14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper
How Parents Experience the Teacher as a Partner in Collaboration
Teija Koskela
University of Turku, Finland
Presenting Author: Koskela, Teija
To be a teacher in inclusive educational system, means ability to collaborate with diverse families, persons and individuals. This study aims to find out how parents experience teachers as partners in collaboration with school. More specific, this research focuses on parents whose children needs at school support for their learning.
The Educational system in Finland is considered to be relatively inclusive. According to National Core Curriculum the development of school should follow principles of inclusive education (Finnish National Board of Education 2016). The number of special schools is low. In compulsory education, so called basic education, are 547 000 and in special education schools 3500 pupils (Statistic Finland 2022a). At same time the need of support is increasing trend like last 20 years and in year 2021 nearly 23 % of all pupils are having intensified of special support (Statistics Finland 2022b). All support should be planned in good collaboration with parents (Finnish National Board of Education 2016). Trust is respected value in Finnish education (Välimaa 2021).
Usually teacher-parent-relationship is researched from teachers’ point of view. There is less research focusing on parents’ experiences. Inclusive education highlights the role of parents (e.g. Mitchell 2014). When teachers understand communities as sources, it is crucial to develop relationships with parents (Payne & Zeichner 2017). Modelling partnership between home and school the role of democratic, equal position in collaboration, focusing on strengths and social justice and empowerment are important (Bryan & Henry 2012). According to Tveit (2009), collaboration means for parents continuous consideration between active and passive role: school usually wants parents to stay passive in school environment. In case there is need to change school culture, it is important that parents can challenge the decisions of authorities and professionals (Thomas 2013). However, Parents can feel themselves powerless (Hein 2017). If teacher’s position is understood as expert, there is very limited space for parents to express themselves (Kozleski & Waitoller 2010).
The role of trust is important for collaboration in inclusive schools (Lazarová & Pol 2021), and parents do recognize good collaboration, respect trust relation with teachers and understand the value of collaborative teacher (Koskela 2021). However, there are several issues challenging optimal environment for trust building: There are sometimes situations where parents cannot assume that their children's rights are guaranteed and parents have to defend rights of their children (Honkasilta et al. 2015; Koskela 2021). In order to develop schools towards more inclusive settings, it is important to understand, how parents experience and see teacher as a partner in collaboration and find out, how to promote teachers’ possibilities to maintain culture of trust.
The context of this study is Finnish compulsory education, and the frame of support is based on so called the three-tiered model (Björn et al. 2018). Parents were found by their own networks, such as peer support groups and parental organizations. All participants were informed and voluntary. All participants have experience of collaboration with several teachers during the schoolyears of their child and all of them had one or more children with need of support.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn this qualitative research the analyze aims to capture, modify and draw the typology of “teacherhood” as a way to be a teacher, experienced by parents and described as narratives. The data consist of 11 thematical interviews transcribed verbatim. The phenomenographic (Marton & Booth 1997) approach aims to find the qualitatively diverse ways to comprehended the teacher as a partner in negotiation referring perceptions of parents. As well, narrative and discursive approaches were used in analysis in order to use metaphors and descriptions of negotations. The unit of analysis was the description of a perception or experience connected especially to teacher, and a metaphor was also understood as such. The aim of the first main phase of analysis was to find dichotomy of flowing and struggling storylines. On the second main phase both main groups were reordered by parents´ descriptions of how teachers expressed encouraging or hindering actions for parents’ participation in collaboration.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe results highlight the role and importance of teachers wide understanding of diversities in school environment, good knowledge in norms, curriculum and legislation concerning children’s rights to have support in education. As well, professional interaction skills were important. Teacher practically defines and makes individually decisions on how the collaboration is going to happen. Parents had to negotiate, not only about support of their children, but as well, about the content and mode of collaboration. Parents recognized qualitative differences between teachers’ manners. If the teachers did not express their willingness to learn new things and use information given by parents, they had no possibilities to affect the way how teacher is working. The parents were dependent on the teacher's chosen course of action and, in that sense, teacher used quite a lot of power in collaborative processes. All parents had experience of both good flow and struggeling relationships in collaboration.
