Chapter 8: Discussion of Research Question Two and Research Question Three
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Introduction
2.13 Socioeconomic Status and Academic Performance
2.13.1.2 Parent Education and Academic Performance
According to Owoeye (2008), parents with higher educational level could serve as a motivation to children’s intellectual potential, which could result to better performance in school in Nigeria.
The European Union Monitoring Report (2013) reported that students with moderately educated parents will on average perform significantly better in assessment of science courses, comprehension and arithmetical ability than students with less educated parents. Students from a well-read family received proper caring in terms of provision of educational materials. This has led to improvement in their academic performance but the reverse is the case with an illiterate
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family; the ability to supervise the children’s exercise books is absent, hence their children’s low academic performance in school.
Educated parents have a library at home, loaded with books, reference books and other educational books and educational audiovisual tapes. At the point when children make use of these materials, it will increase their understanding. Chen (2009) posited that parental education was the key determinant of student’s achievement at University of Wollongong. According to Ersado (2005), educational level of household members was influential particularly on children and it determined their access to schooling in the USA. The notion was widely accepted as the most consistent determinant of child education. Parental level of education was connected with expanded access to education (Ersado, 2005; Grant & Hallman, 2006). Parental education and retention in school have been connected by numerous researchers. Dubow et al. (2009) commented that parents’
education was connected to the child's developing academic success and achievement-oriented attitudes at the University of Michigan. According to Kamau (2013) in Nairobi, the impact of the level of education of parents on the academic performance of their children was obvious in all nations. Pamela and Kean (2010) reported that children of highly educated parents performed significantly better than students of less educated parents. Kamar (2008) found that parents of moderate to high income and educational background held beliefs and expectations that were closer than those of low-income families to the actual performance of their children. Low-income families instead had high expectations and performance beliefs that did not correlate well with their children’s actual school performance. In contrast to the above studies, Pitan (2015) reported in her study conducted in Nigeria that distance learners' academic achievement was not significantly influenced by parental education. This may suggest that the success in distance education depends on their determination to excel and may be because the previous studies concentrate on conventional university students while her study focused on distance e-learners.
Graetz (2009) reported that high parental education means better occupations with higher financial status. In Sweden, Gustafsson et al. (2011) reported that parents’ attitudes towards reading and the importance they attached to study serve as good examples for their wards to perform well in school;
all these are resultant impacts of parental education background. In Nigeria, Akinsanya et al.
(2011) revealed that students enriched with high parental occupational backgrounds enjoy much
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parental backing for academic work, such as good nutrition and provision of essential academic materials. Is this applicable to distance e-learners to the same context?
Gottfried et al. (2004) found that both mothers’ education and family wage were indicators of the physical environment and learning encounters in the home, yet that mothers’ education alone was predictive of parental warmth. Smith et al. (2007) found that the association of family income and parents’ education with young people’s academic achievement was reinforced by the home environment. In Nigeria, Ogunshola and Adewale (2012) found the parental educational qualification and wellbeing statuses of students had a statistically significant impact on the academic performance. Hill et al. (2004) contended that socioeconomic status of parents did not only affect academic performance, but also made it possible for children from a low SES background to compete well their counterparts from a high SES background under the same academic environment. In Spain, Diaz (2004) found that personality, family and academic variables of parents influence low academic achievement in secondary schools. Huang (2007) found that there was a correlation between parents’ education level and children’s motivation and achievement at senior secondary school level. Hansen and Masterkaasa (2006) discovered that students who originated in a farm household in Norway showed the lowest educational attainment while those who originated in an academic household performed best. In Pakistan, Farooq et al.
(2011) examined different features influencing the educational attainment of students. They investigated the consequence of parent’s education, occupation and socioeconomic status on the excellence of a student’s educational attainment. They used ANOVA and T-test to study the outcomes of various features on student’s achievements and they found that the socioeconomic status and parent’s education have highly significant impact on students’ academic performance and achievement in English and mathematics. This may suggest that highly educated parents give maximum support to their children and this reflects in their academic performance.
According to Nannyonjo (2007), in his study done in Uganda, students from well-read parents with university degrees performed significantly better than students with illiterate parents.
Students whose fathers were university graduates might expect to score higher than their counterparts with middle educated parents or illiterate parents. Musgrave (2000) and Grissmer (2003) reported that parents’ level of education was the most critical variable influencing students’
academic achievement. According to Grissmer (2003), parents’ level of education is the most
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critical variable influencing students’ academic achievement. Song and Hattie (2004) agreed that families from different socioeconomic groups create diverse learning environments that affect the child’s academic achievement. Educational background of the parents was found to be an influential variable on their children’s education.
In South Africa, Singh, Mbokodi and Msila (2004) performed an exploratory study on the impacts of parental participation on the educational achievement of children. They found that parental backing in provision of a good learning environment, physical facilities and spiritual health is vital to the success of the learner. This study was done in a sub-Saharan country and it is similar to the present study which will be conducted in another sub-Saharan country but with a different focus.
Several studies conducted at Michigan State University by Lezotte (2010) showed that home background was one of the key factors of effective schooling. As indicated by Lezotte (2010) in an effective schools’ model, home-school relations is a general term used to describe a myriad of activities, projects, and programs that bring parents, businesses and other stakeholders together to support student learning and schools. Krashen (2005) concluded that students at the University of Southern California whose parents were educated scored higher on standardised tests than those whose parents were not educated. Educated parents can better communicate with regard to school activities, exercises and the information being taught at school.
It is interesting to note that the majority of the researchers above from different parts of the world reported similar findings that parent education plays a significant role in their academic performance in respect of the difference in learning environments, technology development, educational levels and regions.
In addition, all the studies cited above from both developed and developing countries, with exception of Pitan (2015), supported the view that parent education influences the academic performance of students in a conventional school with no reference to distance education. It is on these grounds that this study intended to further investigate the influence of parent education on academic performance of distance e-learners, as expressed in hypothesis H6, in order to fill the existing research gap. The results of the finding will reveal what the outcome was in a Nigerian setting (Chapter 6).
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