Middle-class parents’ educational work in an academically selective public high school

This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of ‘choice’ and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews with parents and teachers (n = 15), through which parents – all members of the school’s Parents’ and Citizens’ group – theorized and explained their involvement with the school, and teachers spoke about their views on this involvement. Results are organized around three themes: ‘how parents worked to nurture their children’s schooling’, ‘reasons behind parents’ involvement with the school’, and ‘communication and use of parental resources by the school’. Overall it was found that while parents were making significant efforts to involve themselves in the education of their children and with the school more broadly, the reasons for their involvement were not always consistent, but instead revealed a range of motivations for and conceptions of parents’ roles within schools, which at times were at odds with the teachers’. Through this, the study contributes to our understanding of middle-class parent engagement at an unusual and particular type of school.     

Pathways to Parental Engagement: Contributions of Parents,Teachers, and Schools in Cultural Context

Research Findings: This study examined correlates of parents’ reported school engagement in an ethnically diverse, rural sample (N = 346) of parents and teachers in kindergarten through Grade 2. Of particular interest were role expectations and family–school relationships in American Indian families, who historically have been marginalized by schools. In terms of role expectations, parents and teachers agreed that they should support each other’s roles, parents should have more responsibility than schools for teaching social skills, and families and schools should have shared responsibility for children’s academic success. Teachers had higher expectations than parents for parent engagement, which in turn was greater when parent–teacher communication was more frequent and the school climate was more welcoming. American Indian parents more strongly endorsed a separation of family and school roles and felt less welcomed at school; ethnicity moderated correlates of reported parent engagement. Practice or Policy: These findings have practical promise given that parent–teacher communication, school climate, and role expectations are more easily altered than are structural barriers that also may hinder parents’ involvement in supporting their children’s early education.     

“We Talked About Sex.” “No,We Didn't”: Exploring Adolescent and Parent Agreement About Sexuality Communication

Family communication about sex can protect adolescents from risky behavior, like early sex and sex without protection. However, adolescents and parents often disagree about whether they talked with each other about sexual issues, limiting the protective effects of communication. Few studies explore these disagreements. This study included 27 pairs of early adolescents and parents. Adolescent and parent interviews were coded for agreement in reports of sexuality communication. Adolescents’ interview themes were compared across levels of agreement between adolescent–parent dyads. Adolescents who highly agreed with their parents were more likely than those who did not to describe positive parental approaches to sexuality communication and awareness of parental perspectives, while no group differences were found for responses to parents’ viewpoints. Study findings highlight the importance of sex education programs that support adolescent–parent sexuality communication, particularly for middle school students.     

“My Mom Tells Me I Should Follow the Rules,That’s Why They Have Those Rules”: Perceptions of Parental Advice Giving Among Mexican-Heritage Adolescents

Relatively little research has examined the ways in which immigrant Latino parents can effectively support their adolescent children’s schooling. To address this gap, we conducted in-depth interviews with 32 Mexican-heritage 9th graders. Students identified parents’ advice giving as the most salient form of involvement. Parental advice emphasized the importance of persisting in school, avoiding hardship as experienced by parents, and exhibiting social competence in relationships with peers and teachers. Parental advice giving was transmitted most effectively in the context of parent–child closeness. The findings form a basis for fostering effective and sustainable parent–school partnerships.     

School achievement differences among Chinese and Filipino American students: acculturation and the family

The general belief that Asian American adolescents are successful has led researchers to ignore variations in Asian adolescents’ academic success. Using samples of Chinese and Filipino adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examined whether differences between these two groups in acculturation, parent–adolescent attachment, and parental school involvement could account for academic achievement differences. Results revealed that Chinese adolescents generally performed better in school than their Filipino counterparts. Factors that predicted academic achievement were ethnicity, acculturation, and parents’ academic involvement. An interaction was found between ethnicity and acculturation, indicating that acculturation is a predictor of academic performance among Filipino youth but not among Chinese youth. Cultural values in parent–adolescent attachment, acculturation, and parents’ school involvement are discussed.     

MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ITS LINKS TO YOUNG ADOLESCENT SELF‐EVALUATION AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Drawing on early research on parental involvement and its effect on children's school functioning, it was hypothesized in this study that parents’ educational involvement is positively related to two indicators of school functioning: academic self‐competence and academic achievement. However, in light of research on the distinction between parents’ home‐ and school‐based educational involvement in terms of their different provisions of parents’ school‐related support, this study examined the relationship between each of these two bases and two adolescent outcomes: self‐evaluation (consisting of global self‐worth and scholastic self‐evaluation) and school‐reported academic achievement. Analyses using structural equation modeling (SEM) on data collected from 397 (187 girls) Israeli seventh‐graders (first year of junior high school) confirm the distinction between home‐ and school‐based parental involvement and their different links to adolescent outcomes. SEM analyses carried out separately for girls and boys showed positive links between home‐based parental involvement for girls and parent's volunteering for boys and global self‐worth. This analysis also showed direct negative links between school‐based parental involvement and academic achievement for boys. The discussion addresses these differences and their implication for the school experiences of young adolescents in the wake of the transition to junior high school.     

Effective parental involvement in education: experiences and perceptions of Turkish teachers from private schools

Parental involvement has been associated with numerous student benefits. However, related literature reveals that neither parents nor teachers are content with the scope and depth of parental involvement in schools. This may be partly due to differential understandings that both sides have on the concept of parental involvement. In this study, teachers’ experiences and perceptions of effective parental involvement in the private middle school context of Turkey were examined. Participants are 38 teachers, from five different schools, who were selected by the maximum variation sampling technique. This study provides an insight into how teachers make sense of the educational involvement of the middle to high socio economic status (SES) parents with whom they theoretically share similar cultural capital. The findings of this collective case study demonstrate there are important misunderstandings and related tensions among parents and teachers over the roles of each party. Teachers believe that parents’ educational roles are mostly performed at home. On the contrary, parents are shown as having a higher desire to participate in educational decisions. This divergence between parents and teachers seems to decrease productive partnerships between the two parties. Future studies are needed in order to search for collaboration mechanisms that would work for all actors involved.     

The responsible parent and networks of support: A case study of school engagement in a challenging environment

Research, policy and practice on education in recent years has focused attention on the mediating role that parents play in children's schooling. Parents have been constructed as responsible agents; as consumers, investors and partners in the performance-oriented educational project. Much of the literature has looked at parent–school relations from the vantage point of parents, particularly parents in disadvantaged areas. Less has been written on how parent–school relations look from a school's perspective. In this article we draw on data from a case study English school in a socio-economically deprived area and explore the nature of the construct ‘responsible parent’ from the perspectives of teaching staff. We utilise data from semi-structured interviews with teaching staff in one case study school located on the outskirts of an English city. Through the data we outline teachers’ conceptions of parents and an emerging network of engagement incorporating parents as part of a broader social and education project in schools. We argue that a dominant construct, the responsible parent, has resonances with the ways that teachers conceptualise parents. At the same time, the case study school inhabits a dual institutional space: it is captured within a neo-liberal discourse on the responsible parent as a key conduit for an outcomes-oriented education project and also goes beyond the narrow confines of formal educational structures in offering ‘challenging’ parents social and emotional support in connecting with their children and their schooling.     

School-based parental involvement: a comparative assessment of predictors of satisfaction in South-East Europe

Exploring a unique region concerning educational reforms in the past 20?years, the present study empirically investigates the attitudes towards parental involvement in school life in a comparative perspective of south-eastern European (SEE) countries for the 2008/2009 school year. Based on a multiple regression model for nine different countries, the research examines the predictors of satisfaction with school–parent partnerships from the parents’ perspective in the SEE context. The 2009 Cross-National Survey of Parents provided detailed evidence of attitudes and practices in educational setups in the Balkans for a representative sample of parents with one or more children enrolled in primary or secondary education. The findings indicate that the most reliable explanatory variable for the parents’ satisfaction with ways of getting involved in school life is the attribution of school–parent roles, with effects knocking on to all the other factors, including the understanding of the need to participate and the feeling of being a stakeholder in the educational process.     

