Parent_Involvement_in_Schools

Literature Review: Parental Involvement in Schools Parental involvement in schools has been an intense issue since many years. The results of this effort have been heavily addressed in educational research. According to research, high parental involvement is greatly beneficial to children as it leads to higher grades and standardized test scores, improved behaviour at home and school, and better social skills and adaptation to school. Parents may feel a sense of guilt when not being involved in their child’s school or may not be sure on how involved they should be. Whatever the situation, the first step in helping one’s child would be to provide a rich learning environment in the home. From there involvement could take place through communication with a teacher and school, discussion of school activities with the child, and monitoring of out of school activities. But who are the parents not becoming involved and why are they not involved' And how does involvement affect those parents who have a child with a disability' Studies have been conducted to find answers to these questions, which will be addressed within this paper. A common misconception of parents who are not involved in the school is due to their lack of care; however, communication is usually the barrier between parent and school (King & Goodwin, 2002). Jean Conteh and Yasuko Kawashima (2008) discuss family involvement in schools when culture, language, and identity become the issue. Conteh & Kawashima believe that parents with limited English skills are frequently viewed as “hard to reach”; since they are mainly insecure and feel they do not have anything beneficial to offer to the child. However, schools are also blamed for this insecurity as they tend to have a narrow point of view of parents with limited language skills. Educators tend to disregard the ways in which they can help parents support the child’s learning at home to make positive changes in the school. To begin, educators must be more informed about the experiences with bilingual learners—how they could be aided without the English literacy. This is very important to instil since it constructs effective links with the parents. Conteh & Kawashima (2008) describe the importance of emerging literacy in the home. The researchers describe their work with Chinese parents who read dual-language texts with their children. This not only promotes literacy but also creates active parents in education. The article also suggests have different versions of one story being read in many languages by parents in the classroom (Conteh & Kawashima, 2008). This allows the class to become open to how language works in different ways, what multiculturalism is, and creates a comfortable atmosphere for parents. The article addresses how bilingualism in the school was once frowned upon as the article speaks of Rehana (a Punjabi-speaking girl) as an example. A lack of parental involvement may be due to the fact we are referring to just the “parent”. In many communities the support for children comes from many different members including siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents etc. It is important for educators to nurture and respect these relationships and understand how they have changed throughout the years. Another study by Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon et al. (2008) explored how parental involvement not only shapes the school context but how it shapes college opportunity. The study examines 15 high schools to explore the barriers of parental involvement for low-socioeconomic parents and middle-SES. Different states were chosen for the 15 high schools based on economic, political, demographic, and educational characteristics. Within this article, Cabrera and La Nasa (2001) found that college application rates were 26 percent lower for students with low socioeconomic status than those with high-SES. Involvement is usually limited due to economic, social, and psychological barriers. The study addresses how little is known about the relationship with socioeconomic status, since most studies examine relationships with ethnic/racial groups differences. Rowan-Kenyon et al. (2008) look at the conceptual model which assumes that student’s college-related decisions are shaped by multiple layers of context. The most important predictors of enrolment are academic preparation, financial resources, knowledge about college, and family support. The model has four layers: students and their families, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and the broader societal, economic, and policy context. However, the article focuses on the innermost layers—the relationship between parental involvement and students’ college related outcomes (Rowan-Kenyon et al., 2008). Cabrera and La Nasa discuss that encouragement from parents must be in the proactive form. The proactive form includes parental involvement in school activities, parental saving for college, and parent-student discussions about college/education. High-SES families have the most forms of social and cultural capital, as well; they use their past knowledge of college experience to aid their child’s college enrolment process. The study found that low and high-SES families use different networks to acquire information on college. “...working-class parents generally relied on local extended family for information, whereas middle class parents tended to rely on parents