Home-based parental involvement amongst Pakistani families in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Ethnic minority parents often appear to be less involved in school functions and activities than their culturally dominant counterparts. Their invisibility is usually assumed due to a lack of either interest or parental capacity to oversee their children’s education. However, the simplistic equation between parental involvement in children’s education and their participation in school is largely informed by middle-class cultural norms that ignore diversity. Data drawn from home visits and in-depth, semi-structured interviews amongst Pakistani parents and children in Hong Kong reveals that the involvement of these parents only seems less visible because it is largely based at home rather than in schools. The parental involvement of this ethnic minority is influenced by socio-economic and cultural factors that separate school from home, divide parental responsibilities by gender, and set expectations for children with primary reference to the parents’ own experiences. These research findings on how such characteristics shape the outcomes of parental involvement can inform school practices to build more effective home-school collaboration and enhance children’s academic achievement.     

Policy on ethnic segregation in a system of choice: the case of The Netherlands

This paper examines the implications of the uneven distribution of minority pupils and the Dutch system of choice for policies on ethnic segregation at both the local and school level. The analysis is based on a sample of 27 municipalities serving 23% of all Dutch primary school pupils. Segregation to a large extent can be found in The Netherlands as elsewhere, and the constitutional freedom of education is precisely the factor that places important restrictions on solving this problem adequately. At the local level more than one‐third of all municipalities, for various reasons, do not take any action. Of the others that do take action the majority saddles the schools with the responsibility since the problems are mainly seen as of an educational nature. According to the school principals a percentage of minority pupils exceeding 50‐60% causes ‘white’ parents to leave and they are given every opportunity to do so by the Dutch system of free parental choice. Therefore a radical reorientation is required in the Dutch system of choice in order to address the challenges of ethnic segregation.     

Home and Parental Influences on the Achievement of Lower Primary School Children in Singapore

This study investigated the effects of home environment and parental involvement in the achievement of pupils in the lower primary classes in nine schools found in four zones in Singapore. In total, 3,759 pupils and their parents participated in the study. The study was designed to answer four main questions relating to the effects of the home environment (SES, time engaged in television viewing, reading, school work and ethnicity of parents) and parental involvement in the children's school work and in other school matters. The findings indicated that significant differences in achievement were found for all combinations of SES categories and between most ethnic groups. A higher percentage of high-achieving pupils spent more time on television viewing, reading and school work. Parents of high-achieving children were more anxious about maximising every opportunity for their children including those not directly related to school work.     

School Careers of Pupils of Ethnic Minority Background After the Transition to Secondary Education: Is the Ethnic Factor Always Negative?

This article describes the school careers of Dutch pupils of ethnic minority background in the first 5 years following the transition to secondary education. The database used is VOCL89 of the Dutch Central Statistics Office (CBS). In line with previous findings,in the case of equal achievements pupils of ethnic minority background are advised to select higher types of secondary education than Dutch pupils. Furthermore, pupils of ethnic minority background more often select a school higher than advised than Dutch pupils. With control for social background, pupils of ethnic minority background are also found to display a more favourable career after the 1st year of secondary education. Path model construction results in consistently positive effects of ethnic minority origin at every transition. Further analysis demonstrates that even the most vulnerable subgroups of pupils of ethnic minority background, the Turkish and Moroccan pupils born in their motherland, show both absolutely and compared with the advice a career on a higher level than Dutch pupils with a similar social background. A point of discussion concerns the extent to which social background, defined as the parental educational level, refers to the same concept for Dutch people and people belonging to ethnic minority groups.     

Determinants of Primary School Choice in Malaysia: School Proximity and Ethnicity-Related Reasons

The study examined determinants of primary school choice among parents in Malaysia, and the decision maker and social influences in the school choice. It draws on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 43 middle-class parents from three ethnic groups (Chinese, Malay, and Indigenous). Results showed that school proximity and ethnicity-related reasons are leading factors influencing parental school choice. Medium of instruction, school academic reputation, and feeder to a preferred secondary school appear to be separate reasons but act as a proxy to ethnicity as the primary factor determining the choice of Chinese- or Malay-medium primary school by parents. The results also showed that mothers are more likely to make school choice decisions than fathers, but the reasons for school choice are similar. The primary social influences on their school choice come from friends and education personnel in preschools and schools. The Indigenous parents tend to be more subject to social pressure in making school choices than the Chinese and Malay parents, who mostly enroll their children in Chinese- and Malay-medium primary schools, respectively. However, these findings on school choice and ethnic segregation are limited to this sample and constrained by the socio-political context of the education system.     