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.     

Parental involvement in educational activities in Tanzania: understanding motivational factors

ABSTRACT

In Tanzania, the education system focuses on schools and teachers as key educators of children, while little attention is paid to the home environment. This study examines motivational factors that may influence parental involvement at home and at school, using Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement as a theoretical framework. Participants were 580 parents of Grade 2 children attending primary schools in three districts of Dar Es Salaam. Parents were invited at school to complete a questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that parents’ expectations for children’s school success predicted home involvement, next to parents’ perceived time and energy, child invitations and parents’ self-efficacy. School involvement was predicted by perceived time and energy, and school and child invitations. In a mediation model role construction had an indirect effect on school involvement through child and school invitations and perceived time and energy. Implications for educational policy are discussed.     

Academic socialization,parental educational expectations,and academic self‐efficacy among Latino adolescents

This study examined the direct association between parental educational expectations and adolescents’ academic self‐efficacy, as well as the moderating influence of parental academic socialization messages. Participants were 148 Latino parent–adolescent dyads with the majority of Mexican origin (80.4%). Most of the parent participants were mothers (85.8%). Adolescents were 13 (46%) or 14 (54%) years of age, and 53% identified as female. Adolescents reported their academic self‐efficacy and perceptions of their parents’ educational expectations; parents reported on their academic socialization messages of shame/pressure and effort regarding academics. The results suggest that, after accounting for parents’ level of education and immigrant status, parental educational expectations were positively associated with adolescent academic self‐efficacy. This association was stronger among adolescents whose parents reported transmitting fewer messages of shame/pressure and academic effort. These results point to the importance of nuances in the content and type of academic socialization messages within Latino families.     

Adaptation in the transition to school: perspectives of parents,preschool and primary school teachers

Background: Transition to school is a highly demanding phase at an intellectual, social and emotional level and is, therefore, an opportunity for growth and development. Despite the greater emphasis given to school transition in Portugal over recent years, namely by means of new educational policies, studies on the adaptation processes involved in the transition to primary school are still scarce.

Purpose: The present qualitative study sets out to contribute to the knowledge on the adaptation process of children to school transition (around age 6) in Portugal, by comparing preschool teachers’, primary school teachers’, and parents’ perceptions about success indicators and relevant factors in the transition to school.

Design and method: In order to collect data, 14 focus group interviews with different participants were conducted, three with preschool teachers (N = 18), three with primary school teachers (N = 13), four with parents conducted before the child’s transition to primary school (N = 14) and four with parents conducted after the child’s transition to primary school (N = 20).

Results: While the preschool and primary school teachers stressed factors of a family nature, such as parental involvement and parental support of children, the parents referred more frequently to the overall running of the school and the characteristics and methodology of the teacher as being relevant to the adaptation process in the first year of primary education.

Conclusions: The findings suggest different factors associated with adaptation to school and also offer clues for designing strategies to facilitate such adaptation. New strategies are needed to facilitate the construction of a robust educational family–school partnership.     

农村学校家长参与的低迷现象研究——专业主义、不平等关系与家校区隔

本研究以一项为期一年的民族志调查为基础,旨在从教师访谈数据中揭示农村家长参与学校教育的障碍。在理论层面,本研究着眼于教师的专业身份及其对他们对于家长参与建构性理解的影响。在数据分析层面,本研究指出,接受访谈的教师倾向于认为家长在学校教育中的角色是"边缘性"的辅助角色,家长常被看作教师的追随者,而不是平等的合作伙伴,而教师则视自己为专业的工作者,其专业判断不容质疑。在行动层面,家长不同形式的参与又是教师构建专业身份的重要实践,常被看作鼓励"先进"、解决"后进"问题的重要手段,其符号意义要高过实质意义。本研究从教师的角度出发解释农村学校家长参与的低迷现象,是对本领域文献的一项重要补充,有着重要的理论意义。     