of other children attending the same school.” (Rowan-Kenyon et al, 2008) Parents who did not attend post-secondary are also less likely to help their children with the college preparations because they believe their involvement would not have a positive effect nor do they feel the school wants/needs them to be involved. Not only does this article speak of SES family status, but also the level of self-efficacy for most parents in the low-SES spectrum. Interviews were conducted in the 15 high schools with teachers and counsellors. Some of the types of questions asked were: What can students, parents, teachers do to increase the chances that students will attend college' How do parents promote or impede college opportunity' What are the barriers of these students' The study does have its limits since it addresses 15 schools but cannot be generalizable to all states. The participants involved in the interviews are a small sample; moreover, this sample does not represent the whole student body. Also, the study focuses only on the role of the parent, which is a traditional view of the family; however, the role of older siblings, extended family, and other non-traditional family arrangements must be considered. Three themes emerge from the study: parents shape college opportunity for their children (based on SES), parental involvement is shaped by school context, and parental involvement is shaped by social, economic, and policy context. Aside from language, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status parental involvement fluctuates between children with a disability or no disability. For example Maria A. Rogers et al. (2009) compared the parents of children with ADHD and the parents of children without ADHD and found that parents who had a child with ADHD felt less welcome and supported by the school. 101 children between the ages of 8 and 12 were assessed in this study. According to Rogers et al. (2009), a child with ADHD suffers from academic problems with approximately 80% underachieving at school. “Children with ADHD have higher rates of learning disabilities, lower rates of engagement in their academic work, lower rates of work accuracy and completion, and they require more instruction and practice in comparison to their peers.” (Rogers et al., 2009) Although research discusses the benefits of parental involvement, little research is produced discussing the benefits of parental involvement that have a child with a learning disability. Rogers et al. (2009) article agrees that the conceptual model explains why and how parents become involved in the child’s education and how parental involvement influences academic outcomes. The article addresses the influence of both parents on the child. For example, fathers are seen as having a greater influence on children’s outcomes in comparison to the mother’s involvement. A father’s involvement has been linked to higher achievement, positive school attitudes, literacy development, and enhanced teacher-child relationships with aggressive children. Not much can be said on how long the parents have influence on their child academically, since most research is limited to elementary school. Rogers et al. (2009) agree that parental involvement declines as children progress through school, due to a sense of autonomy. What are parents with children with ADHD doing wrong' This study describes the parent-child relationship is lacking and therefore strengthens problems in school. The relationship in families of children with ADHD is more stressful with aggressive discipline, parents are less responsive with dysfunctional interactions, parents show low levels of support, and have poor scaffolding during problem-solving tasks (Rogers et al., 2009). Negative parenting by the father also predicts disruptive behaviour and is more influenced when the father also has ADHD. For the study, parents were to self-report a Family-School Questionnaire along with a Parent Involvement Project-Parent Questionnaire which reports psychological and contextual factors. Children were given the Wechsler Intelligence Scalefor a complete psychological testing. The findings concluded that parents of children with ADHD had low self-efficacy in their ability to help children academically. Parents of a child with ADHD view their child’s inattentive and over reactive behaviour as resulting from internal causes and being less stable. These behaviours influence parents to feel incapable of dealing with the challenges of parenting. In comparison to parents of normal developing children, parents of children with ADHD perceive the school as less inviting and less welcoming and receive more requests for involvement. Teachers often find children with ADHD stressful to teach and attribute the child’s behaviour with disruptive family environment, family neglect, and lack of support for education (Rogers et al., 2009). References: Conteh, J., & Kawashima, Y. (2008). Diversity in family involvement in children's learning in English primary schools: Culture, language and Identity. English Teaching, 7, 113-125. Goodwin, A.L., & Hope King, S. (2002). Culturally responsive parental involvement: Concrete_ understandings and basic strategies_. Washington: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Rowan-Kenyon, H.T., Bell, A.D., & Perna, L.W. (2008). Contextual influences on parental involvement in college going: Variations by socioeconomic class. Journal of Higher Education, 79, 564-586.