Parent Involvement In Education And Issues Arising Education Essay

P arnt Involvement In Education And Issues Arising Education EssayIntroductionThis abject scale search is to consider enatic invitement in a childs learning and how p bents contri hardlyions help children to arrive at while at groom and examines the barriers of p bents and prepare which prevent achieverful partnerships flourishing.In order to carry push through a study that would be relevant to my own practice I swallow think on both leavens, and teachers perception of agnate intricacy and the casing of partnerships that exist in the midst of scale and school. I watch to a fault briefly looked at the government division, the initiatives and policies that encourage schools and parents to upliftedtail it at together. My main focus however, is the barriers that prevent maternal involvement. In my proposal, I noned initial key findings, that I precious to research further, however, after reading material a vast amount of literature, metre-scales prevented me t o look at all playing fields in depth.My interest in this area first began when in a parent agency I used to listen to children read erstwhile a week at a local ancient school. Over the years in my role as a parent, I book thrown more encouragement to be compound with my local primary school that my own child att fires. Offers of courses in Maths and Literacy imbibe been available, as well(p) as somewhat after school activities such(prenominal) as clubs, or invitations to school events outside of school time.My initial reading, conduct to me research commissi unmatchabled by DCSF (2007) which represented that 51% of parents questioned felt very involved in their childs didactics, compared to 27% in 1963 (DES). This would imply that parents are now seen as an integral part of a childs school life. Government policies involve parents through consultations closely aspects of behaviour and school uniform, and the White Paper (2011) has further still increased paternal power.There are still barriers, however, that prevent parents becoming more involved fully in their childs education. In the same research (DCSF 2007) found that 61% of parents indicated that they would like to be more involved with school. I wanted to understand why parents perceived that they were not involved enough with their childs education. I also wanted to see how teachers felt when worksss with parents and their perceptions and what barriers, if any teachers also had.My study focused on two primary schools, one arcadian school lot villages in Lincolnshire with 100 pupils, and a large town school serving mainly a large council estate with 400 pupils. Research (Quote) suggests, that parent engagement is high(prenominal) when a child is attending primary school, and this lowers as children enter the secondary sector. For purposes of my study I have not included this element due to size and time constraints. I have also not considered socio- scotch background but I have f ound that this area has overlapped in much of my reading. However Cosin Hayle (1997) indicate that if a child has a parent who come ups involved, and participates with their childs education, benefits will be seen regardless of background.Schools also have a part to play and Ofsted (2007) suggest that all schools value parental involvement but the best schools invite resourcefulness, flexibility and determination in their engagement with parents. In order to assess how schools encourage parents to be involved, differentiate was collected through inter cerebrations with both Head-teachers of the schools. Class Teachers were also invited to take part in interviews however of the cardinal teachers invited only two were interviewed with rest offering to completed a questionnaire. Time constraints were the general reason for this. literary productions ReviewThe immensity of parental involvementIt has long been value since the publication of the Plowden Report (1967) that the imp ortance of agnatic involvement in education brings lots of benefits to children. This term covers a wide range of issues but broadly is defined as how a parent uses available resources with the intention of improving a childs learning. (Docking, 1997) This involvement whitethorn take place in or outside school.Parental involvement at home whitethorn include activities such as discussions with their child about school, constituent with prep or reading, or working on tasks such as cooking, make and do projects or being part of the wider community and victimization the facilities that whitethorn be on offer. Involvement at school whitethorn be attending parents evenings, volunteering in the classroom, or helping with decision making, such as belonging to the PTA or on a higher level working within a Parent governor role.Studies have shown that children who have parents that take an dynamical interest in their education benefit in a number of ways. These children are usually higher achievers (Ballantine, 1999 Docking, 1997 attendance is higher, (Haynes, Comer, Hamilton-Lee, 1989), homework is readily completed (Rich,1988) and self- esteem and confidence is high. (Hoover-Dempsey,1997 Walker,2000 Jones Reed, 2002).The Labour Government also recognised the importance of parental involvement, they emphasised that parents are active partners in the production of educated children (McNamara et al, 2000 p474). Excellence in Schools (DFEE, 1997) states that parents are a childs primary educators, and parents are key partners in the modern school system. Many initiatives have been aimed at parental involvement such as Sure-Start.The Barriers of Parental Involvement- Parents perceptionsParents beliefs and how they view education, croupe act as barriers to effective parental involvement. The way parents view their role in their childs education is crucial. Parents, who believe that their role is to control their child attends school, and the rest is up to the schoo l, are often not willing to be actively involved in their childs schooling. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) reported that this attitude is more prevalent in some communities than others, but did not assign low income as a factor. Clarke (1983) found that if pupils were high achievers, the parents supported their learning at home and interacted with school in a positive way. Clark found that parents of high achieving of pupils had a greater belief than other parents be bewilder they olfactory sensation their help makes signifi jackpott contributions. All the parents in Clarks research were from low economic backgrounds- this research would indicate that income is not a factor for wish of parental involvement. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) point out that parents who have low levels of belief in their ability to help their children are likely to have little contact with school because they feel that such involvement will not give positive outcomes for their children.There whit ethorn be many reasons for the lack of confidence that parents may feel. Language barriers may lead to a parent feeling they cannot communicate in effect with teachers, or negative experiences through their own schooling can often be the problem. Parents may also take the view that their donnish competence is not high enough to effectively help their children. This view is expressed more often as children progress from primary to secondary school and academic work becomes more advanced (Eccles and Harold, 1993.). All of the supra views act as a barrier to Parental involvement, patronage research that acknowledges support for a childs learning does not need a high level of education from parents. (Clark 1983 Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler 1997 Hornby 2000)Another barrier, which is in-chief(postnominal) to involvement in their childs education, is the views parents take into custody about their childs intelligence. (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler 1997) If parents hold the view that their c hild is apt through luck, they will not see the point of getting involved. Alternatively, parents who hold views that achievement and effort are linked and that this can be developed are more likely to be positive about parental involvement. This view can be linked with child rearing in general and parents who hold beliefs that the role of a parent is the way they bring up children that is very important, usually are considered to have positive views, and make considerable impact on their childs development overall (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler 1997). Parental barriers may be due to circumstances, parents who left school early or felt they didnt succeed at school may be indifferent to helping their own child. They may be unconfident in their own knowledge and skills, wherefore unable to help with homework or school projects ( grand et al, 2007). This attitude also may prevent parents working with teachers as they feel that they are not qualified enough. Other commitments such as wor k can also cause barriers. When parents are unemployed, money could be an issue as they may not be able to afford a car or to pay babysitters in order to get to school meetings. For parents with jobs it is often time constraints and the kind of jobs they have that cause issues. There is often less time to be involved at home or school, as parents possibly for example, too tired at the end of the day to help children with homework or have constructive discussions about their childs school day (Catsambis, 2001 Green et al. 2007). Finally socio-class, gender and ethnicity, can be seen as barriers to parental involvement, issues relating to differences may play a role and initiatives from Government have aimed to address this (Quote).Barriers- Teachers perceptionsBarriers to parental involvement, is not just the responsibility of parents. Teachers also face vault that may prevent them having triumphful partnerships with parents.In order for parental involvement to be successful it is important to look at the role of teachers and their perspective of the partnership. lazar Slostad, (1999) state that teachers who invest time in working with parents, experience more empowerment within their teaching, report that stress levels are reduced and feel their headmaster status and authority is appreciated. Additionally teachers reported that they felt the work they did with the children was greatly respected due to parental involvement (Hara and Burke, 1998).For many years teachers have been under the impression that parents do not value education or the job that teachers do. Ascher, 1988 Henderson, Marburger, Ooms,1986 report that many teachers find parents un-cooperative, when issues of discipline arise, and argue that contacting parents is often futile. Teachers fear that when contacted, parents maybe argumentative and hostile, and may have a misguided belief that the problem, if left alone, will not cause confrontations. However, this is the opposite of reality t eachers who contact parents when they have a concern usually find parents co-operative and willing to work with the school (Johnson Webster, 1994). Another reason cited is that teachers do not appreciate or fail to understand the importance of parental involvement (Broderick Mastrilli, 1997 Greenwood Hickman, 1991 Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, Jones, Reed, 2002) in home- school links. Much literature on this subject (Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, Jones, Reed Lazar Slostad, 1999) discusses communication between home and school is often weak and home visits to really understand families would help to improve this.Parent teacher partnershipsAs discussed, in order for parental involvement to be effective, teachers and parents moldiness have the same goals. Parental involvement must not just be seen as simple desire. Much of the literature that surrounds this area discusses opposing agendas and goals (Wolfendale, 1983 Epstien 2001). Government and schools goals towards parental involvement, maybe so they are responsible to communities, or to promote childrens achievements through league tables. Parents goals are more concerned with their childs happiness, how well they are doing in terms of school work. Montgomery (2009), points that barriers may occur when there is a conflict over ability. Children that are gifted and talented may not be viewed so by their teachers which hence causes barriers through frustrations. every bit this may be seen when children are talented in a sport, or musically and do not attend school in order to pursue this. Rudney (2005) discusses teacher goals and states that the focus of teachers in parental involvement is through homework, providing a nurturing environment, parent meetings and reports, and attending school events. Parent-teacher meetings provide a good insight to how goals of teachers and parents may differ. Bastiani (1989) has suggested that teachers wish to discuss different things to parents, although both are concerned with t he childs progress, their concerns are viewed in different perspectives which then create barriers for involvement later on. Aldeman (1992) discussing the impact of differing goals considers that home-school relationships are based on socialisation, where schools attempt to knead parents attitudes so they enable schooling. He further suggests that underlying agendas often have an impact on parental involvement if the goals are more about meeting the needs of schools rather than individuals. These differences can cause frustrations to both parties and limit parental involvement and partnership successes.Breaking down the barriersAs discussed, researchers have identified several(prenominal) types