The relatively rough typology of teacher narratives rests on two axes with negative and positive dimensions: shared understanding of child as a pupil and willingness to collaborate with parents. In this framework, four different ways of experiencing the teacher as a partner were named: a trusted collaborator, a well-intentioned decision-maker, a nagging persuader and unattainable opponent. The perception concerning teachers way to work did not change in this data. The only place to change the tune of narrative in collaboration was situation, were there was a new teacher.
It is important to emphasize the collaboration an important tool for teachers in inclusive education. Equity in collaboration with parents is one of key resources in future school environment.
ReferencesBjörn, P.M., Aro, M., Koponen, T.K., Fuchs, L.S. & Fuchs, D.H. (2016). The Many Faces of special education within RTI frameworks in the United States and Finland. Learning Disability Quarterly 39(1), 58-66.
Bryan, J. & Henry, L. (2012). A Model for Building School–Family–Community Partnerships: Principles and Process. Journal of Counseling & Development 90 (4), 408-420.
Finnish National Board of Education (2016). National core curriculum for basic education 2014. Publications 2016:5.
Hein, N. (2017). New perspectives on the positioning of parents in children’s bullying at school. British Journal of Sociology of Education 38, 1125–1138.
Honkasilta, J., Vehkakoski, T., and Vehmas, S. (2015). Power struggle, submission and partnership: agency constructions of mothers of children with ADHD diagnosis in their narrated school involvement. Scandinavian Journal of Educational research 59, 674–690.
Koskela, T., Pihlainen, K., Piispa-Hakala, S., Vornanen, R. & Hämäläinen, J. (2020). Parents’ Views on Family Resiliency in Sustainable Remote Schooling during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Finland. Sustainability, 12(21), 8844.
Koskela, T. (2021). Promoting children’s well-being at school: Parental agency in the context of negotiating for support. Frontiers in Education, 6, 652355.
Kozleski, E., and Waitoller, F. (2010). Teacher learning for inclusive education: understanding teaching as a cultural and political practice. International Journal of Inclusive Education 14, 655–666.
Lazarová, B. & Pol. M. (2021). Issues of Trust in the Implementation of Inclusion in Czech Schools. European Education 53 (3–4), 231–245.
Marton, F. & Booth, S. (1997). Learning and awareness. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Mitchell, D. (2014). What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education. Using Evidence Based Teaching Strategies. London: Routledge.
Payne, K. & Zeichner, K. (2017). Multiple Voices and Participants in Teacher Education. In D. J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. SAGE: London. pp.1101–1116.
Statistics Finland (2022a) Number of comprehensive schools decreased further. https://www.tilastokeskus.fi/til/kjarj/2021/kjarj_2021_2022-02-18_tie_001_en.html
Statistics Finland (2022b) Intensified or special support was received by 23 per cent of comprehensive school pupils in 2021 https://stat.fi/en/publication/cktyiw7xc2e8w0c586gqxm122
Thomas, G. (2013). A review of thinking and research about inclusive education policy, with suggestions for a new kind of inclusive thinking. British Educational Research Journal 39, 473–490.
Tveit, A. D. (2009). A parental voice: parents as equal and dependent – rhetoric about parents, teachers, and their conversations. 61, 289–300.
Välimaa, J. (2021) Trust in Finnish Education: A Historical Perspective. European Education, 53(3-4), 168-180.
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper
Black Parent Engagement: Black Mothers as Community Educators
Karla Thomas
Nortwestern University, United States of America
Presenting Author: Thomas, Karla
Researchers have repeatedly found parent engagement essential to students' academic success (Fan & Chen, 2001; Jeynes, 2010; Wilder, 2014). However, most research on this topic fails to acknowledge underlying systemic issues that prevent marginalized families from participating in traditional parent engagement efforts and ignores the work they do in resistance to unjust social pressures (Latunde & Clark-Louque, 2016; Koonce & Harper, 2005; Zaidi et al., 2021). Traditionally, parent engagement has been viewed, modeled, and measured using white-centric, narrow definitions (Ishimaru et al., 2018). Further, these models have been weaponized in school policies against families of color (Harry et al., 1999; Lareau & MacNamara Horvat, 1999; Olivos, 2006).
This study focuses on Black mothers' performances of parent engagement and illuminates the invisible and undervalued labor that traditional parent engagement models have failed to capture. It illuminates the work of a sample of middle- to higher-income Black mothers in service of their children's education as an outward performance of their endarkened feminist epistemology (EFE) (Dillard, 2006). Their labors demonstrate a radical and ongoing commitment fueled by an ethos of emancipatory learning and teaching emanating from the historical realities of Black education in the United States.
