14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper
Bringing Out-Of-School Children Back to the Education System through Parents’ Involvement
Salpa Shrestha, Megh Raj Dangal
Kathmandu University, Nepal
Presenting Author: Shrestha, Salpa
The importance of parental involvement in education is becoming increasingly recognized in education policies at both the local and global levels. Linkages between parental involvement and academic achievement (Mapp, 2013) have been well articulated in education literature. Parents' values regarding the importance of schooling affect the school attendance of their children (Irwin, et al., 1978) whereas their partnership with the school has been proven to be effective in order to reduce chronic absenteeism (Sheldon & Epstein, 2004). Parents can hold the schools accountable for their child’s learning by putting pressure on schools and influencing schools and policies informally and formally (OECD, 2021). This puts parents in a pivotal role in improving both the school and home learning environment. This study explores how these parents if brought together in a common forum could also influence the educational landscape of their community.
Community schools in Nepal are the largest provider of Basic education with 76 percent of schools in Nepal as community schools (GoN, 2021). The National Education Policy, 2076, links good governance of Community schools to active participation and representation of community members in school management (GoN, 2020). It indicates a policy-level improvement in the effective participation of community members in the School Management Committee (SMC) and meaningful participation in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). The newly amended Education sector plan 2021 – 2030 postulates ‘maintaining the attraction and trust of parents towards community school’ as one of the main challenges of the educator sector in Nepal (GoN, 2021). However, Community schools in Nepal are considered to be government entities although education acts and policies devolve the responsibility to the community itself. The reluctance of community schools to involve the parents in the decision-making process (CERID, 2009) and parents oblivious about their roles and responsibilities has widened the gap between the two. The existing deficit discourse has negatively affected the students in terms of their academic achievement, school regularity, and school enrollment. (Pherali, 2021). One of the strategies to overcome this challenge is to increase parents’ involvement and engagement in education through regular dialogues.
This study focuses on children aged 6 to 14 years, officially at the age of attending the Basic Education system (Grades 1-8) of Nepal but is Out of school. These students are either not enrolled in school, are school dropouts, or chronic absentees (absent for more than 1 month in a row). The study brings parents of these students together forming Action groups. The groups are then sensitized about the value of education, involved in the process of regular Conscientization (Freire, 1970), and encouraged to be more engaged with other parents in the community and community schools.
Through participatory action research (Bennet, 2004, Bergold & Thomas, 2012; Heyman, 2011), narrative inquiry (Clandinin, 2006), and secondary data analysis, the research objective is to develop a systematic approach to parent engagement that would serve as a prototype that is replicable in a similar context.
The research questions include,
- How do the parents understand, value, and use the out-of-school data to formulate effective action plans, implement the action plans and reflect on them leading to further action?
- How will the values, beliefs, and behaviors of participants regarding the education of their children change as a result of participating in the study?
- How does the meaningful engagement of parents in the action groups improve the education status of out-of-school children in the community?
The study includes the development, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of the impact of this participatory approach.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedParticipatory action research can be regarded as a methodology that argues in favor of the possibility, significance, and usefulness of involving research partners in the knowledge-production process (Bergold, 2007 as cited in Bergold & Thomas, 2012). The participatory worldview is articulated using subjective-objective ontology (Heron & Reason, 1997) and epistemology of experiential, presentational, propositional, and practical ways of knowing (Lincoln, Lynham, & Guba, 2013). The methodology is characterized by collaboration between parents of out-of-school children and academic participants at each stage of the research, mutual learning, and resulting social as well as personal action. The axiology asserts the importance of practical knowledge for a Just society.
This paper uses narrative inquiry as a complementary research methodology to present the “lived experience” (Clandinin, 2006) of the participants during the course of the research. A three-dimensional space comprising of personal and social (interaction), present and future (continuity), and place (situation) are used in the study where the researcher inquires into participants’ experiences, their own experiences as well as the co-constructed experiences developed through the relational inquiry process (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000 as cited in Clandinin, 2006). Participants' experience with the action research and its impact on their belief system is explored. Photographs, field notes, conversations & interview transcripts are recorded from the field in response to research questions 1 and 2.