Predicting parental involvement in children's schooling within an economically disadvantaged African American sample

Predictors of parental school involvement were examined within a sample of 159 economically disadvantaged, African American parents living in an urban setting. School involvement was defined in terms of parent activity within the school. Parent demographics, attitudes about education, and community engagement behaviors as well as parent perceptions of school receptivity to parental involvement were evaluated as predictors of school involvement. Predictors of school involvement were examined separately for parents of elementary school students and for parents of middle and high school students. Results indicated that school receptivity was the strongest predictor of parental school involvement within both groups of parents. In addition, parental educational aspirations for the child and community engagement behaviors were significant predictors for both groups of parents. Parent level of employment was a significant predictor of school involvement only for parents of middle/high school students. Implications for school psychologists based on the findings are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 101–111, 2005.     

Parent preferences and parent choices: the public–private decision about school choice

School choice survey data from the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, a large county‐wide school district, is analysed to examine the characteristics of parents who consider choosing private schools for their children and those who do not. We examine differences in background, including race, educational attainment and socioeconomic status, as well as differences in parent satisfaction with their child’s previous school, parent involvement in school, parents’ priorities in school choice, as well as parents’ social networks. After controlling for background characteristics, we find that parent satisfaction with their child’s previous school was not a predictor of considering a private school. Rather, parent involvement seems to be a more important indicator of whether or not a parent would consider sending their child to a private school. In this case, parents are not ‘pushed’ away from public schools, contrary to much public rhetoric that suggests private schools are somehow inherently ‘better’ than public schools and parents who are dissatisfied with their public schools will opt for private schools. Instead, these findings suggest a ‘pull’ towards private schools. Parents may perceive that parent involvement and parent communication are more easily facilitated and valued in private schools.     

Homework as serious family business: power and subjectivity in negotiations about school assignments in Swedish families

Most previous research on parental involvement in children's homework has focused on the pedagogical advantages or disadvantages of school assignments while neglecting the practice in its social context, family life. By studying parent–child homework negotiations in Swedish families, this paper examines how family members position themselves and each other in relation to Swedish discourses on homework and parental involvement. The study shows that parents want their children to do homework independently. It is hard for the parents to take up another subject position than that of a ‘responsible parent’ who helps the child with homework or controls that it is done. Thereby, the child is simultaneously positioned as ‘irresponsible’ whether that is the case or not.     

Parents,teachers, and learning: Fostering communication skills in children

Conclusion It cannot be stressed enough that parental involvement in their child's learning process is necessary. However, this involvement must be more than attending periodic parent-teacher conferences and asking how the child is doing in school. Parents need to understand, and teachers need to reiterate, that the parent is one of the most important teachers a child will have. While curriculum improvement in the schools continues to dominate educational agendas, the home environment unfortunately is easily overlooked as being influential in a child's learning. Educators need to recognize that influence, and while curricula continue to improve, the integration of communication skills at home must be considered to ensure the child the best possible education. Communication between home and school should be ongoing. This combined effort develops a speech and language arts curriculum to its fullest and includes all appropriate individuals involved in the development: educators, parents, and children.     

Parents’ perceptions of e-learning in school education: implications for the partnership between schools and parents

This study aimed to investigate parents’ understanding of, support for and concerns about e-learning and proposed a school–parent partnership distributing responsibilities to parents and schools based on the results of the study. A total of 61 parents from 21 schools in an e-learning pilot scheme in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire survey and focus group interviews. Results indicated that there was a high correlation between parental understanding and support for e-learning although parents demonstrated only a basic level of understanding. Four types of parental support and six major areas of parental concern were identified. These results shed light on the school–parent partnership whereby parents should implement a proactive e-learning policy at home to monitor, support and inspire e-learning. Schools should formulate a holistic policy to address parents’ concerns responsively and proactively to gain support. Schools can enhance parents’ pedagogical understanding of e-learning and address parental concerns through school–parent communication and peer support among parents.     

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.