Family Involvement in Education, Research Proposal Example

Introduction

How does understanding a child’s life enable teachers to gather enough information to help them effectively communicate with their student’s? The barriers that do exist in the home, school and communal collaboration make the satisfaction of all stake holders very complicated and difficult.

The main aim of the education system is to develop, educate and release the most competent individuals into the workforces as well as the society. However, the modern-day education system has been plagued with numerous scandals that have highlighted the generally poor standards within society today.

This research aims at financing the root cause of this problem by drawing a relationship between parent-teacher involvement and teacher reported student grades. This will employ statistical research from existing studies while integrating recent opinions on parent-teacher engagement techniques.

Literature Review

There are two major facets that encompass the education of any and all children, namely; family and school. Each of these two parts have to work hand-in-hand as they are intertwined to achieving the success of the child. This crucial role of the teacher aims at being a cooperator as opposed to being an instructor. Being a cooperator with someone essentially means familiarizing one’s self with the other’s background, needs, abilities, ambitions and any other facet that is related to the collective well-being of the said collaboration or partnership.

Upon adulthood (18 years of age) most children would have spent a minimal amount (13%) of their time at school, engaging in academic activities. It is vital to a child’s academic success that the remaining 87% of their time be put to constructive and scholastic oriented activities (Child Trends Data Bank). There is a strong association between reports of parental participation in school activities and tutor reported grades. A study of three hundred 11-14 years olds depicted this characteristic as well as Stevenson and Baker report. Stevenson and Baker reported that increased parent-teacher involvement in a sample population of 179 children depicted improved average performance of these students.

Parents looking for a good school for their child inquire and carryout extensive research on a school’s success and failures, staff, location, curriculum, meals and factors that affect the well-being and success of its students. It is the mandate of the school to carry out similar research finding out relevant information on its students to ensure the overall success of the school and its students. Fortunately, these kind of programs are extensively supported by many institutions and organizations in the United States.

A child greatly profits from the involvement of their instructor, teacher or tutor in the child’s own life in one way or another (Harvard Family Research Project). However, there exist numerous barriers that may hinder the involvement of the teachers in the child’s life. Some of them include the degree of parent education, the socio-economic status of the family, the family structure and the numerous possibilities of the child’s background that is unique and different from all other student.

Rationale

The increasing evidence of poor academic performance with every passing decade necessitates the need for new techniques designed to improve overall performance, in academics and in the society. This research helps find the relationship between parental involvement and the performance of their child. This is crucial in developing effective strategies which will ensure increased student performance and an overall awareness of their roles and responsibilities in society.

Research Objectives

The research will aim to answer following questions:

1. Is there evidence of a relationship between parental involvement in school and student grades?
2. How do parents and communities get involved in their children’s education?
3. What form of parental engagement in education are most effective?
4. What is the importance of parental involvement at home?
5. What are the effects of cultural and social norms and beliefs on parental involvement?
6. What are the obstacles to parental engagement in education?
7. What are the strategies that can be employed to improve stakeholder engagement?

Research Method and Design

Research design model

The research design model being used is quantitative research design. This design model is suitable for this study as it enables me to aptly analyze the sources of the information used in the study through use of a combination of statistical deduction and empirical evidence that is got through extensive study of the secondary material.

Research design

The research design employed in this study is the correlation design. This design is used to test the statistical relationships between variables. This design is suitable as it tests for strength in the relationship between parent-teacher engagement and the performance of students.

Sample Design and Data Collections

Data Collection the data is to be collected from both primary and secondary sources. The qualitative data will be collected from a number of local schools with vibrant and active parent-teacher engagement programs. This information will mainly entail interviews with parents and teachers as well as opinions from students. Quantitative data will be collected from secondary sources online where previous research has been conducted. This provides th fundamental framework for identifying existing relationships and trends.

Conclusions

In order for there to be a realization of the full support and promotion of family involvement in children education, there has to be a clear understanding of the complex processes within family and how each and every process has its own unique outcome. This aids in understanding all the factors that influence and affect the depth and scope of the family’s involvement in the education of children. This will ultimately lead to the realization that family involvement initiatives ought to be directed towards enhancing existing strengths within the family that will encourage involvement in the child’s education rather than the existing weaknesses. This is because each and every child is unique in their own way, and coupled with the numerous possibilities of the background, there cannot be one single approach that can work for all children

Works Cited

Bogenschneider, Karen, Beth Gross and Carol Johnson. “Why Is Family Involvement in Education Important.” Family Matters: A Family Impact Seminar Newsletter for Wisconsin Policymakers 4.2 (2004). Electronic Source. 2 March 2015. <http://www.familyimpactseminars.org/fia_nlarticle_v4i2.pdf>.

Child Trends Data Bank. Parental Involvement in Schools: Indicators on Children and Youth. Child Trends Data Bank, 2013. Electronic Source. 2 April 2015. <http://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/39_Parent_Involvement_In_Schools.pdf>.

Grant, Kathy B and Julie Ray. Home, school, and community collaboration : culturally responsive family involvement. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 20103. Print.

Harvard Family Research Project. Family Involvement Makes a Difference in School Success. Harvard Family Research Project, 2006.

Hiatt-Michael, Diana B. Promising practices to support family involvement in schools. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing, 2010. Print.

Hill, N E and D F Tyson. “Parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement.” Developmental Psychology 45.3 (2009): 740-763. Print.

Hofferth, Sandra L and Timothy J Owens. Children at the millennium : where have we come from, where are we going? Oxford: Elsevier, 2001. Electronic Source. 2 April 2015. <http://ir.nmu.org.ua/bitstream/handle/123456789/122460/bd420ef2f259c519df9eab9635176fc6.pdf?sequence=1#page=206>.

Honig, Alice S. Parent involvement in early childhood education. Washington: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1994. Print.

Hornby, Garry. Parental involvement in childhood education : building effective school-family partnerships. New York: Springer, 2011. Print.

Morrison, George S. Early childhood education today. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.

New, Rebbecca S and Moncrieff Cochran. Early childhood education : an international encyclopedia. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2011. Print.

Nutbrown, Cathy. Key concepts in early childhood education & care. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2006. Print.

Prior, Jennifer O and Maureen R Gerard. Family involvement in early childhood education : research into practice. Clifton Park: Thomson Delmar Learning, 2007. Print.

Weiss, Heather B, et al. Reframing Family Involvement in Education: Supporting Families to Support Educational Equity. New York, 2009. Electronic Source. 2 April 2015. <http://www.equitycampaign.org/i/a/document/12018_EquityMattersVol5_Web.pdf>.

—. Taking a Closer Look: A Guide to Online Resources on Family Involvement. Cambridge: Harvard Family Research Project, 2005. Electronic Source. 2 April 2015. <http://www.hfrp.org/content/download/1337/48833/file/resource_guide.pdf>.