Research question 3 requires a holistic understanding of the impact of systematic parent engagement on parents’ out-of-school children (OOSC), so, an analysis of secondary school data is also included along with the qualitative inquiry. The data comprises School attendance data reflecting the six months before and after the program (i.e. patterns of attendance, enrolment, dropout, and general student demographics over the time of the study). Both secondary quantitative data and qualitative information is used to supplement each other and also for triangulation purposes where relevant.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThrough regular meetings and reflection, the parents are able to develop action plans directed towards -the improvement of home learning environment and negotiation with the community school for quality education. Regular dialogue on employment opportunities increased the educational aspiration of parents for their children. The evaluation result shows a positive impact on student attendance and dropout rates. The action group members have a cordial relationship with the parents of OOSC in the community through regular home visits and interactions. Community members have formed a system to identify out-of-school children in the community; the list of which is provided to the school during the annual door-to-door enrollment campaigning activities. The school focuses on identified families during the campaigning and takes the support of the action group for counseling. However, there were also some challenges.
Few of the participants participated in the action research with the motive of penalizing the schools for their autocracy. It took a considerable amount of time for the action group to expand their focus from their own children to other out-of-school children in their community. Some school management did not permit the visits of action groups in the schools and acted with resistance. Due to the heavy political influence, the local education department halted the formation of SMC and PTA in community schools. Despite this, the parents are hopeful that they will be able the transform the current status of basic education in their community through continuous dialogues aided by the process of Conscientization. The systematic engagement of parents in action groups provided a hopeful, potentially transformative approach to reducing the number of out-of-school children in the community. However, enabling policies/ practices to place parents and their voices in schools is required to realize this potential.
ReferencesBennet, M. (2004). A review of the literature on the benefits and drawbacks of participatory action research.
First Peoples Child & Family Review, 1(1), 19-32. https://doi.org/10.7202/1069582ar
Bergold, J., & Thomas, S. (2012). Participatory Research Methods: A Methodological Approach in
Motion. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13(1).
https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-13.1.1801
Clandinin, D. J. (2006). Narrative inquiry: A methodology for studying lived experience. Research studies
in music education, 27(1), 44-54. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X060270010301
Freire, P. (1970). Cultural action and conscientization. Harvard Educational Review, 40(3), 452-477.
https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.40.3.h76250x720j43175
Government of Nepal. MoEST (2020). National Education Policy 2076. Kathmandu: Government of
Nepal, MoEST.
Government of Nepal, MoEST. (2021). Education Sector Plan, 2021-2030. Kathmandu: Government of
Nepal, MoEST.
Government of Nepal, MoEST. (2021). Flash I Report 2077 (2020-021). Kathmandu: Government of
Nepal, MoEST.
Heyman, A. (2011). An exploration of factors which may influence how teachers perceive participatory
action research tools being employed in schools. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 14(5), 369-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2011.554226
Heron, J., & Reason, P. (1997). A participatory inquiry paradigm. Qualitative inquiry, 3(3), 274-294.
https://doi.org/10.1177/107780049700300302
Irwin, M., Engle, P. L., Yarbrough, C., Klein, R. E., & Townsend, J. (1978). The relationship of prior ability
and family characteristics to school attendance and school achievement in rural Guatemala. Child
Development, 415-427. https://doi.org/10.2307/1128706
Lincoln, Y.S., Lynham, S.A., & Guba, E.G. (2013). Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions and
Emerging Confluences, Revisited. In Denzin, N.K., & Lincoln. Y. S. (Eds.), The Landscape of
Qualitative Research (4th ed., pp. 199-267). SAGE publications.
Mapp, K. (2013). Partners in education: A dual capacity-building framework for family-school
partnerships. Washington, DC: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
Retrieved December 20, 2022, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED593896.pdf
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2021). Parent involvement. Education GPS.
Retrieved December 20, 2022, from
https://gpseducation.oecd.org /revieweducationpolicies /#!node=41727&filter=all
Pherali, T. (2021). The World Bank, Community Schooling, and School-based Management: A Political
Economy of Educational Decentralization in Nepal. In L. Parajuli, D. Uprety & P. Onta (Eds.),
School Education in Nepal (pp. 241-262). Kathmandu: Martin Chautari.
Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development [CERID]. (2009). Community managed school: An innovative approach to school management (Study Report 33): Tribhuvan University
Secretariat, C. A., & Durbar, S. (2015). Constitution of Nepal 2015. Kathmandu: Constituent Assembly
Secretariat. Retrieved December 29, 2022, from
https://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Constitution%20of%20Nepal%202015.pdf
Sheldon, S. B., & Epstein, J. L. (2004). Getting students to school: Using family and community
involvement to reduce chronic absenteeism. The School Community Journal, 14, 39–56. Retrieved
December 17, 2022, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ794822.pdf
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper
Unified Educational Centre as Public Policy: Considerations on Space and Schools-communities Relationships in the Periphery of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Elizabeth dos Santos Braga
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Presenting Author: dos Santos Braga, Elizabeth
The Unified Educational Centres (CEUs) in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, have been an important intersectorial public policy with continuity throughout different administrations since its inauguration in 2003 that aims the promotion of public spaces in the periphery, reducing criminality and social exclusion. According to several studies about the effects of the implementation of CEUs, they take an important part in the rearrangement of the urban fabric.
