literature Review on Positive parental engagement with schools
Introduction
The purpose of this literature review is to critically analyze if the positive parental engagement with schools and schooling leads to a positive impact on the outcome of student’s performance at school. Literature has acknowledged the role of parental involvement in impacting the student academic involvement. The report aims at arriving at a consensus on impact of parental engagement and child performance: the determinants, the consequences and the antecedents. Six different articles from literature are examined from this perspective. These articles reviewed are useful in finding out if there is really a co relation between parents involvement and the students performance. The reviewed articles were sourced from the online academic journal data based Education research complete, EBSCO and ProQuest. The search text that was used parents and schooling, parental engagement, parents and homework.
Literature Review
Grolnick and Slowiaczek (1994) in their article “ Parents’ involvement in Children’s Schooling: A multidimensional Conceptualization and Motivational Model” present a multidimensional conceptualization of parental involvement in child’s schooling. Their research identified that the parental involvement in child schooling can be classified into behavior, intellectual/cognitive as well as personal dimensions thereby presenting some of the first evidences required to examine parental involvement from a multi-dimensional perspective. Since schooling plays an important part in shaping the character of a person this article was included. Raty et al., (2009) in “Parents Participation in their Child’s Schooling” presents an empirical survey of the parental participation in their child schooling. It was observed that the parents wanted a say in the choice of school and pedagogical engagement. It was also observed that parents reported positive experience of their parent evenings. It is also observed that the choice of school of was largely dependent on the socio-economic status of the urban parent. According to Raty et al, (2009) in earlier days parents were not involved in the schooling activities and hence to understand the effect of their contribution this article was chosen. In “ Parental Schooling Choice: A Case Study of Minnesota” Kirby and Darling-Hammond (1988) presented some evidences on how parents choose schools in Minnesota. Their studies indicate that high income parents took for high quality public education are more prone to making choices. In contrast low income parents are more likely to consider school alternatives. It was also considered that tax deduction was not effective and that tax subsidy had limited effect on expansion of schooling choice. This article was considered as part of this review to understand other factors which impact choice of schools by parents. Sheppard (2009) in her article “School attendance and attainment: poor attender’s perception of schoolwork and parental involvement in their education” examines the association between parental involvement, student attendance and student education. Their research provided evidences to support the view that parents who were more involved in child education had better attendance. Empirical evidences to support the views of Sheppard have been previously presented in literature. The researchers have identified that improving parental involvement with adolescents helps improve student attendance Sheppard (2009). Since the research has provided information regarding increase in some of the factors which go to improving schooling this article was considered.
Bower et al., (2010) examined the importance of home learning activities in their article “Home learning activities: A Feasible Practice for Increasing Parental Involvement”. Their study clearly identifies that the increase in parental involvement using home learning activities can lead to an improvement in student performance (cognitive and behavioural). This is largely supported by evidences given previously in literature. They indicate that structured home learning activities can help both the parents and children interact in an informal yet informative manner. Parental involvement can provide a different aspect to learning methods of the student through the joint effort and hence this article was considered. Rowe and Savelsbergy (2010) in their article “ How are young people’s experiences of ‘home’ affecting their engagement with schooling and community?” discussed the role of housing tenure in impacting the developmental pathway of young people and thereby their schooling. One of the main advantages of this research is the acknowledgement of the fact that despite wide range of literature on SES difference most policies are based the assumption that all young people have relatively uniform and stable social circumstances Bower et al., (2010). Since it is the duty of a parent to provide the proper atmosphere and circumstances and support to children in their education, this articles provides another aspect of parental involvement contributing to better schooling
Grolnick and Slowiaczek (1994) have presented an effective comparison of multi dimensionalisation of child schooling. It was observed that they have included some demographic risk factors and identified that apart from parental behavior and intellect the socio economic factors should be looked upon as factors impacting the child motivation. In addition, the current study support the view that parental cognition and their personal factors like education, experience and socio economic status concurrently impact student academic self-efficacy and engagement Bower et al., (2010). However, it is to be acknowledged that certain drawbacks of the study were addressed effectively in future research. Some of them are discussed below. The current study does not establish causality. In addition, they do not present a link between other factors of student performance like attendance with the parent behavior and attitude.
