This study investigates the factors that promote parental involvement in a secondary school in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The literature review examined the extent of parental involvement, the barriers parents face, and the benefits of parental involvement.
Introduction
Background
This is timely because parents have been given new rights and greater responsibilities for their children's education. For Epstein (2001), when parents pay more attention to their children's education, they will become more motivated and student achievement levels tend to increase.
Purpose/Rationale
The literature (Lemmer & Van Wyk (2009); Mestry (2004), moreover) shows that parents tend to be aware of the benefits of their involvement in their children's education in the early years, but tend to withdraw the participation of in their teenage years. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of parental involvement in academic achievement.
Key research questions
Educators will be more approachable to parents and they should be motivated to create a warm and comfortable environment for the involvement and active support of parents; The Department of Education must realize that greater involvement of parents in schools is needed and therefore must establish programs to encourage and educate parents about their roles and responsibilities in schools and;.
Definition of Key concepts
Method
- Methods of Data collection
- Participation Selection
- Data analysis
- Ethics
According to De Vos & Fouche (2002), a sample includes elements of the population considered for actual inclusion in the study. Interview participants were six educators and six parents and focus group participants were students from grades 10 to 12.
Conclusion
Outline of Chapters
Introduction
The Nature and Scope
Within the current South African school context, most parents do not participate meaningfully in their children's education. Admittedly, sometimes it is difficult for parents to be involved in their children's education, especially as they face inevitable challenges and obstacles.
Benefits of Parental Involvement
Benefits to Learners
When parents show interest in their children's education and emphasize high expectations, they encourage positive attitudes. But when parents are involved in their children's education, there appears to be a drastic reduction in school dropout rates (Lemmer, 2000).
Benefits to educators and schools
The teachers also gain greater respect and understanding from the parents when they are part of the school. Lemmer & Van Wyk (2009) found that the teacher's workload is reduced when parents play an active role in teaching.
Benefits to Parents
Lemmer & Van Wyk (2009) encourage parents to participate actively in their children's education, as this would increase their self-esteem. It is in this context that parents gain an understanding of the school structure, a sense of joy and pride in their children's education when they are actively involved.
Barriers to parental involvement
Barriers created from the home
- Time
- Socio Economic Factors
- Negative school experience
- Low Education Level and Language of Communication
- Embarrassed Children
- Cultural Habits
Children in high schools sometimes feel that they do not want their parents involved in their education. Some cultures teach that education of the child should be left in the hands of schools and parents should not be involved in this process.
Barriers created by the school
- Negative climate of school and teacher’s attitude
- Poor communication
The beliefs, attitudes and habits of these actors are completely embedded in the child's mind. When parents are informed, they are made aware of the school's policies, procedures, goals, and expectations.
Encouraging parental involvement
Ways the School can Encourage Parental Involvement
- Communication
- Creating Programs
- Getting Parents to volunteer their services
- Involving Parents in Decision Making
Mestry (2004) further argues that there should be at least one educator in the school who is proficient in the native language spoken by the children in the school. This type of exchange will enable better decision-making in the interest of children's education.
Personal Parental Involvement
- Homework
- Home Environment
- Attitude of Parent
- Epstein’s Theory on Parental Involvement
This will allow parents to become part of the school curriculum and offer more practical guidance. School management will be more effective if all relevant stakeholders are involved in the education of the adolescent.
Types of Parents
According to Smit (2006), this type of parent has the desire to influence and be part of the decision-making process at school. Feels responsible for the upbringing and education of children. This type of parent is very willing to help the school raise funds.
Conclusion
This parent looks for fault and is only satisfied when the school cowers and takes responsibility for suboptimal functioning. He or she thinks critically together with the school and contributes good ideas and is prepared to utilize his or her own networks and is satisfied when the school does the best for the learner (Smit, Drissen, Sluiter and Sleegers, 2007). Andrews, 2004).
Introduction
Role Theory
Role Theory -Implications for the School
However, roles are subject to constant change (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). As members of the social context, schools have the power to influence parents' role construction toward active and positive involvement in their children's education (Reed, 2001 in Leu, 2008). Schools and teachers therefore make an important contribution to parents' ideas about what they can and should do with regard to their children's education (Hoover -Dempsey, 2004).
Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory
- Microsystems layer
- Mesosystem
- Exosystem
- Macrosystem
- Chronosystem
- Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory’s Implications for the school
The structures in this layer influence the child's development by interacting with several structures in its microsystem (Berk, 2000). Lack of parental involvement will have a negative and not neutral effect on the child's development.
Conclusion
Parents and teachers must allow time and resources to support the importance of the relationship between child and adult through public attitudes. Working independently, no parent or school can provide the support that can build the relationship needed to help all children have a bright future (Bronfenbrenner, 2005).
Introduction
Aims of the research
Research Design
Denzin and Lincoln (2005) define qualitative research as a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It is by these means that qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world.
Paradigm
According to Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2007) the central effort of the interpretive paradigm is to understand the subjective world of human experience. The interpretive paradigm will be used as this study requires an actual reality in a specific situation.
Research Strategy
Advantages of case study
This would be in contrast to experiment, which e.g. deliberately isolates a phenomenon from its context and focuses on a limited number of variables (Lowe, 2007). Yin (2003) goes on to explain that variations in terms of intrinsic, instrumental and collective approaches to case studies allow for both quantitative and qualitative analyzes of the data. The detailed qualitative accounts often produced in case studies not only help to explore or describe the data in the real-world setting, but also help to explain the complexities of real-world situations that may not be captured through experimental or survey research.