With a desire-centered lens (Tuck, 2009), this study aims to widen scholarly notions of parent engagement by acknowledging the systemically unjust realities that Black parents face when interacting with educational institutions to illustrate more fully the extent of their labors in service of their children's education. Desire-centered research strives to understand the complexities, contradictions, and self-determination of lived lives. This approach does not ignore the effect of oppression but also highlights the ingenuity and agency enacted by Black parents. While the sample in this study is US based, we recognized that this issue is a global problem for racial minorities that has been problematized in New Zealand (Smith, 2003), South Africa (Ebrahim & Waniganayake, 2019), the United Kingdom (Crozier, 2001; Ward, 2020) and Canada (Butler, 2021; Sylvestre, 2018).
The following research questions guide the study: 1) How do Black mothers conceptualize their support for their children in school in light of ever-present racialized harm? 2) What added burden, if any, do racial tensions present for Black parents in their interactions with school staff and the parenting community, and how do they navigate these situations?
In full recognition of the systemic racism and sexism faced by Black mothers in educational settings, this study leaned into the concept of motherwork by lifting up the narratives of Black mothers to better illuminate the ethos of Black parent engagement. Patricia Hill Collins (1994, 2000) theorized motherwork for Black women as the enactment of unpaid, hidden labor that promotes collective self-definition and self-reliance and benefits the survival of those beyond the members of one's own family. Motherwork manifests as labor interwoven with political acts that resist the multiple forms of oppression faced by the Black collective. These often-invisible endeavors are dynamic and dialectical and defy social structures while navigating an oppressive hierarchical order. Collins first coined the term motherwork in direct resistance to the white supremacist cultural myth of the problematic Black woman - evidenced by tropes such as the welfare queen and domineering matriarchs (Collins, 2000). Intentionally and in this same vein, this study utilizes the theoretical lens of motherwork in resistance to narratives of Black mothers not valuing education and the perpetuation of the white-centered delineations of parent involvement. A lens of motherwork facilitates a critical approach, recognizing the racially harmful environment and systemic realities within which Black mothers operate in school environments hence giving context for the additional labor required to support their children's educational futures.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedA critical inquiry methodology was chosen as it requires the researcher to grapple with the power dynamics within the social and cultural context in their approach and analysis, which often challenges prevailing understandings of a given social phenomenon (Kincheloe & McLaren, 1994; 2011).
Critical inquiry methodology is a branch of interpretivism epistemology through which data is analyzed by reflective reconstruction of narratives embedded in data (Denzin, 2017; Kincheloe & McLaren, 2011). Taking this approach allows this study to uncover how Black women conceptualize their own parent engagement around school issues instead of letting the definitions of researchers or educational institutions dictate if these women's actions meet the criteria of parent engagement.
A qualitative approach provided the most robust opportunity to adequately honor the complexity of the racialized experiences of these Black mothers while still allowing for the congruences and divergences of their narratives to be captured.
The study draws on data from 20 in-depth interviews of middle-higher-income, primarily suburban Black mothers analyzed through the Black feminist theoretical lens of motherwork. Using purposeful sampling allowed for a targeted focus on the population of interest and the gendered and racialized phenomena that plague them. These mothers were recruited through digital flyers on parenting and school-related groups on social media and by contacting mothers featured in news media on race-related issues in their school district.
Recruitment criteria included location (states or communities that had approved or were in the process of debating anti-CRT laws or school board rulings), race (self-identified as Black), gender (self-identified women), and parenting status (parent of K-12 children). In addition, recruitment flyers asked that participants have some working understanding of anti-CRT or anti-Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) related battles that were playing out in their local community.
The coding process used was rooted in a practice of African storytelling. First, the interview data were synthesized using thematic and functional analysis of the text and context of the narratives shared by these mother storytellers (Banks-Wallace, 2002). The initial themes were 1) invisible/hidden work, 2) work in response to systemic issues/racism, 3) counter-narratives, and 4) work undertaken for communal good. The data were then further explicitly coded with the research questions in mind.
