Perceptions of teachers’ and parents’ regarding school readiness

In order to investigate the teachers and parents’ perceptions of school readiness, 218 parents and 370 teachers were surveyed. Based on the areas of “physical well-being and motor development”, “social and emotional development”, “approaches to learning”, “language use”, “cognition and general knowledge” and “family”, the study attempts to examine and compare kindergarten teachers’, elementary school teachers’ and parents’ beliefs about school readiness. Results are as follows: (1) on the whole, parents and teachers attach great importance to health, attention, parental rearing patterns, confidence, learning interest, etc.; (2) kindergarten and elementary school teachers share a similar outlook on school readiness while elementary school teachers emphasize more on areas such as compliance with teacher authority, parents’ educational level, manners, self-centralization, the ability to express and so on, and (3) the difference exists among parents, kindergarten teachers and elementary teachers’ perceptions of school readiness.     

Shared academic values: testing a model of the association between Hong Kong parents’ and adolescents’ perception of the general value of science and scientific literacy

This study investigated parent general value of science operationalized in the 2006 questionnaire of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), as a determinant of adolescents’ scientific literacy performance. The transmission of academic values literature is small. To the best of our knowledge, no previous studies to date have examined the transmission of valuing of science. Study data were drawn from PISA 2006, which focused on science. The study sample comprised 4645 15-year-old adolescents in Hong Kong. Results from the conceptual structural model indicated that parental academic values (general value of science): (a) positively and directly affected adolescents’ valuing of science and in turn further influenced adolescents’ science performance, (b) positively and directly affected adolescents’ science performance, and (c) stimulated adolescents’ motivation to study science and in turn further influenced their science performance. Implications for school-level policy and practice include: (a) promoting parental valuing of science via parent involvement and (b) producing culturally and contextually grounded evidence on strategies for enhancing the transmission of academic values using research methodologies such as action research.     

Mexican parents’ and teachers’ literacy perspectives and practices: construction of cultural capital

This article examines the relationships among the literacy practices engaged in by first-grade children and parents at home and the ways in which these practices are communicated, shaped, and fostered by teachers and administrators in two different sociocultural environments in urban Mexico. The differences observed between the home literacy experiences of children in a working-class and a middle-class community included transgenerational communication of assumptions regarding literacy and schooling, as well as attitudes associated with the parents’ own school experiences. Class-based expectations on the part of teachers not only shaped interactions with parents, but were also reflected in the way the national curriculum was delivered, with a greater emphasis on rote skills and traditional reading instruction in the working-class community. The authors argue that the school plays a role in the co-production of cultural capital in the home through its shaping of some of the literacy practices that children and families undertake.     

Kindergarten students’ and parents’ perceptions of science classroom environments: Achievement and attitudes

This study, involving the modification, validation and use of a learning environment questionnaire for both kindergarten students and their parents, is significant because prior learning environment research has normally involved neither parents nor such young students. A questionnaire, which was based on the What Is Happening In this Class? and assessed actual and preferred teacher support, involvement, cooperation and equity, exhibited sound factorial validity, internal consistency reliability and the ability to differentiate between classrooms. Parents perceived a more favourable actual classroom environment than students, but students preferred a more favourable environment than parents. Associations were found between kindergarten students’ achievement and attitudes and the nature of the learning environment.     

Patterns of teachers’ whole-class perceptions and predictive relationships between teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of individual child competence

The stratification or dispersion of first grade teachers’ perceptions of children’s competence was evaluated as a moderator of the predictive relationship between teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of individual children’s competence. Classroom stratification of teachers’ perceptions about child intelligence and about child social difficulties was measured by the dispersion of teacher’s ratings of individual children in their class (N_classrooms=60; N_children=1240). The stratification of teachers’ perceptions was found to be stable across the year. Greater stratification predicted teachers’ perceptions of less child competence and also predicted less change in teachers’ perceptions of individual children over the school year. There was no evidence that teachers who tended to see more stratification among child intelligence were more accurate in their perceptions. In linking teachers’ perceptions to parents’ perceptions, fathers’ perceptions of children’s social difficulties became more congruent with teachers’ perceptions across first grade if children were in high- but not low-stratified classrooms. Implications of this parent- and domain-specific relationship are discussed.     

Do parents’ and teachers’ views of children’s educational resilience matter?

