Parental School Involvement Research Articles

Reframing Parent-Teacher Relationships in Rural African Schools

Positive interactions and relationships between parents and teachers have the potential to deepen parents’ involvement in children’s learning. However, not much is known about the scope of the interactions between parents and teachers in rural public primary schools in Africa. Specifically, little is known about the spaces in which parents and teachers relate and inter-act; who participates in these interactions; and the types of relationships which underpin or emerge from such interactions. This article explores the natural (i.e., not interventionist or programme-driven) interactions and relationships between parents and teachers in North Central Nigeria. The findings draw from a two-phased ethnographic study of parental involvement in two rural schools and communities with parents of upper level primary children and the teachers and head teachers of the children. The main methods were partly structured interviews and participant observations while thematic analysis was used to identify themes around which narratives were represented. The findings revealed affective, economic, and official relationships between parents, teachers, and head teachers within and outside schools, though to a limited extent in one of the school-communities where there was significant instability of school leadership. Importantly, these relationships were embedded within the religious, social, and cultural ways of life in both communities. The study underscores the criticality of school heads for parent-teacher relationships, and for realising the promises of parental involvement in schooling.

The Politics of Literacy and Societal Development: Focus on parental involvement in South African rural schools

The Politics of Literacy and Societal Development: Focus on parental involvement in South African rural schools

Learner-teacher targeted bullying in South African high schools

ABSTRACT Studies about workplace bullying recognise that teaching is becoming a high-risk profession. Despite the global concern about teacher-targeted bullying by learners, a dearth of studies remain regarding the bullying of teachers. This study aims at contributing towards the limited corpus of knowledge on the preponderance of the phenomenon within the South African schooling contexts. A phenomenological research design qualitative method was employed. Nine teachers in grade 12 class completed semi-structured interviews about the bullying of teachers by learners. Findings evince that teachers are bullied in diverse ways. Findings further reveal that generational shift in learner behavioural pattern, learner drug addiction and school violence, too much learner-centred approach policy by the government, poor parental school involvement and inadequate resources in schools are contributory factors for teachers being bullied. The study exposes the resultant effect of bullying on teachers as severe; responsible for stress, emotional distress, isolation, teacher burnout and sometimes attrition from practice. The findings are discussed in the literature. It is concluded that bullying of teachers poses a serious challenge in South African schools; hence, it must be urgently addressed by whatever pragmatic policy to pre-empt domestic violence faced by teachers.

Family Perceptions of Participating in a Structured Summer Kindergarten Transition Program.

Many school districts provide one-time transition events to help students prepare for the rigors of kindergarten; yet, research shows families desire additional information and opportunities to help their children thrive once school begins. Researchers for this study interviewed 39 parents whose children participated in a three-week structured kindergarten transition program designed to promote parental involvement in school, reduce students’ chronic absenteeism, and increase children’s readiness for kindergarten. All interviewees expressed that participating in the program yielded benefits for themselves and their children. Respondents shared that meeting education staff members early during the summer, familiarizing themselves with the layout and routines of their schools, and building stronger social connections with other families were of particular value in helping them prepare for the start of kindergarten. Similarly, understanding kindergarten expectations more thoroughly and acquiring tools to support their children at home were deemed especially beneficial for those families who had not previously participated in preschool or other structured school opportunities. In addition to positive feedback, participants proposed various ways that adjusting the program could better meet the needs of all stakeholders. Suggestions included increasing the length of the student sessions, improving communication between district and families, re-structuring the parent information sessions to be more conducive to working families, and staffing the program with more individuals who would stay on as teachers during the transition from summer to fall. Parent suggestions from this study were synthesized into multiple implications for practice and substantiated by current relevant literature.

Parent Involvement in School Based Activities under Mongar and Yadi Cluster Primary Schools of Bhutan

This research aimed to examine how primary schools involve parents in school based activities in urban, semi urban and rural primary schools under the Yadi and Mongar Cluster of Mongar District. It also aimed to find some of the challenges faced by the primary schools on parent involvement [PI] in school based activities. Three principals and twenty teachers of three different settings were selected based on purposive sampling in this qualitative case study employing semi-structured interview, observation and document analysis tools. The findings of this study revealed that the primary schools under study involved more parents in non-academic school based activities than in academic school based activities due to lack of policy on PI in school, level of parents’ education, time constraint, work load, and attitudes of parents, principals and teachers. This study could benefit the stakeholders to enhance PI in meaningful ways and contribute to the success of children and school development.

Multidimensional profiles of parent involvement: Antecedents and impact on student engagement.