of parental involvement. Epstien (1995) categorized this as parenting, communicating, volunteering, home learning, decision making, and working with the community. Although all of these categories have an impact on a childs learning, not all achieve academic success. The key to success is th e relationship that is established between children and parents in the home. (Burns, 2000 Clark, 1983 Norton Nufeld, 2002). High expectations of a childs achievements and making education a priority should be of high importance if barriers are to be broken, (Brown, 1999 Kurdek, Fine, Sinclair, 1995Muller,1993Rosenzweig, 2000 Solo, 1997). Evidence is overwhelming that families, who set high expectations for their children, have a high academic success (Clark 1983). This also can been seen in the classroom, and teachers who set high expectations for the children they teach, are often seen as expectant (Ofsted, ) Teachers should emphasise this importance when communicating with parents, and reassure them that their child can reach high levels of academic success (Hughes, 2003 Johnson, 1998). Secondly parents have to take an active role in learning at home (Becker Epstein, 1982 Dornbusch Ritter, 1988 Tizard, Schofeld, Hewison, 1982 Rosenzweig, 2000). Children who have well-structu red routines at home do very well at school (Muller,1993). Teachers can help parents to actively get involved by offering specific strategies that parents can use to organise homework, discussions or their time in general. (Finn, 1998). Parents can provide materials or have an area where children can study, but it is critical that they show an interest in their childs school work. Discussions about school not only help parents monitor their childs activities, but more importantly they are showing their child that they care about their progress and what they do (Brown, 1999 Finn, 1998). Teachers can help parents to monitor progress more readily if they provide parents with information such as homework policies that discuss the type, how much should be done, how it is marked. Parents generally welcome information such as this, as well as knowledge of the work their child will be doing over the school year (Loucks 1992). This type of information could be presented via school newsletter s and many schools are using this method as part of parental involvement strategies. Lastly, parents and teachers need to emphasise the importance of effort over ability (Stevenson, 1983). Dweck (1986) noted that children who attribute success and failure to effort rather than ability gain satisfaction, will seek challenges and will overcome obstacles that they may face. Parents nor teachers cannot significantly change the ability of pupils, but they can have an important impact on encouragement of effort. Children who have parents and teachers that convey messages of success through effort are usually confident, self-efficient, and strive to be high achievers (Folwer Peterson, 1981). Researches (Darling Steinberg, 1993 Gonzalez, 2002 Robertson, 1997 Rosenzweig, 2000 Zellman Waterman, 1998) have identified a model of parenting, and have termed it as authoritative parenting. This model encompasses all the above points discussed. This model includes setting high expectations, provi ding emotional support, granting appropriate independence, setting limits, and most importantly acknowledgement of their childs perspectives of home and school. This model appears to be most conducive to academic success. Teachers should encourage parents to follow this model through discussions, helping to strengthen home-school relationships. In conclusion, the importance of parental involvement in a childs academic success is inarguable. The literature available unresolvedly identifies the benefits of parent participation, outlines the obstacles facing parent and home relationships, and has made some suggestions in order for the barriers to be broken down. It is an unfortunate fact that after much research over the decades some parents are still disengaged from their childs school life. In order to include all parents, the classroom teacher has a major role to play, and is the key to changing the level of parental participation. Teachers have the skills and strategies necessary for creating successful partnerships, with those who are so critical to a childs success in school, the parents.MethodologyThe participants of this study were parents of children who attended either school, or teachers, including heads, who are part of the school staff. Both schools offer a positive approach to parental involvement, with the rural school having an emphasis on homework. Both schools gave the researcher liberty to carry out surveys through questionnaires, and fishing gear structured interviews. Diaries were given to parents 5 from each school, after asking parents if they wished to participate. All participants were assured of confidentiality verbally, and it was made clear on paper-work which parents were required to fill in. A letter was sent to both Heads also seeking permission to conduct a small study. This is accordance to Ethical guidelines (Cohen, 2000 Woolley, 2010). Prior to the study taking place, a buffer storage questionnaire was emailed to 10 parents that had children. The questions asked, were based around my initial reading, and after receiving the responses, I realised that I had only focused on the broad issues of parental involvement, and therefore needed to change the questions in order to collect hairsplitting data to answer my question. Once I devised my questionnaire on agreement with both schools, parents were invited to take one and complete it and return back to school office. I had originally wanted to use a random pickaxe processes using class lists, however after consideration I decided that as a cross-sectional of parents went into the school, on a daily basis so my data would still be valid. Each questionnaire had a standardised set of questions (talk about this not always getting the correct response and quote)Problems arose in the vivify of responses, however all participants did respond and 30 completed questionnaires were returned from each school. The homework diaries gave me another set of complicatio ns, I wanted to assess the activities that enhance childrens learning and how parents achieved this, however, (talk about parents may lie to feel better, or feel they have to write something in fear of not looking like a good parent relate back to model in journal.The sample overall was not large enough to liken real findings to empirical research, however there has been some similarities which would concur with the evidence collected.Throughout my design and research I kept ethical issues at the front of my mind, this is critical in any research which is undertaken, to shelter all who are involved.Analysis of FindingsConclusions and Recommendations