This study was IRB-approved and abided by the protocols required by Northwestern's Institutional Review Board (IRB) for ethical, social science research.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsInitial findings show a propensity for this sample of Black mothers to act in service of the collective good of marginalized populations rather than in ways that solely benefit their children. More specifically, the study found examples of Black mothers fostering and delivering alternative Black-centric education curriculums for their children, but also educating school staff on both curriculum and the management of racially harmful situations, and educating on issues of race and racism more broadly within the parenting community. These mothers' lived experiences and their own educational journeys within a racialized society make them consistently aware of the hegemonic forces that act upon their families. Their resulting critical race consciousness materialized in their educational efforts that foregrounded the racial, historical, political, and systemic contexts when imparting knowledge to their children, school staff, and the community around them.
Existing research on parental racial socialization, which includes racial and cultural acculturation and preparation for bias (Hughes et al., 2006; Tatum, 1987; Umana-Taylor & Fine, 2004), foreshadowed this study's findings of a pattern of racialized ingenuity and resilience as Black mothers support their children through racially treacherous waters at school. Beyond this expected phenomenon, this study sees evidence of CRS perpetuated beyond the home, perhaps due to the collective ways of knowing and exemplified in Black feminist epistemologies and ontologies (Collins, 1990). Participants described performing acts of education specifically aimed at developing a race-critical lens among school staff and their immediate community so that they, too, can better navigate race-related encounters in the future.
These educational labors included:
1. Helping teachers create more inclusive and dynamic curriculums around issues of race.
2. Tirelessly educating staff about why classroom incidents were racist in their impact and advising what repair should look like.
3. Creating racial equity and anti-racism training events for the parenting community.
ReferencesButler, A. (2021). Low-income Black parents supporting their children’s success through mentoring circles. Canadian Journal of Education, 44(1), CI93-CI117.
Crozier, G. (2001). Excluded Parents: the deracialisation of parental involvement [1]. Race Ethnicity and Education, 4(4), 329-341.
Dillard. (2006). On spiritual strivings: transforming an African American woman’s academic life. State University of New York Press.
Ebrahim, H., & Waniganayake, M. (2019). Honoring family diversity: Challenges of leading pedagogy in multi-ethnic societies: perspectives from South Africa. In Challenging the Intersection of Policy with Pedagogy (pp. 140-154). Routledge.
Fan, X., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students' academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational psychology review, 1-22.
Harry, Kalyanpur, & Day. (1999). Building cultural reciprocity with families: Case studies in special education. Baltimore, MD: Brooks
Collins, P. H. (2000). Gender, black feminism, and black political economy. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 568(1), 41-53.
Ishimaru, A. M., Rajendran, A., Nolan, C. M., & Bang, M. (2018). Community design circles: Co-designing justice and wellbeing in family-community-research partnerships. Journal of Family Diversity in Education, 3(2), 38-63.
Jeynes, W. (2010). Parental involvement and academic success. Routledge.
Koonce, D. A., & Harper, Jr, W. (2005). Engaging African American parents in the schools: A community-based consultation model. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 16(1-2), 55-74.
Lareau, & MacNamara Horvat, E. (1999). Moments of social inclusion and exclusion, race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships. Sociology of Education, 72(1), 37–53.
Latunde, Y., & Clark-Louque, A. (2016). Untapped resources: Black parent engagement that contributes to learning. The Journal of Negro Education, 85(1), 72-81.
Olivos. (2006). The power of parents: A critical perspective of bicultural parent involvement in public schools. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Smith, G. H. (2003). Indigenous struggle for the transformation of education and schooling. Transforming Institutions: Reclaiming Education and Schooling for Indigenous Peoples, (October), 1-14.
Sylvestre, D. F. (2018). Parent Engagement and Schooling: Examining Black Parents' Experiences in the Greater Toronto Area (University of Toronto.
Ward, A. (2020). They are fighting against them, it's a battle: A critical study examining the schooling experience of Black Caribbean boys in English state schools, from the perspectives of their mothers (University of Sheffield).
Wilder, S. (2014). Effects of parental involvement on academic achievement: a meta-synthesis. Educational Review, 66(3), 377-397.
Zaidi, R., Oliver, C., Strong, T., & Alwarraq, H. (2021). Behind Successful Refugee Parental Engagement: The Barriers and Challenges. Canadian Journal of Education, 44(4), 907-937.