Parent involvement in school is a consistent predictor of educational success. However, research has been inconsistent in addressing how parent involvement ought to be defined and measured, which has led to varied findings across schools and educational systems. Attending to the multidimensionality of the construct, this study adopted a person-centred approach to identify subpopulations of school-based parent involvement. Subsequently, profile differences were investigated in relation to student engagement and three antecedent variables (gender, socio-economic status, and authoritative parenting). Data were obtained from primary (10-year old; N = 4,284) and secondary (14-year old; N = 3,346) school students in Singapore. Latent profile analysis was conducted on student-rated surveys of multiple parent involvement behaviours in school and their perceptions. Subsequently, the manual BCH method was employed to concurrently model covariates and outcomes on the latent profile model. Pairwise comparisons between profiles were examined for statistical significance. Consistent across both cohorts, four distinct profiles emerged that revealed high, moderate, selective, and low parent involvement patterns. High parent involvement reflected high ratings across multiple activities, combined with positive perceptions of parental involvement. These profiles differed significantly in terms of their antecedent characteristics, particularly, authoritative parenting, and in relation to their impact on student engagement. Results from this study clarify relations between multi-faceted dimensions of parent involvement in school. Additionally, there is a case for continued school-family partnerships among secondary students as students remain academically engaged when parents are involved in school and students relate positively to their involvement.

Middle school parent involvement: Perceptions of teachers and parents

This article aims to explore the parent involvement perceptions of teachers and parents of middle school students. The study is grounded in Epstein et al.’s theory of overlapping spheres of influence and six typologies of parent involvement. Qualitative data were collected through short-response surveys at three different middle school sites to determine both teacher and parent perceptions of parent involvement. Findings show that parents and teachers have similar opinions regarding some typologies of parent involvement and differing opinions with others. Parent and teacher perceptions of parent involvement align when asked about communication, volunteering, and parenting. Parent and teacher perceptions of parent involvement are different when asked about their opinions regarding the learning at home, decision-making, and collaboration with community typologies. Recommendations for practice are reported.

The Effect of Child Gender, Parent School Involvement, and Parent Language Use on School Functioning Among Trauma-Exposed Latinx Youth

High rates of trauma exposure can impede school functioning, which is predictive of many negative long-term outcomes. This study examined school functioning in Latinx children with clinically elevated levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms. We found that child gender, parent language use, and parent school involvement were associated with school functioning in complex ways. Interactive effects revealed that the association between parent school involvement and child school functioning depended on parent language use. Greater parent school involvement was linked with better school functioning when parents spoke more English, but parent school involvement did not improve school functioning when parents spoke more Spanish, which may reflect Spanish-speaking parents’ challenges engaging with schools. These findings have important implications for improving academic outcomes for trauma-exposed Latinx youth.

The Link between Primary School Students’ Psychosocial Outcomes and Parental School Involvement in the Department of Intibucá, Honduras

ABSTRACT In countries facing violence, education can play an important role in ensuring children’s psychosocial adjustment. Little empirical research has examined the link between parental school involvement and psychosocial outcomes. This cross-sectional survey of 1,269 parents in the Department of Intibucá, Honduras, examined parental involvement and results from the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), finding few differences between boys and girls, though urban children scored higher than rural children, and mothers had higher involvement than fathers. Reading to children was linked to psychosocial adjustment more than helping with homework or visiting school; from among SDQ sub-scales, prosocial behavior was most associated with parental involvement. Parental involvement could be an effective point of intervention to foster psychosocial adjustment in Honduran students.

Partnering for Sustainability: Parent-Teacher-School (PTS) Interactions in the Qatar Education System

The interaction avenues, levels, and impacts between parents, schools and teachers have changed drastically due to the ever-increasing responsibilities, frequent and rapid changes in the curriculum, the invasive dominance of the internet and digital media in the lives of all stakeholders, and the digitization of learning materials, to name a few. This pilot study follows a design-thinking approach to investigate the current practices, needs, and challenges of parental involvement in public schools in Qatar to improve student achievements towards sustainable living and habits by identifying problems, developing solutions, and improving student achievement in conjunction with all local and relevant stakeholders. To this end, building on extensive and comparative studies on theories, models, and best practices within and outside the selected domain, a qualitative study is conducted to obtain insight from local teachers and parents in preparatory public schools. The grounded theory method is employed to analyze the data via the qualitative coding technique. The results indicate that parental involvement practices in Qatar public schools occur in different forms, including home-based and school-based learning. Furthermore, while almost all parents recognize the significance of parental involvement and show a high level of interest in being on the ‘Board of Trustees’, in reality, very few participate or volunteer in school activities, and they rarely visit classrooms or interact with teachers or schools, mainly due to their increasing job-related commitments. In addition, the majority of parents indicate the need for additional flexibility in communication with the school to increase their involvement. Meanwhile, the teachers highlight the significant lack of parental involvement in understanding, overcoming and improving student achievement in both academic subjects and sustainable living habits and actions. The study outlines a few key suggestions to overcome these challenges and improve the parent-teacher-school (PTS) partnership, including offering mandatory parenting classes, developing and implementing effective communication mechanisms to facilitate parent-school interactions, and involving parents in decision-making process relating to their children and other school-related activities. Despite the sampling limitation, this study’s findings represent a starting point for understanding the needs of PTS partnerships, current practices of parental involvement, and mechanisms to improve their contribution to Qatar’s schools.