Cross‐level Relationships within Effective Schools

In this paper the focus is placed on cross‐level relationships within effective schools in secondary education in the Netherlands. Three hypotheses have been formulated. The outcomes related to the contingency hypothesis make clear that the managerial capacities of schools in secondary education are of great importance with respect to the effectiveness of schools, especially when a school's position gets under pressure at the local (student) market.

Results show the affirmation of a congruency hypothesis with respect to the extent of production orientation of management and teaching staff, and the overall congruence of school and classroom policy. Results of contextual hypothesis suggest that the average intelligence of the school population exerts no effect on school careers in general or on careers of low/high intelligent pupils in particular. However, a school environment with a relatively low average socio‐economic status is positively associated with the school careers of pupils from families with low socio‐economic status. No positive effects are found regarding school careers in general, or ethnic minority careers in particular, when the number of ethnic minority pupils was increasing.     

关于西北民族地区寄宿制学校办学若干问题的思考

寄宿制民族中小学校是国家专为少数民族举办的一种特殊办学形式。主要在少数民族牧区、边远山区和经济不发达地区设立,面向农村、牧区、边远山区招收少数民族学生。民族地区寄宿制学校已经发展成为民族教育的一种重要办学形式。当前民族地区寄宿制学校办学的主要问题表现在生源问题、民族文化传承问题、与家庭教育和社会教育的脱离问题等。解决这些问题,就要将寄宿制学校之根扎于民族文化之中,不仅要提高少数民族学生家长对民族地区寄宿制学校的认同水平,还要加快民族地区寄宿制学校标准化、规范化建设速度,提高农村寄宿制学校的管理水平与家校合作水平。     

EXAMINATIONS IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION‐STATISTICS AND INFERENCES

Many aspects of multiracial education were investigated in a national survey of teachers’ opinions. This first part of a two‐part article reports on those items which covered necessary or desirable changes in the curriculum and other aspects of school life. These include topics such as religious education and assemblies, dress and diet, mother‐tongue teaching, English as a foreign language, racial bias in books, cultural adaptation and adjustment, special language needs of West Indian pupils, and deployment of immigrant teachers and non‐teaching staff.

A total of 510 teachers (171 primary and 339 secondary) from 25 schools responded to the questionnaire. In these schools the overall proportions of pupils of minority ethnic groups ranged from 18 to 84 per cent. Pupils of Asian, Cypriot, Italian and Afro‐Caribbean origin were represented in varying proportions.     

Book reviews

Whilst there is now clearly an expectation upon parents to become more involved in schools and to take a greater part in their children's education, there is still little attempt to address the constraints upon achieving such aims. These constraints have been shown to include social class factors, gender relations, ethnicity and power relationships. This paper will take the analysis of some of these constraints further and, in particular, will focus on the views of working‐class parents on their relationships with, and role in relation to, their children's secondary school. The paper will explore the reasons for the orientation by working‐class parents which would seem to differ markedly from that of middle‐class parents. It will be shown that working‐class parents are committed to their children achieving educational success, and that they perceive their own role as supportive in a variety of ways. However, their position in relation to schools is to view the school as separate from their everyday social and cultural world and that the parent‐teacher role comprises a division of labour. It will be argued that teachers tend to adopt the same strategies for promoting parental involvement irrespective of class, parental needs, individual circumstances, and so on. Hence, because they take no account of differences, and because their strategies are constructed essentially from a logocentric position, then they serve to reinforce the parents’ perception of teachers as the professional ‘who knows best’: as the powerful knower which thus reinforces working‐class parents’ fatalistic view of schooling and their role as passive. The paper draws on data from a three‐year research project into the parents’ relationship with their children's secondary school. The data set which formed the basis of the analysis presented here comprises interviews with 58 parents from one of the case‐study schools which will be known as Acre Lane, and 15 of the school's teachers.     

