Parental perceptions of gender differences in child technology use and cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a major health concern for today's youth and a pervasive stressor for adolescents and their families. This study offers qualitative insights into how parents perceive their children's technology use and engagement in cyberbullying based on gender. Eight focus groups were conducted with 48 parents of adolescents ages 10–17. Findings indicated parents perceived their children overuse technology and lack awareness of what cyberbullying is. Specific to gender, parents suggested their daughters use technology for social connection, and parents were more concerned about their daughter's technology use than their son's, which they believed was related to specific interests. In response to cyberbullying scenarios, parents encouraged females but not males to socialize with peers. This is the first qualitative study to obtain an in-depth understanding of the ways in which parents perceive and socialize their children in regard to technology use and cyberbullying scenarios. These results may help school systems, school psychologists, researchers, and parents gain awareness of the gender-stereotypical socialization process that unfolds in parental monitoring of technology use and cyberbullying situations. We conclude by offering suggestions for how school systems and personnel might intervene.     

Parents' views on the success of integration of students with special education needs

This study investigated how parents' views on important aspects of integration correlate with parents' actual experiences concerning the integration into mainstream education of their child with special education needs. It was assumed that the degree of discrepancy between perceived importance and corresponding actual experience contributes to the overall perceived success of integration. The data for the study were collected in 2006 from parents (N?=?219) whose special needs children were integrated into mainstream education in Helsinki, Finland. Quantitatively analysed findings were reflected against background variables. Results showed that the importance of the given statements were affected by the child's gender and school level. The parents' actual experiences were affected by two factors. The first showed that teachers at the primary level were evaluated as being more skilful than teachers at the secondary level, and at the secondary level, teaching was more individualised than at the primary level. Second, a child's self-worth was shown to be higher when integrated into the neighbourhood school. Parents' views on the success of integration were related to their actual experiences, especially in those statements rated as important. Possible explanations for these findings and practical implications are discussed.     

Parents choosing to combine special and inclusive early years settings: the best of both worlds?

This paper focuses on parents' perspectives of combining special and mainstream services for their children in the early years, offering insights into: how parents came to make this choice for their children's education; what parents expected from the combined provision and how their expectations were being met in practice. The data presented formed part of a small‐scale, UK‐based study that investigated local discourses and practices operating for young children within a global context of commitment to inclusion. Despite moves towards inclusive early years education in the UK, many parents of young children identified as having special educational needs opt for a combination of both inclusive and special early years settings. A survey sent to early years providers, voluntary groups and parents in three local education authorities (LEAs) in southern England, revealed that the practice of combining placements was widespread. Follow‐up interviews with parents of five children revealed rich detail about the processes of choice making and parents' expectations and experiences of combined provision. The research findings have clear implications for the development of inclusive education and its appeal to parents, who may need convincing that it can offer sufficient specialist expertise and resources.     

RESEARCH SECTION: Between a rock and a hard place: parents' attitudes to the inclusion of children with special educational needs in mainstream and special schools

In this paper, Katherine Runswick‐Cole, a researcher at the Research Institute for Health and Social Change at Manchester Metropolitan University, engages with parents' attitudes to the placement of their children with special educational needs in mainstream and special schools. She sets her review of parents' views within the current policy and legislative context. She then moves on to explore parents' attitudes to inclusion by drawing on the social model of disability as an analytical tool and developing a typology of parental school choices. The study reported in this paper involved 24 parents who were contacted through voluntary organisations and interviewed, either in their own homes or on the telephone. The views of seven professionals were also gathered. The findings reveal that parents' attitudes to mainstream and special schooling are influenced by their engagement with models of disability. The parents' experiences suggest that, despite the shifts in policy we have seen since 1997, the process of inclusive education continues to be fragile.     

“Doing the Math”: Maternal Beliefs About Early Mathematics Versus Language Learning

Research Findings: Little is known about how parents approach preschoolers' mathematics learning and how this aligns with early mathematics education research and policy. This study examined these questions by contrasting parents' approaches to early mathematics and language and by exploring key themes in parents' talk about mathematics learning and education. Consistent with current research and policy, parents reported helping preschoolers learn mathematics and attempting to connect this learning to children's interests and everyday experiences. However, parents admitted to lacking goals for and knowledge about early mathematics. In addition, compared to language, parents reported that mathematics was taught less often at home, should be emphasized less in preschools, was less interesting to preschoolers, required more direct instruction, and was less of a personal interest and strength. Practice or Policy: Parent interventions could capitalize on parents' beliefs and practices by providing parents with concrete examples of what mathematics preschoolers learn through daily activities, how to maximize children's mathematics interests, and what the similarities are between early mathematics and language. These efforts will also need to help parents overcome their mathematics anxieties and show parents why early mathematics education is important. Similar strategies could be used to help early childhood teachers improve their mathematics practice.     