Our collective action research is held at one of the 46 CEUs of São Paulo, CEU Uirapuru, in order to analyse the production of this space, its surroundings and its architecture, as well as the modes of interaction with local communities. The interdisciplinary and collaborative research, in an attempt of dialogue between areas of pedagogy, psychology, architecture, geography and environmental education, focuses on the following aspects: space, architecture and school organization; forms of appropriation and signification by the communities - uses and memories. Our work is divided into three subgroups: Memory and Education; Architecture; and Environmental Education. With this investigation and intervention, we intend to promote more inclusive school and cultural practices, to foster the culture of participation and citizenship and to contribute to increasing quality education, considering the importance of the defense of this policy at the present moment, when serious threats to its public and intersectorial character have been occurring.
In our analysis of CEU Uirapuru, we try to bring to discussion the importance of concepts such as space, place and territory, as well as appropriation, culture and history. We consider the analysis of authors such as Escolano (2001), about the importance of considering the location and disposition of schools in the urban plot of the cities, as an element of the curriculum, in taking into account the problems we have to face in Brazilian schools. According to Faria (2012), the conception of education that underlies their architecture has not managed to enter the 21st century and the classroom is still seen as the central place of knowledge production. But we would mainly mention the poor quality of buildings of public schools, from the 1960s on, when there were growing in school demand, showing the little importance given to education for popular classes (Lima, 1994). From the 1980s, a new conception in terms of school environment emerged and many proposals for renewal were made in some Brazilian states, according to Braga (2008). In attempts such as CEUs, we consider the importance of architectural complex as a place of social, cultural and symbolic dimension, as well as the importance of the social relationships established there in the constitution of the subjects. To do so, the study is based on the concepts of mediation (Vygotsky, 1995) and appropriation (Wertsch, 1994; Smolka, 2000) as well as on ideas developed by Daniels et al. (2015) about of the architectural design and its appropriation by the school staff for the students' learning. Haesbaert (2011), in dialogue with Lefebvre (2006), states that every identity is spatial, due to the fact that it is not performed in an abstract way, but contextualized in space-time, geographically, historically and symbolically perceived / lived. In this sense, the research deals with memories of the agents of CEU, and how they compose the daily life and the relationships with the space and of the subjects among themselves, based on authors such as Halbwachs (1990), Pollak (1992), Bosi (1994), among others.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe research has been carried out according to a qualitative, collaborative, action-research approach. To this end, a study of the environment is being conducted, with attention to the microprocesses involved in social and individual actions (Marques, 2016), to meanings that subjects attribute to spaces and to experiences in them, trying to make a "dense description" (Geertz, 1978) and document the undocumented in their history (Ezpeleta and Rockwell, 1986), such as conflicts and meanings produced and not necessarily explicit in everyday relations. This process will take the form of "action research", with the emancipation of the subjects involved, the development of critical-reflexive procedures on reality and collective re-signification of the groups' understandings (Franco, 2005). Moreover, in a collaborative approach, the subject in the researched environment comes to be seen as a partner for the research, as a participant in the research process (Ibiapina, 2008).
To this extent, special attention is given to the stories and other types of documents capable of reporting on the interactions between numerous agents, from their everyday uses to those related to the insertion of the equipment in dimensions or situations that go beyond the scale of the neighbourhood. The aim is to offer social and historical visibility to public policy agents who are generally neglected in the documents that support the policies. By doing so, it becomes possible to recognize the series of actions and representations that contribute to the configuration and materialization of public policies that, although they are not usually transformed into statistical data, they are central to the effectiveness and success of actions of this nature. Mapping these actions becomes, therefore, a fundamental strategy for investigating the impact of CEU in people's lives in the communities. The subjective, affective and material marks will allow us to conclude about the constitution (or not) of this space as a place for the subjects that relate to it.
