Session Information
14 SES 02 A, Parental Involvement in Early Years Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The paper is focused on exploring the factors that facilitate or discourage parent involvement in their child's education and school life.
The main research question of the study is: Whatare the factors that influence parent involvement in South East Europe schools? The objectives of the study are to identify: how does parent involvement vary among SEE countries; how does parent involvement vary according to the school background; what is the relation between parent organizations activity and parents’ overall involvement in school.
The article is informed by an ecological perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), that describes the developmental process as an interaction of several subsystems, among which the microsystem (the setting in which the individual lives: immediate family, school, community, peer-group, etc.), the mesosystem (the relations between microsystems), and the macrosystem (or the cultural context in which individuals live). The present study is focused on the importance of the mesosystem, more precisely on the interrelations between family and school. In doing so, the article mainly considers 3 types of activities from Epstein’s (1996) framework of parent involvement: communicating (attending school-meetings), volunteering (engaging in school activities), and decision-making (influencing school governance).
As parent involvement is linked to student achievement, the factors that influence involvement can be of considerable interest to policy makers. In identifying these factors, the author was inspired by Feuerstein’s (2001, p.29) observation that there is a need for a new research agenda that moves beyond individual- and family-level demographics to school-level characteristics that may be more easily manipulated by teachers and administrators.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Barnard, W.M. (2004). “Parent involvement in elementary school and educational attainment”, Children and Youth Services Review, Vol. 26, Issue 1, pp.39‐62. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design, Harvard University Press. Diamond, J., Wang, L., Gomez, K. (2004). African-American and Chinese-American parent involvement: The importance of race, class, and culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project. Epstein, J.L. (1996). “Advances in family, community and school partnerships”. New Schools, New Communities, Vol. 12, No.3, 5-13. ESP-OSI (2009) Cross-National Survey of School Principals, Survey research report, available at http://www.see-educoop.net/aeiq/documents/raport-full.pdf, accessed October 8, 2009. Fan, X.T., Chen, M. (2001). “Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis”. Educational Psychology Review, Vol.13, pp.1-22. Feuerstein, A. (2000). “School characteristics and parent involvement: Influences on participation in children’s schools”. Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 94, 29–39. Hartas, D. (2008). “Practices of parental participation: a case study” Educational Psychology in Practice, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp.139‐153. Jeynes, W. H. (2003). “A meta-analysis—The effects of parental involvement on minority children’s academic achievement”. Education and Urban Society, Vol. 35, pp. 202–218. Karther, D.E., Lowden, F.Y. (1997). “Fostering effective parent involvement”. Contemporary Education,Vol.69, No.1, pp.41-44. Kerbow, D., Bernhardt, A. (1993). “Parent intervention in the school: The context of minority involvement”. In Schneider, B., Coleman, S. (Eds.), Parents, their children, and schools, pp.115-146. Ranson, S., Routledge, H. (2005). Including families in the learning community: Family centres and the expansion of learning. York, UK: Rowntree Foundation. Shatkin, G., Gershberg, A.I. (2007). “Empowering Parents and Building Communities: The Role of School-Based Councils in Educational Governance and Accountability”, Urban Education, Vol. 42, No. 6, pp. 585-616.
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