Influence of Parents' Self-Feelings and Expectations on Children's Academic Performance

Abstract

The authors examined the degree to which parents' negative self-feelings affect the relationship between their educational attainment and the educational expectations they have for their adolescent children, as perceived by their children. In turn, they investigated the degree to which parents' negative self-feelings affect the relationship between their educational expectations for their adolescent children and the current academic achievement of those children. Results provide preliminary indications that parents' expectations for their children and the transmission of those expectations may be modified by how parents feel about themselves. Those modifying effects are explained in terms of both parents' and students' motivations and behaviors.     

From here to there and back again: the story of a mother,her son,disability, and school choice

Nelly and her children live in Queensland, Australia. When it came time for her second youngest son to start school, Nelly was not prepared for the difficulty that she had enrolling him at the school of her choice. In spite of her son's disability, Nelly thought that it was natural that he would go to his local school with his sister. It is not surprising that she expected this, given the legal and policy endorsement of inclusive education that exists in the Queensland education system. What unfolded in Nelly's life as she pursued this enrolment is the subject of this article. This is the story of a mother who believed in and hoped for inclusive schooling for her son but who found herself caught in a series of events and experiences which ultimately led to the decision to transfer him into a special school. This is also the story of how, disillusioned and regretful, she went on to undo that decision. Told primarily in Nelly's own words, this narrative provides a deep insight into one mother's efforts to exercise her parental authority, the difficulties she encountered in trying to do so, and the consequences for her son.     

Parents and sex education—looking beyond ‘the birds and the bees’

The social and political climate of sex education over the last two decades has dramatically changed, with parents now being encouraged to work in partnership with professionals. This paper seeks to further the argument that involving parents in their child's sex education does matter and can have an impact on their child's future sexual health. It discusses the reality of parents' roles and skills in providing sex education within the family. In particular, the discussion explores myths parents associate with sex education, involving fathers in provision, siblings as peer educators, health professionals' attitudes towards involving parents, and school partnerships. The author calls for professionals to involve parents alongside other sources of sex education in health and educational strategies to address sexual health issues and improve sex education. Otherwise future generations of children will experience a closed cultural attitude towards sexual matters and we will not achieve lower teenage pregnancy rates or view sex education positively.     

Parental Participation and Accountability in Primary Schools in Uganda

Participation, a 'buzzword' in social development in both developed and developing countries, has several different interpretations in terms of purpose, form and implication. For instance, parents are encouraged to participate individually in choosing the school for their own children, and they are expected to participate collectively in school development through the work of school governing bodies. Furthermore, participation in education is often considered to be a means of assuring accountability of decentralised institutions. This paper explores the notion of parental participation in school governance, based on data obtained from field research in Uganda. It argues that parents' perceptions of the accountability of the school affect the way they participate in education. Thus, accountability is one of the crucial factors for realising local democracy through decentralisation.     

The Power of Parent Engagement: Sociocultural Considerations in the Quest for Equity

This article explores the difference between parental involvement, where parents' activity levels at school are primarily structured by schools, and parental engagement, where parents have a more active voice in how they take part in what goes on in schools. This difference is underscored as a means of illuminating ways of addressing the issue of racialized disproportionality in special education and acts of school discipline, particularly in urban settings. We highlight the ways schools need to transform the often microaggresively oppressive ways parents are invited into their children’s education process, as well as the way schools value the knowledge parents bring. Effective ways of activating parental engagement as a means of creating authentic community engagement are also examined. Additionally, recommendations are provided on how to prepare novice teachers to develop plans and goals alongside parents in order to help these new educators develop a pedagogical stance that authentically values the importance of one of schools’ most important stakeholders–parents.     

Dispelling Myths about Latino Parent Participation in Schools

This qualitative study was conducted to discuss and dispel commonly held myths about Latino parents' involvement in their children's education. Differences between teacher perceptions of Latino parent involvement and parents' understanding of their roles in supporting their children's education—including the learning and use of the English language—were explored. Results indicated that some teachers held negative perceptions of Latino parents. The study also revealed that Latino parents had high expectations of their children's academic achievement and wanted to be more involved in their education, but felt excluded from the school community.     