Parental Choice and Schooling: some factors influencing Muslim mothers’ decisions about the education of their daughters

In recent years parental choice in education has become an important focus of political debate. Muslim demands for the state funding of Islamic schools have attracted a significant amount of media attention, with opposition sometimes coming from those who argue that such schools are likely to offer limited opportunities to pupils, particularly girls. This article reports on a small‐scale research project which examined the attitudes and values of Muslim women in the UK to their daughters’ education, particularly the basis on which they had selected either a private Islamic school or state primary school. It considers whether the concept of parental choice is a valid one for these women     

THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH‐‐II

Recent work aimed at involving parents more in the teaching of reading by encouraging parents to hear their children read school reading books at home has created a great deal of interest. But to what extent does it depart from normal school practice?

Little is known about schools’ attitudes to parental involvement in home‐based, as opposed to school‐based, educational activities. Therefore a study was made of a sample of 16 infant and first schools. Interviews were carried out with head teachers, all teachers of seven‐year‐olds, and some of their pupils. It was found that whilst there was general support for the idea of parental involvement in the teaching of reading this stopped short of helping parents hear their own children read at home. An examination of the schools’ practice suggested that at present comparatively few children regularly take school reading books to read at home.     

Communicating with parents of children with special needs in Saudi Arabia: parents' and teachers' perceptions of using email for regular and ongoing communication

The purpose of this study, by Snaa Dubis from Salman Bin Abdu Aziz University, Saudi Arabia, and Robert Morris University, USA, and Carianne Bernadowski from Robert Morris University, was to investigate parents' and special education teachers' perceptions of using email as a component of parental involvement in the academic and/or behavioural performance at school of pupils with special needs. Survey research was utilised to measure parents' and teachers' perceptions of using email in Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia. The survey was distributed to 261 participants: 104 parents of preschool or primary school pupils with special needs and 157 special education teachers. The results indicated that in terms of attitudes and beliefs about using email, the majority of parents (78%, n = 81) and teachers (77%, n = 121) had a positive attitude toward using email to increase involvement and engagement between parents and teachers. Although email communication in the USA and Western Europe is quite widespread, the prospect of using technology for parental involvement is a new concept to many Saudi parents. Results indicate that both Saudi and non‐Saudi parents and teachers would be willing to use email as the primary tool for communication between home and school.     

Social position of special needs pupils in the classroom: a comparison between German special schools for pupils with learning difficulties and integrated primary school classes

The rejection of pupils with behaviour problems is a serious problem for inclusive education schools. Sometimes parents prefer special schools because they do not want their children to become outsiders in integration classes. Are they right? The study presented here surveys children with behaviour problems in integrated primary school classes and in special education schools. The main focus is the extent to which behaviour problems influence social relations within the classes. The findings indicate that German pupils with behaviour problems are not well liked. The comparison of special education classes and integrated primary school classes also shows, however, that this is not solely a feature of integrated classes. Pupils with behaviour problems are disliked in both systems, and to a comparable degree. This means that there may be some good arguments for special schools. But both systems—special schools and integrated school classes—have outsiders. Especially parents of pupils with learning difficulties and behaviour problems should know that there is no difference here between special education classes and integrative primary school classes.     

THEORETICAL PROBLEMS IN THE EXPLANATION OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOUR

The study investigated the extent of different types of contacts between home and school for a representative sample of 60 families of children with Down's syndrome who attended a range of different schools in 13 local education authorities (LEAs). The children were aged between five and nine years old. Data were obtained in semi‐structured interviews with mothers as part of a larger study of parents’ views of their children's schooling.

Basic links between home and schools (e.g. parents’ attendance at events such as open days, occasional visits to see a teacher) were common but parental involvement in the class‐room or in carrying out work at home on the teacher's suggestion was less common, and there was little evidence of parent‐professional partnership in areas such as joint decision‐making on educational programmes. Contacts between the children and their school friends outside school were few and there was a significant relationship between the frequency of these and the amount of parental contact with the schools. The factors related to amount of parental involvement were the child having started at the school before the age of four and the amount of support the mother received at home. There were no significant effects of social class or type of school.

The majority of mothers appeared to be motivated to maintain home‐school links, and many wanted more opportunities to be provided for involvement, particularly in areas such as helping or observation in the classroom.     