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper
Multidimensional Forms of Parental Involvement and its Related Factors in China——Empirical Analysis from China Education Panel Survey
Yanan Zhang1, Mi Wang2
1Renmin University of China, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 2Nanjing Xiaozhuang University, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China
Presenting Author: Wang, Mi
As one of the most important topics in education research, parental involvement in children’s learning has received extensive and lasting attention with a broad international consensus (Jeynes, 2012, 2017). Promoting parental involvement in children’s education is an important cornerstone for improving children’s academic performance (e.g., Hill & Tyson, 2009; Jeynes, 2017), non-cognitive development (e.g., Ho, 2003; Li & Xie, 2017), and behavioral problems (e.g., Aizer, 2004; Nokali et al., 2010). Epstein focused on the central role of children and emphasized the overlapping spheres of influence from home, school, and community on children’s development (Epstein, 2010). Adapting Epstein’s framework of overlapping spheres of influence, Hornby developed a model of factors influencing parental involvement: individual parent and family factors, child factors, parent-teacher factors, and societal factors (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011; Hornby & Blackwell, 2018).
In this study, we aimed to apply the model of factor by Hornby et al. (2011, 2018) and examine the multidimensional forms of parental involvement in China, and to assess to what extent and how child characteristics, family background, and school-related factors are related to the various forms of parental involvement. Specifically, the following questions were investigated in this study: (1) Do child characteristics, family background, and school-related factors have impacts on parental involvement among Chinese middle school students? (2) Could school-related factors play a moderating role in the relationships between child characteristics and family background on parental involvement?
The data is taken from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), and a total of 17,306 students from 112 schools are used. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was applied to investigate the relationships between different aspects of factors with parental involvement since the student-level data was nested in the school-level variables in CEPS dataset.
Results indicate that, first, student characteristics, including gender, grade level, and cognitive ability have significant associations with both home-based and school-based involvement, and Hukou (Household registration in China) shows a significant effect on school-based involvement. Second, family structure including living with both parents and the number of siblings is only significantly related to home-based involvement. Family socioeconomic status (SES) at the student level and school level shows significant effects on the various forms of parental involvement. Finally, school quality, school size, and school invitations for parents not only significantly affect parental involvement, but also reduce the relationship between family SES and parental involvement.
Our evidence implies that schools should take the initiative to invite parents for various kinds of activities, and institutionalize a more open policy for inviting different kinds of parents. In addition, schools should provide parents, especially those of new students, with specific information and training on how to participate in their children’s education at home and in school. As to address the social inequality of parental involvement, monitoring school size and enhancing school quality contribute to not only the improvement of parental involvement, but also, to a certain extent, the reduction of the impact of socio-economic status on parental involvement.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe data used in this study was from The China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), a large-scale, nationally representative, longitudinal survey starting with two cohorts – the 7th and 9th graders in the 2013-2014 academic year conducted by National Survey Research Center (NSRC) at Renmin University of China. The CEPS aims at explaining the linkages between individuals' educational outcomes and multiple contexts of families, school processes, communities and social structure, and further studying the effects of educational outcomes. The CEPS applies a stratified, multistage sampling design with probability proportional to size (PPS), randomly selecting a school-based, nationally representative sample of approximately 20,000 students in 438 classrooms of 112 schools in 28 county-level units in mainland China (see more information from http://ceps.ruc.edu.cn/English/Overview/Overview.htm).
We applied Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to explore whether the different characteristics of students, parents and schools have an impact on different aspects of parental involvement.
The dependent variable in this study was parental involvement. 15 items were used to measure the frequency of parents involves in children’s learning. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) were conducted to explore how to categorize the 15 items about parental involvement in CEPS. Five factors were identified and labelled as home discussion, cultural organized activities, home supervision, social communication, and parent-teacher communication. The former four dimensions were home-based parental involvement, and the latter one was school-based parental involvement.
