among school staff.</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0555/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>