Through procedures such as participant observation and semi-structured interviews, locus for the emergence of narratives of life and experience (Bertaux, 2010) will be created, such as discussion circles with the community; in addition to walks through the neighborhood, guided by the residents, accompanied by field recording.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsAs this is an ongoing research, what we could observe and at the same time collaborate in, so far, are initiatives such as: projects carried out by the school community itself, related to sustainability, such the planting of several species of trees; functioning of collegiate and management council formed by residents and local leaders, in addition to representatives of the school community; cultural initiatives involving music, theatre, reading; sports and healthy practices for students and communities; pedagogical work aiming at a greater participation of families in the school and the growth of the feeling of belonging to CEU, to the schools and to the communities themselves; activities in the schools and in the library around the themes of inclusion, afro and indigenous culture. Even in the year 2023, the special action plans of the schools will focus on ethnic-racial issues and we intend to hold several cultural workshops involving professionals from the university, local communities and CEU itself, so that practices and conceptions towards greater diversity and inclusion can be discussed and rethought.
Our observation, interviews, training activities with the teachers will be in the sense of building together with the agents of this space possibilities of its renovation and expansion of affective, educational and citizen use. The patron of Brazilian education, Paulo Freire (1996), brings, in his conception of socio-cultural and critical-humanizing education, elements to understand how the subject as a historical being that, from social relations, can interact with the world and with other human beings, as well as perceiving himself as in constant construction.
We believe that this Brazilian experience can dialogue with European experiences that aim at the increment of policies for childhood and youth in areas of great vulnerability such as the researched territory.
ReferencesBERTAUX, D. Narrativas de vida: a pesquisa e seus métodos. Trad. Z. A. C. Cavalcante; D. M. 2010.
BOSI, E. Memória e sociedade: lembranças de velhos. 3. ed. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1994.
BRAGA, L. Projeto de creches e pré-escolas municipais e o papel do arquiteto no serviço público: estudo de caso em Florianópolis. Dissertação de Mestrado. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Civil, UFSC, 2008.
DANIELS, H. et al. Learning from pupils and teachers. In: CLEGG, P. (org.) Learning from schools. London: Artifice, p. 155-161, 2015.
ESCOLANO, A. Arquitetura como programa, espaço-escola e currículo. In: ESCOLANO, A.; FRAGO, A. V. Currículo, espaço e subjetividade: a arquitetura como programa. 2. ed. Rio de Janeiro: DP&A, 2001.
EZPELETA, J.; ROCKWELL, E. Pesquisa participante. São Paulo: Cortez: Autores Associados, 1986.
FARIA, A. B. G. Por outras referências no diálogo arquitetura e educação: na pesquisa, no ensino e na produção de espaços educativos escolares e urbanos. Em Aberto, v. 25, n. 88, jul./dez., p. 99-111, 2012.
FREIRE, P. Pedagogia da autonomia: saberes necessários à prática educativa. 50. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1996.
GEERTZ, C. A Interpretação das Culturas. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editores, 1978.
HAESBAERT, Rogério. O espaço importa: dilemas da construção identitário-territorial na contemporaneidade, In: BASTOS, Liliana Cabral; LOPES, Luiz Paulo da Moita. (Org.). Estudos de identidade: entre saberes e práticas. Rio de Janeiro: FAPERJ, 2011.
HALBWACHS, M. Memória coletiva. São Paulo: Vértice, 1990.
IBIAPINA, I. M. L. M. Pesquisa colaborativa: investigação, formação e produção de conhecimentos. Brasília: Líber Livro, 2008. KOWALTOWSKI, D. C. C. K. Arquitetura escolar: o projeto do ambiente de ensino. São Paulo: Oficina de Textos, 2011.
LEFEBVRE, H. A produção do espaço. Paris: Éditions Anthropos, 2006.
LIMA, M. W. S. A criança e a percepção do espaço. Cadernos de Pesquisa. São Paulo, n. 31, p. 73-80, 1979.
MARQUES, J. P. A Observação participante na pesquisa de campo em Educação. Educação em Foco, ano 19, n. 28, p. 263-284, 2016.
POLLAK, M. Memória e Identidade Social. Estudos Históricos. Rio de Janeiro, vol. 5, n. 10, p. 200-212, 1992.
SMOLKA, A. L. B. O (im)próprio e o (im)pertinente na apropriação das práticas sociais. Cadernos CEDES. Campinas, n. 50, p. 26-40, 2000. 24
VYGOTSKI, L. S. Obras Escogidas. Tomo III. Madri: Visor, 1995.
WERTSCH, J. V. Vygotsky and the social formation of mind. 5. ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1994.
|