The independent variables were child characteristics, family background, and school-related factors. Child characteristics includes students’ gender, grade level, cognitive ability, immigration status, and Hukou. Family background consists of family size, weather living with parents, and family SES. In addition, school-level factors include public or private school, school quality, school size, rural or urban school, school-level average SES, the percentage of rural students in the school, and the frequency of school invitations for parents.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsResults indicate that, first, student characteristics, including gender, grade level, and cognitive ability have significant associations with both home-based and school-based involvement, and Hukou (Household registration in China) shows a significant effect on school-based involvement. Second, family structure including living with both parents and the number of siblings is only significantly related to home-based involvement. Family socioeconomic status (SES) at the student level and school level shows significant effects on the various forms of parental involvement. Finally, school quality, school size, and school invitations for parents not only significantly affect parental involvement but also reduce the relationship between family SES and parental involvement.
ReferencesAizer, A. (2004). Home alone: Supervision after school and child behavior. Journal of Public Economics, 88(9), 1835–1848. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2727(03)00022-7
Epstein, J. L. (2010). School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools. United States: Taylor & Francis Group.
Fan, W., Li, N., & Sandoval, J. R. (2018). A reformulated model of barriers to parental involvement in education: Comment on Hornby and Lafaele (2011). Educational Review, 70(1), 120–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2018.1388614
Hill, N. E., & Tyson, D. F. (2009). Parental involvement in middle school: A meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45(3), 740–763. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015362
Ho, E. S. (2003). Students’ self-esteem in an Asian educational system: Contribution of parental involvement and parental investment. School Community Journal, 13(1), 65–84.
Hornby, G., & Lafaele, R. (2011). Barriers to parental involvement in education: An explanatory model. Educational Review, 63(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2010.488049
Hornby, G., & Blackwell, I. (2018). Barriers to parental involvement in education: An update. Educational Review, 70(1), 109–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2018.1388612
Li, X., & Xie, J. (2017). Parenting styles of Chinese families and children’s social-emotional and cognitive developmental outcomes. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 25(4), 637–650. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2017.1331077
Jeynes, W. H. (2017). A meta-analysis: The relationship between parental involvement and Latino student outcomes. Education and Urban Society, 49(1), 4–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124516630596
Jeynes, W. H. (2012). A meta-analysis of the efficacy of different types of parental involvement programs for urban students. Urban Education, 47(4), 706–742. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085912445643
Nokali, N. E. E., Bachman, H. J., & Votruba‐Drzal, E. (2010). Parent Involvement and children’s academic and social development in elementary school. Child Development, 81(3), 988–1005. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01447.x
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Paper
„Won’t be Enough to Invite Parents to School Events” – Characteristics of Parental Involvement in Hungary
Zsófia Kocsis, Dóra Szabó
University of Debrecen, Hungary
Presenting Author: Kocsis, Zsófia;
Szabó, Dóra
There are not many studies providing a specific, widely accepted definition of the term “parental involvement” despite the considerable amount of educational research literature on the subject (Bakker & Denessen, 2007). “What does an engaged parent look like? Is it the parent who reads the school newsletters, makes sure their child has lunch and snow pants every day, and turns up yearly for parent-teacher interviews? Or the one who does all that and also reads every night with their child, supervises homework, and helps to serve pizza lunches occasionally? Or is the parent who sits on school council, knows every teacher by name, wants a say in how daily physical education is implemented and is certain to attend every school event the one who is truly engaged?” (Arnott, 2008:30). Previous research defined parental involvement as the activity of parents in school, while Grolnick & Slowiaczek (1994) define it as “the dedication of resources by the parent to the child”. In defining the concept, Hoover-Dempsey et al. (1992) defined parent efficacy as parents' belief that they are capable of exerting a positive influence on their children's academic performance. Other researchers in turn interpret it as the investment of parents and educators in their children’s education (LaRocque, Kleiman & Darling, 2011). Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler (1997) use the term to refer to parents’ home and school activities that are related to their children’s learning. Epstein (1987) specifies parents’ activities at home as assistance in preparing homework and discussing school life and achievements. She highlights six different types of involvement that have a favorable impact on students’ school careers. According to Sui-Chu and Willms (1996), the term parental involvement should be considered as a multidimensional concept: parent-teacher contact and school participation. Relationships between the parties can be examined at institutional and individual levels. Likewise, they distinguish between two aspects of parental involvement at home: talking about learning and what happens at school, and supervising the child at home. Today it is generally known that digital tools suitable for enriching education can both benefit and hinder the teaching-learning process. Digital education raises many questions and is the subject of constant debate, to which the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed greatly. The main focus of professional discussion, however, has been on the challenges and practices of digital education at schools. Ideally, parents and educators can work together to overcome the difficulties they face, but the rapid development of technology and children’s intuitive approach to digital devices can make it very difficult for both sides to participate effectively in children’s digital education. The literature defines digital parenting as the practice of parental efforts to understand, support, and control children’s activity in the digital space (Benedetto & Ingarissa, 2021). For international comparison, recent data are provided by the PISA 2018 study. According to the school leaders surveyed, 41% of parents of students in OECD countries discussed their children’s development with teachers on their initiative and 57% on the teachers’ initiative. Only 17% of parents were involved in local school councils and 12% volunteered for physical or extra-curricular activities (e.g. building maintenance, and going on field trips) (OECD, 2019).