The Role of Parental Involvement in Narrowing the Academic Achievement Gap for High School Students With Elevated Emotional and Behavioral Risks

Parental involvement in school is an undoubtedly important element of a student’s educational experience and outcomes. Students with elevated emotional and behavioral risks (EBR) tend to experience poor educational outcomes, and research suggests varying levels of parental involvement across domains for these at-risk students. However, there is minimal research on the links between elevated EBR, parental involvement, and academic achievement for high school students. The purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which (a) parental involvement differed between high school students with elevated EBR and students without EBR, (b) parental involvement was related to academic outcomes, and (c) the gap in academic achievement between students with elevated EBR and students without EBR could be attributed to differences in parental involvement. To address these questions, we fit a structural equation model using data from the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009. The results demonstrated that (a) parental involvement was significantly lower in multiple domains for students with elevated EBR, (b) was significantly associated with academic outcomes, and (c) differences in parental involvement could account for a significant proportion of the achievement gap. Research limitations, directions for future research directions, and implications are discussed.

What Can We Learn About Research on Parental Involvement in School? Bibliometric and Thematic Analyses of Academic Journals

We present an empirical overview of current research in the area of parental involvement (PI) based on a bibliometric analysis of 544 articles published between 2014 and 2018, and a thematic review of 39 of the Q1-journal articles in the sample, which contributed to a more detailed illustration of the knowledge base of PI research. The findings reveal an ongoing increase in the intensity of research in five distinct foci. The research is shown to be largely urban- and US-centric and dominated by diverse psychological and sociological perspectives. Implications and avenues for future research have been suggested.

Effects of Interactive Homework Assignments on Parental Involvement in Homework and Public Primary Schools’ English Learning in Tanzania

The factors associated with students’ success in learning may have been addressed but the impact of parental involvement continues to be a significant issue. Some schools in Tanzania post poor learning achievement amid claims that the traditional homework used in Public Primary Schools limit parental involvement and thus parents become not supportive to their children’s’ learning. This paper aimed at evaluating the effects of weekly Interactive English homework on parental involvement in homework and pupils’ English learning. Standard five pupils (N = 100) with their parents and 02 teachers participated in the 08-week study. 02 classes completed IHA (Interactive Homework Assignments) with directions for family and parent involvement. Two classes completed Non-Interactive Homework (no family involvement directions). Parents in Interactive homework group reported significantly higher levels of involvement than did Non-Interactive Parents. Pupils in IHA who more regularly involved parents significantly improved their behavior and skills needed for successful learning than Non-IHA pupils. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that IHA enhances parental involvement in homework and pupils learning in English than did the Non-IHA.

School Management Strategies to Improve Parental Involvement: Insights from School Principals in Southern Tshwane Primary Schools

Parental involvement plays a very important role in the development of a child's formal education. Even though there are many benefits of parental involvement, there are many factors that constrain parental involvement. This study explored various management strategies that might serve as guidelines to improve parental involvement in Southern Tshwane primary schools. The conceptual framework that informed this study was Factors that Determine School Effectiveness by Heneveld and Craig as well as Epstein's theory of overlapping spheres and her typology on parental involvement that served as the theoretical framework for this study. A qualitative research approach was the method used for this study, as it allowed the researcher to conduct in-depth interviews with six principals in Southern Tshwane primary schools. An extensive literature study and relevant documents were also examined to collect rich and comprehensive information. The research indicates that most schools comprehend the importance of parental involvement, yet lack structured implementation frameworks for parental involvement. The study recommends that schools need to plan, manage and implement a parental involvement programme according to the unique circumstances of the school.

Addressing english reading comprehension difficulties by Somali origin pupils in England primary schools: Using parents as resources

The question of whether classroom reading activities in primary schools in England can be solely relied on to be sufficient for English as additional language (EAL) pupils to comprehend English text was the focus of the paper. Two case studies where Somali origin EAL pupils involved in learning English reading comprehension were utilized as a springboard to develop my argument that parents are an intrinsic part of developing pupils’ English comprehension as they may constitute financially less expensive and rich resources in terms of cultural experiences. Furthermore, England’s education policy regarding EAL pupils, reading for comprehension, and factors that influence it: vocabulary knowledge, teacher -students ratio in England school and parental involvement in schools were explored to provide an answer for the question of whether only reading for comprehension activities in the classroom is enough to promote the understanding of EAL Somali origin. It was argued that only those activities are not sufficient, and there is a need for the use of parents as resources to enrich the text input, which potentially increases the comprehension skills of Somali origin EAL pupils.