Parental attitudes about teenage pregnancy: impact on sexual risk behaviour of African-American youth

African-American youth suffer disproportionately from sexual risk consequences including unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Parents educating young people about sex may be one approach to reduce sexual risk behaviour among this population. The purpose of this study was to determine young people's perceptions of parents' attitudes about sex and assess whether these perceptions affect sexual risk. Data were collected from 560 African-Americans, aged 9–19 years. Most (73.4%) thought their parents would be unhappy if they got someone pregnant/got pregnant, with more girls feeling this way than boys (p = 0.013). Sexually active boys who thought their parents would be unhappy if they got someone pregnant reported fewer sexual partners within the past year (p < 0.01) and fewer sexual encounters in the past 3 months (p = 0.01) compared to those whose parents would think otherwise. Our research illustrates that parents' explicit and unstated attitudes are apparent to their offspring, and young people's perceptions can impact their risk behaviour. As such, early and often sex education communication between parents and young people should be encouraged. Sexual health interventions encouraging parents to educate about sex and its consequences could enhance the health of young African-Americans.     

Predicting African American Parents' and Guardians' Satisfaction With Teachers and Public Schools

Abstract

The author used regression analyses to examine variables that predicted how African American parents and guardians rated their children's teachers and the public school system. The results indicated that although several variables were significant, parents' and guardians' satisfaction with their children's elementary school teachers was the strongest predictor of how they rated high school teachers and the public school system. The need for educators and policy-makers to improve their relations with African American parents and guardians is underscored.     

An evaluation of Learning Contracts within the context of partnership in school‐based training: implications for school based mentoring

This paper explores parents' expectations and perceptions of effective induction and formative partnership with their child's school during the transition to full‐time statutory education.

Based on fifty case study children from two schools of similar size and catchment area but with different induction practices, it looks at a range of issues including parents' perceptions of home visiting, pre‐entry visits to school and pre‐entry profiles, as well as parents' knowledge about school and their notions of partner ship.

The paper outlines the implications for schools' partnerships with parents, exploring: ways in which schools and parents can begin to understand one another; how schools can help parents to support their children's learning; and ways in which effective schools can create opportunities for parental involvement.     

Parental Involvement in Homework

The article reviews research on parental involvement in student homework. It is focused on understanding: why parents become involved in their children's homework; which activities and strategies they employ in the course of involvement; how their homework involvement influences student outcomes; and which student outcomes are influenced by parents' involvement. Findings suggest that parents involve themselves in student homework because they believe that they should be involved, believe that their involvement will make a positive difference, and perceive that their children or children's teachers want their involvement. Parents' involvement activities take many forms, from establishing structures for homework performance to teaching for understanding and developing student learning strategies. Operating largely through modeling, reinforcement, and instruction, parents' homework involvement appears to influence student success insofar as it supports student attributes related to achievement (e.g., attitudes about homework, perceptions of personal competence, self-regulatory skills). Recommendations for research focused on the processes and outcomes of parents' homework involvement are offered, as are suggestions for school practices to enhance the effectiveness of parental involvement in homework.     

‘School doesn't feel as much of a partnership’: parents' perceptions of their children's transition from nursery school to Reception class

This small‐scale study explores a group of English parents' perceptions of their relationships with their child's nursery school and, after the transition to Reception class, their primary school. It references current research and literature on the issues of transition and the role of parents in their children's education. Findings from semi‐structured interviews with parents, and with the children's key workers, were analysed for emergent themes. Parents felt very positively about their relationship with their child's nursery, and that they were fully involved in, and informed about, their child's learning. However, the transition to school heralded a change in their relationships. Most parents felt that they had a more distant and less reciprocal relationship with their child's teacher than they had had with their key worker at nursery. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research.     

The three‐legged stool of parental inclusion: the case of Hana

Drawing from a critical qualitative inquiry, this case study tells the story of Hana, a Korean‐Canadian mother, and identifies barriers that can be encountered in seeking to interact with school professionals in the special education milieu. The case study presents a conceptual model, called the three‐legged stool of parental inclusion, which is designed to enhance the way in which parental inclusion is understood and fostered in special education. It is suggested that Hana needed to utilise this model, of knowledge awareness, gathering, and use, in order to take part in her daughter's education in a more meaningful way. This article, by Cam Cobb of the University of Windsor, Canada, adds to the international literature related to cultural and linguistic diversity by sharing a Canadian parent's experience of special education decision‐making from this perspective.     

Parents' Conceptions of Kindergarten Readiness: Relationships With Race,Ethnicity, and Development

Abstract

Data from the National Household Education Survey (1993) were used to examine parents' conceptions of kindergarten readiness and home-learning activities. Parents reported reading to their children an average of several days each week; a majority of children watched educational television programs such as Sesame Street. African American and Hispanic parents, and other parents of color, were significantly more likely than Caucasian parents to express concerns about their childís readiness for kindergarten. However, Caucasian parents were significantly more likely than other parents to comment that they would delay sending their child to kindergarten until he or she was older. Parent concerns about their child's kindergarten readiness were unrelated to learning activities and educational television viewing at home.