Pupils and ‘Race’: integration and disintegration in primary schools

Following the Swann Report of 1985 and its recommendation of ‘Education for All’, the need for multicultural education in all areas was generally recognized. School‐based attempts to respond have been little researched, as has minority ethnic pupil development from the pupil's point of view. Eighteen months’ ethnographic work in six main primary schools revealed a number of predominant themes, including that reported here of ‘integration and disintegration’. Their nature, the implications for pupil learning, and the conditions attending them are explored in relation to adapting to school in the early years; transfer between schools at ages seven and nine; relationships among pupils; and pupils’ experience of the curriculum. Integration and disintegration were found to be associated with certain factors at general societal and governmental, community, institutional and individual levels. Integrational features appear to promote pupil learning and development, disintegrational to obstruct and disrupt. The analysis appears to support, amongst other things, democratic, participatory procedures in schools and collaborative learning in its widest sense involving teachers, pupils and parents.     

The relations of parental supervision,parental school involvement,and child's social competence with school achievement in primary school

The aim of this study was to examine the relation of parental supervision, parental involvement at school and child's social competence with school achievement in primary school. A theoretical model was postulated that predicts direct and indirect effects of parental behaviors on adolescents’ school achievement. Participants were 1,024 adolescents attending Grades 5 through 8 in 20 primary schools in Croatia and one of their parents or guardians. Adolescents completed a scale assessing their self‐perceived social competence and data on their grade point average were collected. Parents completed scales measuring parental supervision and parental involvement at school and they rated their child's social competence. The results of model testing showed that parental behaviors have both direct and indirect effect on adolescents’ school achievement. Greater parental supervision and school involvement have a direct and an indirect, through their effects on child's social competence, positive effects on adolescents’ school achievement.     

Book reviews

This paper explores the relationship between parents and schools. Over the last 30 years the importance attached to parents’ views on education has increased significantly throughout the Western world. Policy‐makers encourage parental participation and involvement through the creation of councils in which parents have a say. In Flanders in Belgium in 2004 a new participation law was passed. We study the impact of this law on the micropolitical relations between parents, school heads and teachers. We conducted in‐depth interviews with teachers, parents, school heads and members of the organizing body in four primary schools and observed parents’ gatherings. Starting from the partnership–conflict opposition, we focus on the functioning of the parents’ associations and the way parents’ associations, school heads and teachers are dealing with this new law. We found that the parent–school relationship differs greatly from school to school. While the socio‐economic middle class predominates in the four parents’ associations, the results show that parental empowerment is enhanced only in those schools with mainly socio‐economically weak families.     

Perceptions of behaviour and patterns of exclusion: Gypsy Traveller students in English secondary schools

This paper draws on a recent and unique longitudinal study of Gypsy Traveller students in fifteen local education authorities in England. Gypsy Traveller students are less likely to complete secondary education than any other minority ethnic group and it is estimated that up to 12 000 young Travellers in England are not registered at any secondary school. The study tracked a sample of 44 students over a three-year period, using a multi-perspective, phenomenological design to explore the complex interplay of attitudes, expectations and relationships that might impact on secondary school engagement and retention. Findings indicate that, although the students' behaviour was perceived to be good by their primary school teachers, problems began to emerge during the first year at secondary school and twenty-four pupils had self-excluded by the age of fourteen. Furthermore, almost one in three of the students in the study were temporarily excluded by their schools on at least one occasion during the study. The research suggests that patterns of resistance to secondary schooling should not be solely attributed to cultural influences. In many cases, parents expressed positive perceptions of their child's school until relationships broke down. Above all, parents and students want assurance that racism will be challenged and dealt with effectively.     

Raising the achievement of Portuguese pupils in British schools: a case study of good practice

The aim of the research was to study the experiences of Portuguese heritage pupils in British schools. The main findings from empirical data suggest Portuguese children are underachieving at the end of primary education but the case study confirms that in good schools Portuguese pupils do well and have made huge improvements over the periods. The findings show that the case study schools have adopted a number of strategies to overcome some of the barriers to achievement including parental engagement, effective use of a more diverse workforce, developing an inclusive ethos and curriculum, effective English language support for Portuguese pupils, monitoring performance of Portuguese pupils and good and well‐coordinated targeted support through extensive use of teachers, teaching assistants, learning mentors and Portuguese classes. The study argues that the worryingly low‐achievement levels of many Portuguese pupils in British schools have been masked by Government statistics that fail to distinguish between European ethnic groups. Policy implications for all concerned with school improvement are highlighted in the final section.