This study set out to examine parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of children’s educational resilience. As expected, the parents attributed greater levels of educational resilience to their children than did the teachers. However, both the parents and teachers assessed the sixth graders’ educational resilience as higher than that of the third graders. The results suggest that perceptions of educational resilience may represent a different dimension from views relating to children’s achievement in school.     

Parenting and adolescents’ values and behaviour: the moderating role of temperament

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parenting and adolescent fearfulness on adolescents’ pro‐social values and pro‐social and antisocial behaviour. A total of 134 adolescents (M age = 16.22, 72 girls, 62 boys) responded to questions regarding their own fearfulness, pro‐social values and pro‐social and antisocial behaviour, as well as their perceptions of maternal attachment and maternal appropriateness. Results revealed few main‐effect findings, most notably a negative relation between attachment and antisocial behaviour. However, findings pointed to several multiplicative relations as a function of parenting, adolescent fearfulness, and child gender, including: (1) maternal appropriateness was more important for boys than for girls, (2) maternal attachment was related to greater importance of pro‐social values and higher pro‐social behaviour for boys low on fear and (3) maternal appropriateness was related to lower antisocial behaviour for boys low on fear. The discussion focuses on the importance of examining the multiplicative relations between parenting and adolescent temperament and the implications of this for both educators and parents.     

Getting parents involved in children’s play: Qatari parents’ perceptions of and engagement with their children’s play

The study investigates parents’ perceptions of and engagement with their children's play in the context of Qatar. Quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire that was administered to parents of children aged 4–7 years old in Doha. A total sample of 240 parents responded to the questionnaire. Findings indicated that Qatari parents valued the importance of play to their children’s development and learning. In addition, parents showed a moderate level of engagement with their children’s play. The findings also indicated that physical play was the most common type of play in which parents are engaged with their children, followed by discovery play. Moreover, significant correlations were found between parents’ perceptions of children’s play and their engagement with all play types. In addition, significant differences were observed in parents’ perceptions of and engagement with children’s play based on parents' socio-demographic variables. These findings highlight the importance of extending children’s play in all children’s educational levels, and getting parents involved in children’s play activities.     

The impact of adolescents’ dyslexia on parents’ and their own educational expectations

The present study examined the role that adolescents’ dyslexia plays in their educational expectations, as well as their parents’ expectations concerning their offspring’s future education. To investigate this, 170 adolescents were asked to report their educational expectations on two occasions while they were still attending comprehensive school (in 7th and 9th grade). Forty-five of the 170 adolescents were diagnosed as having dyslexia. The adolescents’ mothers and fathers also filled in questionnaires concerning their educational expectations for their offspring. The results showed that parents of boys with dyslexia had lower expectations about their sons’ future education than parents of typically reading boys. However, parents of girls with dyslexia and parents of typically reading girls did not differ in this respect. Parents’ expectations also predicted the adolescents’ own educational expectations. Moreover, dyslexia was associated with boys’ academic achievement (GPA), which further predicted their educational expectations.     

An interactive model of parents’ involvement and their children’s functioning in school

This study examined relationships between Parents’ involvement as related to their Identification and Alertness and to four students’ variables Attitudes toward school, Social adjustment, Self-efficacy and Academic achievements. Social adjustment was the most dominant variable and served as a mediator between self-efficacy and achievements. Parental involvement had significant, direct and positive relations with social adjustment but negative with academic achievements. Findings indicate a weakening of the relationships between parents’ involvement, identification, and alertness and children’s variables compared to the relationships between children’s variables. Educational staff and parents must create useful communication channels for helping children cope with the challenges of their social and media world.     

‘Teacher leadership’: values and voice

This article focuses on teacher leadership, an important dimension of the work of the Leadership for Learning network which is the focus of this special issue. More specifically, the article focuses on the launch of a journal – Teacher Leadership – as a strategy for promoting key values: shared leadership, teachers’ leadership of development work, teachers’ knowledge building and teachers’ voice. Material published in the first two issues of this new journal is used to illustrate how these values are realised in action enabling teachers to lead innovation and contribute to the development of professional knowledge. The article begins with an exploration of the place of teacher leadership within the wider context of shared or distributed leadership.     