The Influence of Parental Characteristics on Parental Involvement in Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

ABSTRACT Parental involvement is considered to be a key element in the success of programs for children with intellectual disabilities (ID). This study investigated parental involvement in school- and home-based activities within a sample of parents of students with ID. The effects of parents’ demographic characteristics on parental involvement were also investigated. The sample consisted of 208 parents of elementary school-aged children with ID in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All participants completed an online survey and were asked to rate their involvement in home- and school-based educational activities. The results of the web-based survey revealed a relatively low mean level of parental involvement within the sample. Additionally, the results revealed significant subgroup differences in parental involvement. Mothers were more involved than fathers, just as non-working parents were more involved than working parents. Significant differences were noted among income, education, and family-size subgroups; some of these differences varied between home- and school-based involvement scores. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Parental School‐Involvement and Substance Use? A Novel Family‐Based Prevention Strategy for Latino Youth

ObjectiveTo examine the association of parental school involvement with reductions in adolescent substance initiation among Latino immigrant youth.BackgroundParental school involvement is an important determinant of children's academic achievement. Likewise, academic achievement is associated with multiple adolescent health risk behaviors. Little research has examined whether parental school involvement is associated with adolescent drug use, and no research has examined this link among Latino immigrant youth.MethodUsing a census of Latino students (N = 661; mean age = 13.1 years) in 12 urban middle schools, we used a multilevel model with zero‐inflated outcomes to test whether (a) parental school involvement is inversely associated with alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use; (b) school‐level parental involvement affects individual‐level drug use; and (c) child gender moderates these associations.ResultsParental school involvement was negatively associated with lifetime prevalence of all substances and with increases in the age of first alcohol use. School‐level parental involvement was negatively associated with lifetime prevalence of substance use and age of first use for girls and marginally significant with boys.ConclusionParental school involvement is a promising target for prevention efforts to reduce early‐onset substance use.ImplicationsParental school involvement may address multiple negative outcomes in youth even for youth whose parents are relatively uninvolved, and may increase program dosage.

Childhood deprivation experience, family pathways, and socioemotional functioning.

Using the ECLS-K, a dataset following a nationally representative cohort of children from kindergarten through 8th grade in the United States (N ≈ 9,250), this study fills the following knowledge gaps. We captured childhood economic experiences by incorporating multiple forms of exposures to income-based deprivation-poverty depth (i.e., the severity of deprivation), spells (i.e., length of time in poverty), and income volatility (i.e., fluctuations in family income)-with a latent class analysis. We also examined how different patterns of economic experiences shaped adolescents' socioemotional functioning through family stress (parental depressive symptoms and punitive parenting) and family investment (provision of stimulating materials and parental school involvement) pathways via structural equation modeling. Our analysis indicated 6 classes of deprivation, and these deprivation patterns had both direct and indirect significant associations with children's locus of control and internalizing behaviors. Our structural equation modeling results further indicated that deprivation was associated with parental depressive symptoms, which were, in turn, associated with parents providing less cognitively stimulating materials to children and engaging less in children's school activities. These disadvantages were associated with unfavorable socioemotional functioning in 8th grade. The findings highlight the importance of family practitioners and psychologists recognizing and acting on the interconnections among deprivation, inequity, and child well-being. Our results also suggest considering variations in economic experiences and mechanisms when developing informed policies and programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Practicing Parental Involvement: Heterogeneity in Parent Involvement Structures in Charter and Traditional Public Schools

Purpose: This study examines differences in the mechanisms that charter schools and traditional public schools use to facilitate parental school involvement and the degree to which these differences account for the high levels of involvement among charter school parents. Data and Research Methods: We merge data from principals and teachers from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey and National Teacher and Principal Survey with nonprofit tax data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics. We use ordinary least squares regression to explain how charter and traditional public schools involve parents in communal, public-good activities, and individualistic, private-good activities within schools. Findings: Charters are less likely than traditional public schools to use bureaucratic structures, like parent–teacher organizations, and more likely to use nontraditional and less bureaucratic structures, like parent workshops and compacts. The use of such structures mediates a portion of the charter advantage; however, they only partially explain the association between being a charter and parent involvement. Additionally, we find some of the outreach structures that are most common in charter schools, including compacts, are also more strongly associated with parent involvement in charter schools than in traditional public schools. Implications: While charters have more public-good and private-good parent involvement than traditional public schools, our results suggest that the uncritical adoption of outreach strategies from one sector to another is unlikely to result in equal gains in parental involvement.

Absenteeism and parental involvement in home and school among middle school students of public school in northern Mindanao, Philippines: basis for intervention

Absenteeism and parental involvement in home and school among middle school students of public school in northern Mindanao, Philippines: basis for intervention