Most of the articles analyzed present US research published in overseas journals. Our study fills a gap, as parental volunteering is not widely discussed in European research. In Hungary, the intensity of parent-teacher cooperation lags behind expectations in comparison to international data, while the effect of family background is particularly strong, which determines the content and quality of parenting activities at home, parental aspirations, and also the school performance of students. The research team aims to develop the activities of teachers that strengthen parental competencies and commitment to education.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe research on which this paper is based was implemented by the MTA-DE-Parent-Teacher Cooperation Research Group with support provided by the Research Programme for Public Education Development of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The Research Group aims to study parental involvement among Hungarian parents. The main question of our study was what are the characteristics of parental involvement in the examined sample? We hypothesize that parental involvement is most intense among students attending elementary school, while it is less intense in vocational schools that not giving a high school diploma.
The current data collection is titled "The Relationship between Family and School from the Parents' Perspective." The research took place in the autumn of 2022, and the data collection was carried out using a paper-based questionnaire method, accompanied by a voice recording, queried by an interviewer. The database was created in 2023 (N=295) with anonymous and voluntary questionnaires. The subjects are the parents: the person who is primarily involved in the upbringing of the child and who has the most information on matters related to the child. This will most often mean the mother or the father. In the absence of a biological parent, a foster parent or guardian can be appointed. We surveyed parents whose children attend one of the following levels of education: upper elementary school, vocational secondary level (providing a high school diploma), vocational schools (not giving a high school diploma), general high school (gymnasium), from all maintenance sectors. The field of the research: Hajdú-Bihar, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok in Hungary. The data for secondary analysis were processed using SPSS 22.0.
The questionnaire consists of five major sets of questions, namely on characteristics of students, demographics, school-family-community partnerships, and parents’ home and school activities (digital parenting and parental volunteering). Each thematic unit contains detailed questions related to parental engagement. For example, have you participated in any of the following school-related activities? Participated in local school government, e.g. parent council or school management committee. Volunteered in physical or extracurricular activities (e.g. building maintenance, carpentry, gardening or yard work, school play, sports, and field trips).
The first limitation of our research is the sample, this is a non-representative sampling, thus the results cannot be generalized, and no clear conclusions can be drawn about parental involvement in Hungary. Our research is significant because data fills gaps collected about a less frequently addressed actor in Hungary.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsA significant relationship was found between school maintenance and some forms of parental involvement. Parents whose children attended a church-run school were more likely to talk about spiritual issues, more likely to read together, and more likely to be involved in the school. The differences between school types were more pronounced Parents whose children attend the upper grades of elementary school more often organize a joint program with their child almost every day. While parents of students attending vocational high school organize a joint program with their child once a month. From the point of view of parental involvement in school, workplace reasons and incompatible schedules seem to be the biggest obstacle. The labor market status of parents has a decisive influence on the extent and form of their involvement. Parental involvement is less intense in vocational schools. In these institutions, one of the barriers to parental involvement is that parents feel uncomfortable in the school. Obstacles are mostly related to family, including practical difficulties (work reasons, commuting), as well as cultural difficulties (values, expectations, obstacles due to cultural differences). We did not examine the obstacles related to institutions, such as teachers' skills and time or the lack of school leadership. We confirmed the fact that parental attitudes and behavior have a strong impact on children’s use of digital devices, which supports the idea that, compared to setting direct rules, parents’ digital habits have much greater educational power, as children primarily adopt their parents’ habits. Our results showed that parental involvement in digital education is still in its infancy.
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