Disadvantages of case studies
Third, case studies are often labeled as being too long, difficult to conduct, and producing a massive amount of documentation. The part that follows is about the sample that was used to select the participants.
Sampling
Sampling of the Research Site
Savemore High was selected because the researcher is a teacher at the school and this allows her maximum time in school. The researcher consulted with the director of the school and the school board before the start of the study.
Participants for Data Collection
The community is well known to the researcher and the researcher is known within the community, so there will be an element of trust and comfort. Gaining access to a research site can be a challenging task and depends on the researcher's imagination and interpersonal and decision-making skills.
Role of the Researcher
Bogdan and Taylor (2001) emphasize that the researcher must clarify his or her processes and their importance to the participants. The researcher collects the data and analyzes the data. It is therefore possible that he or she has an effect on the data collected that affects its validity (Bogdan and Taylor, 2001).
Methods for data collection
Phase 1: Pilot Study
However, Berg (2007) argues that although the researcher must enter the world of the participants to gain trust and confidence, he or she must also remain aware of what the participant is saying or doing. To avoid this challenge in the main study, the researcher allocated more time for the data collected, thus giving the parents enough time for those who experienced time constraints.
Phase2: Interviews
The questions in the pilot survey differ from some of the participant's native languages. Data obtained in the focus group discussion can be used as supplementary data for the interviews.
Phase 3: Document Analysis
Limitations that need to be considered
Data analysis
According to De Vos & Fouche (2005), planning ahead with color-coded notes to track dates, names, titles, event participation, chronologies, descriptions of institutions, sociograms, etc., is invaluable for piecing together patterns, defining categories for data analysis, planning further data collection and for writing the final report. Data should be organized by keywords, themes, etc. during the collection process so that analysis can be performed.
Ethics in qualitative research
Consent was obtained from the respondents and from the administrator of the site used. The participants were informed about the results of the project and the purpose of the results.
Validity and Reliability
Validity and Reliability in Data
In this study, the researcher ensured that the participants were always fully aware of the information related to the research so that they were comfortable and had sufficient knowledge about the research project. Validity refers to how closely the data represent the participants' actual participatory experience.
Validity and Reliability in interviews
According to Bogdan and Bilken (2006, p.88), reliability in qualitative research is seen as the fit between what was recorded as data and what actually happened in the setting studied. Cohen et al (2000) describe reliability in qualitative methods as fidelity to real life, context and situation, authenticity, completeness, honesty in detail, depth of response and meaningfulness to respondents.
Conclusion
Introduction
Personal Documents
The matters discussed were the income and expenditure of the school, the maintenance and school fees. It was an important meeting because it was the opening of the learner's career path.
Interview with learners
- Theme 1: Parents visiting the school
- Theme 2: Parents involvement at Home
- Theme 3- Kinds of involvement
- Comments on Learner Interviews
In general, most students welcomed their parents who visited the school and knew exactly how the school was run and what they were doing in the classroom. Students were asked to express ways in which they felt their parents could be involved in the school.
Parent Interviews
- Theme 1- Parent Participation in School
- Theme 2 – Parental involvement at home
- Theme 3: Barriers to Involvement
- Theme 4: Benefits to involvement
- Comments on Parent Interviews
I was once called to school because my child was causing serious discipline problems at school. Interviews with parents showed that parents need to be aware of school policies in order to stay in touch with their children's school work.
Teacher Interviews
- Theme 1: Partnership
- Theme 2: Role of Parent
- Theme 3: Barriers to involvement
- Theme 4: Encouraging Parents to be involved in School
- Comments on Teacher Interviews
The teachers felt that parents should visit the school regularly to understand their child better. Teacher interviews showed that parents sometimes do not know how they can help their children with school work and what they can do to be more involved in school.
Discussion of findings
- Finding 1: The Extent of Parent Participation
- Finding 2: Parent Teacher Relationship
- Findings 3: Communication between Parent and Teachers
- Finding 4: Benefits to Parental Involvement
- Finding 5: Barriers to Parent Involvement
- Finding 6: Encouraging Parental Involvement
Parents were unaware of what they could do to become more involved in school. Teacher interviews showed that when parents are involved, they receive greater support for the implementation of school rules (cf. 2.3.2).
Conclusion
Introduction
Recommendation
- Collaboration, Co-operation and communication
- Training Programs
- Creating a resource room
- Effective Governing Body
- Responsibility of Schools to Increase Involvement
- Responsibility of Department of Education to Increase Involvement
Parents must be able to trust the teachers to such an extent that they will feel attracted to the school. Teacher training programs must include a module on training teachers so that it can include dealing with parents in the school setting.
Limitations of the Study
Schools need to support parents who are already involved in their children's learning and reach out to parents who are less involved. Schools should be flexible in working with parents regarding the time and location of the meeting.
Recommendations for further studies
Conclusion
If you agree for your child/ward to be part of the research, please complete and return the consent form below. If you agree to participate in the research, please complete and return the consent form below.
Her guidance, support, dedication and encouragement were needed at all times to complete this work. My parents and in-laws for their support and encouragement to complete this study.