Links between kropotkin' theory of ‘mutual aid’ and the values and practices of action research

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the key ideas of Peter Kropotkin on Mutual Aid, which can be seen to have a resonance and relevance to the value base and practices of action research. Written in 1902 as a refutation of the appropriation of Darwin's theories by social philosophers, Kropotkin's work stresses the importance of cooperation, rather than competition amongst humans as the basis for a creative, supportive and developmental human community (society). His ideas can be seen to have a particular importance or relationship to the growing body of action research in the community health and social care fields, where Kropotkin's theory can also be seen to support and explain the activity of the growing numbers of self help/mutual aid groups in both condition specific groups and in social/community concerns more generally.     

Psychological assessment and dyslexia: parents’ perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to explore parents’ perceptions of the process of having their child assessed for dyslexia by an independent Educational Psychologist and the affective impact on the child or young person. The research was carried out as part of an evaluation of the services offered by the Northern Ireland Dyslexia Centre (NIDC). The methodology involved the use of a postal survey questionnaire with both qualitative and quantitative outcomes. Findings are discussed in the context of strategies for promoting partnerships with parents and affective-academic pathways for learners with dyslexia.     

Teachers’, school staff’s and parents’ efficacy beliefs as determinants of attitudes toward school

Self- and collective efficacy beliefs were examined as correlates of attitudes toward school of teachers, school staff, and parents. 726 teachers, 387 staff members, and 1994 parents from 18 junior high schools in Milan and Rome, Italy, were administered questionnaires assessing self-efficacy beliefs, perceptions about colleagues’ bahavior, collective efficacy beliefs, affective commitment and job satisfaction of teachers and school staff and parents satisfaction with school. Path analyses corroborated a conceptual model in which self- and collective efficacy beliefs represent, respectively, the distal and proximal determinants of affective commitment and job satisfaction for teachers and staff and of satisfaction with school for parents. Perceptions that teachers, staff and parents hold about the behavior of their colleagues largely mediated the links between self- and collective efficacy beliefs. collective efficacy beliefs, in turn, largely mediated the influence that self-efficacy beliefs and perceptions of school constituencies’ behaviors exert on attitudes toward school of teachers, staff and parents.     

Hows and whys of parental involvement in a national ‘neoliberal laboratory’: aspirations,values and beliefs in relation to children’s education among Chilean urban lower-middle-class parents

Abstract

This paper sought to shed light on the beliefs, aspirations and values in relation to education that shape parental ways of involvement among Chilean urban lower-middle-class parents. Using the capability approach as the main theoretical framework and a critical epistemology, the discussion focuses on the way in which the pre-eminence of instrumental and positional dimensions of education arguably places limitations on how education is understood and valued; sets boundaries for parental involvement and overloads families. This situation ultimately diminishes the power of education to disrupt intergenerational cycles of disadvantage among Chilean urban lower-middle-class families.     

Research exploring parents’, teachers’ and educational psychologists’ perceptions of consultation in a changing Irish context

Research and recent policy developments in Eire highlight that there is a growing number of children in Irish schools presenting with special educational needs, leading to an increased need for Educational Psychology services. This research utilised case studies of children who were presenting to teachers with academic, social, emotional or behavioural difficulties. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the perceived effectiveness of consultation as a model of delivery for Educational Psychologists (EPs). Each case comprised a teacher, parent and psychologist, (n = 9) from three different case studies. This research found potential benefits of consultation particularly for children and parents, although the results from this study are difficult to generalise, given the small sample size. This study has practical implications for EPs: by understanding parents’ and teachers’ perspectives this can help EPs in future planning for consultation. Further research should explore children’s perceptions of consultation.     

Teacher-parent relationships: influence of gender and education on organizational parents’ counterproductive behaviors

The present paper examines the influence of parent’s demographics (gender and educational level) and a contextual variable (school grade) on counterproductive parents’ behavior during interaction with teachers. Data were gathered by administering the Italian version of the Challenging Parent Standard Questionnaire (Pepe 2010) to a sample of in-service teachers of both elementary and middle schools (N?=?674). As a result, a sample composed of 150 fathers and 524 mothers showing counterproductive behaviors was obtained. General linear model multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed no statistically significant differences between fathers’ and mothers’ counterproductive behaviors when controlled for the effects of parents’ education and the school grade. Low parental educational levels appeared to be associated with uncooperative and uninvolved behaviors, whereas excessively worried behaviors about a child’s education seems to be associated with a parent having a college degree or more. It must be remarked that parents’ behaviors can be conditioned by expectation about, or reaction to, the behavior of the teacher and the results should be interpreted by considering nonindependence of involved actors. Results are discussed in terms of theory development and parenting programs aimed at improving parent-teacher relationships.