These views of Raty et al., (2009) was to disprove the views of previous researchers who identified limited contribution parent evenings to parental interest. It is to be acknowledged that there have been authors who se research has disproved the empirical evidences of Raty et al. These researchers have indicated that the parents did not challenge the choice of local schools as they trusted the quality of the comprehensive schools in Finland. The differences in opinion can be attributed to the small sample size of Raty’s work. However, the future research by the same author supported the views of the current study by indicating that parental choice was a strong determinant of school choice. The authors in a follow up study on the parental perception of the child school support the views that parents are positive towards parent evenings. Thus it can be concluded that the parent choice of school is a novel determinant in the selection of local schools.
The research by Kirkby and Darling-Hammond (1988) indicate that the choice of primary and secondary school was driven by other factors and not tax deductions. This is critical to the perception of the American education policy which aimed at improve government school education intake by given tax deductions. The main contribution of Sheppard’s (2009) work is to examine how this parental involvement can be improved. Two main implications were made. The research supports the need for part time curriculum for pupils who have difficulties with attendance which can improve the overall school attendance figures Sheppard’s (2009). There is one school of thought that supports the view of the researcher by indicating that ‘at risk’ children can be provided with alternative curriculum that promotes parental involvement. In addition, from the current study it is also observed that interventions by education welfare services should be promoted in order to enable parents set limits at home and help their children with work. Such efforts will also improve student attendance Sheppard’s (2009). The other school of thought further supports this view by identifying that support given to parents can help improve student attendance. Thus it is concluded that the parent involvement in education does have an impact on their attendance.
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It can be found that the Bowers et al., (2010) also indicate the need for parents are caregivers to use resources if importance is given to the role of home learning activities. For example, the researcher indicates the need to increase parental involvement by presenting some action based home learning activities. This would help enhance the involvement of the parents. In conclusion, the authors note that if schools take targeted efforts to improve HLA then the overall educational involvement of the children can be immensely improved. It is determined that this research is largely different from most other research on home learning as the focus in on the learning activity and not the environment. Thus it is critically established that there is a need for a good home learning environment Rowe and Savelsbergy (2010). The research also acknowledges the need to move past the environmental focus and look at home learning activities. In this manner, the current study shows uniqueness as action oriented literature is clearly presented. Thus it is concluded that the parental involvement with their child home learning activities can contribute to their performance.
Rowe and Savelsbergy (2010) presented a unique perspective to parental training. The previous researches in this area though presented an effective policy to improve student academics and the role of parents in education, did not address how the policy would vary across different SES. By adopting different contexts the researcher was able to prove that housing tenure, familial dynamics and support as well as the community relationships impacted the schooling and academic performance. Thus it can be concluded that apart from parental involvement, the type of housing and the community support can also impact child academic performance.
Conclusion
Through this research framework it can be understood that parental involvement in child schooling impacts the child cognition, behavior, academic performance and attendance. In addition, it is also understood that the parental choice is largely driven by the facilities presented by the school with a great deal of focus on school quality. Finally, it is observed that the type of housing and the community support can also impact child academic performance. From all of these factors, one can conclude that parental involvement in schooling largely impacted their schooling performance.
References
Bower A. H., Powers D.P., Graham L.M. (2010). Home Learning Activities: A Feasible Practice for Increasing Parental Involvement. Academic Leadership Journal, 8 (4).
Grolnick, W. S., & Slowiaczek, M. L. (1994). Parents’ involvement in children’s schooling: A multidimensional conceptualization and motivational model. Child development, 65(1), 237-252.
Kirby, S. N., & Darling‐Hammond, L. (1988). Parental schooling choice: A case study of Minnesota. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 7(3), 506-517.
Räty, H., Kasanen, K., & Laine, N. (2009). Parents’ participation in their child’s schooling. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 53(3), 277-293.
Rowe, P., & Savelsberg, H. (2010). How Are Young People’s Experiences of” Home” Affecting Their Engagement with Schooling and Community?. Youth Studies Australia, 29(3), 36-42.
Sheppard, A. (2009). RESEARCH SECTION: School attendance and attainment: poor attenders’ perceptions of schoolwork and parental involvement in their education. British Journal of Special Education, 36(2), 104-111.
