Parental Involvement Scheme, Dissertation Example

The effectiveness of the newly-implemented “Parental Involvement Scheme”

Abstract

Among the Hong Kong government’s goals is the promotion of early childhood education, with the aim being the furtherance of whole person development. While the government has focused on the provision of early childhood education and care of young children as part of the efforts of enhancing ‘child-centeredness’ in learning, parental involvement has received more and more attention with regards to the role that parents play in their children’s education. In light of the findings of previous studies (Desforges 2003, Feinstein & Symons 1999, and Hobcraft 1998), there is ample evidence to suggest that parents play a positive role in enhancing a child’s cognitive development. This is especially the case during early childhood (age 0-6), when parental influence on child development is most critical, even more important than family socioeconomic status. The proposed research study will explore the educational benefits of parental involvement in early childhood education through the Parental Participation Scheme, with particular emphasis on the child’s cognitive development that can be measured by observing their attitude and behavior. It will seek to find out the relationship between parental involvement and the development of a child’s personality during early childhood education.

In order to ascertain the efficacy of a parental involvement scheme at a Hong Kong school, parental attitudes were surveyed by means of a questionnaire. Parents’ perceptions of the school and of their children’s own attitudes towards it, as well as their aspirations for their children, were elicited by means of a qualitative instrument, a semi-structured interview. Collectively, these findings evinced a deep desire on the part of all parents to be involved in their children’s education. There was also a compelling trend towards parental enthusiasm for the parental involvement scheme, with the parents possessed of largely felicitous attitudes towards the entire program. This positive response evinces the importance of engaging parents in the educational process, and the means by which this end may of a surety be secured.

Chapter 1  Introduction

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to provide a thorough introduction to the research area and the topic. The chapter clearly states the aims and objectives of the research study. By defining the aims and objectives of the dissertation, the dimensions of the research can be identified, given form and made manifest. Moreover, the chapter explores the background of the topic, elucidating the fruits of knowledge gleaned from previous work done in this field. Finally, the chapter lays forth the structure for the rest of the paper.

Research Title

The effectiveness of the newly-implemented “Parental Involvement Scheme”.

Background

The social contract of many modern societies has established the maxim that education is the right of every child. Parents make decisions regarding the dispensation of this right, and facilitate its realization by various diverse means. An important concept that has merited substantial research on this subject is parental involvement in the schooling activities of their children. As will indeed be demonstrated in the course of things to come, the literature indicates that during the pre-school years as well as initial schooling, parental involvement forms a critical factor in terms of the development of a child’s cognitive skills as well as in the formation of their literacy and computational abilities (Institute of Education, 2002).

Parental involvement does indeed exert a precipitous impact on educational outcomes for students (Desforges, 2003), particularly adolescents (Feinstein & Symons, 1999). Conversely, a lack of parental involvement decreases the success criteria of students (Douglas, 1964). In particular, the ages between 7 and 16 (elementary schooling) are of prime importance in terms of parental involvement in schooling: during this period, parental involvement has been shown to overcome other factors like family size, background and even lack of parental education (Feinstein & Symons, 1999). In this dissertation, the concern is with the students of pre-elementary stage (Kindergarten). A father’s interest is seen to be more important (Hobcraft, 1998). This fact is quite correct to some extent. It has been observed that mostly mothers show much involvement in their child’s education but the children want the concentration of both of their parents.

The common perception is that both the school and the parents share the responsibility for a child’s education. In fact, there is growing recognition for this view in the literature: both the school and the parents have important functions in a child’s learning career and it is beneficial to the student if a close alliance between the school and the parents is formed (The Scottish Office, 2003). As awareness increases, more and more parents wish to participate in some form in their children’s educational career (Williams, Williams & Ullman, 2002).  Parental participation may basically be viewed as relevant interest by a parent in a child’s learning, through different means like regular interaction between teacher and parent, civic engagements like going to the museum or theatre together, encouraging the use of  the library and so on.

The basic aim of parent participation is to develop the interest in parents for taking part in their child’s learning. This can be done by different means including regular interactions with the teachers and regular civic engagements like museum and theaters along with the children. Also the parents should encourage their children to make use of library as much as possible.

In recognition of the above findings, many schools actively encourage parent participation in their child’s learning within the school curriculum. One of these means of encouragement is the Parental Participation plan that schools develop as part of the School-Based Management Programs.  This plan has been developed by the school management in order to involve the parents with their children and to provide them awareness regarding the classroom environment. The management needs to develop and create such plans so that the parents are allowed to show some involvement. The author of this document is also an educationist seeking answers to important questions regarding the effect of Parental Participation Schemes on children and their parents, primarily through a research proposed to be conducted at the author’s own school. The Kindergarten is a private bilingual medium and the author wishes to explore whether the school can provide a structured medium of exchange so that parents can effectively participate in a child’s learning environment.

In past, the education system followed in Hong Kong was influenced by UK. During the colonial period, 1841-1997, the British administered the education policy of Hong Kong. But after the return of Hong Kong to the now-People’s Republic of China in 1997, Hong Kong’s educational system was subjected to increasing changes. These changes were commonly observed in the local schools of Hong Kong, notably including alterations in the curriculum of senior secondary education and change in the language used for the instruction policy. A completely new system has been formed and implied since 2009. The students in Hong Kong have to take 12 years of education (6 years for primary education, 3 years for junior secondary school and 3 for the senior secondary school). Before heading towards the primary schooling, a child has to complete his/her kindergarten studies which are comprised of three years (K1-K3). In this dissertation, the focus is on the kindergarten school. The research study tries to find out the need of parent involvement in kindergarten schools and its impacts on a child’s education.

Rationale of the Study    

Children require much attention and vigilance in their educational life. It is necessary so that they can be guided to the right path and they may not lose their interest in studies. In order to help the children for maintaining their education and personality, the parental involvement scheme is utilized (LaBhan, 1995). In this dissertation, it has been tried to analyze the effectiveness of involving parents. For this purpose, the parental involvement scheme has been incorporated in the school by making use of the activities that may allow the parents to communicate with the teachers and observe the classroom activities of their children.

It has become something of a truism to state that parental involvement in children’s education motivates children, because they see their parents care about the results. This stimulates them by encouraging them to do well in school. By these means, parental involvement improves the attitudes and behavior of the children. It has also been observed that parent involvement can help in improving the mistakes of the children at home. The parental involvement scheme substantially improves the self esteem and self confidence of the children. This is only possible if the scheme is implied properly and effectively. When parents get themselves involved within their children education, they are able to be in touch with the teachers and the administration. This helps them to get to know about the lifestyle of their children. Parents also may get to know about the activities of their children within the school including eating disorders, regularity, depression and social attitude. So, this is also helpful in improving the children behavior apart from studies (Ho, 2003).

The reason for performing this study is to find out how this involvement may help the children to pay attention over their studies. Children are required to be guided throughout their education life so that they may not be misled. This can only be done if parents also pay attention over their activities (Hara & Burke, 1998). The study is being performed so that the effect of parental involvement scheme can be observed. This analysis is needed to be known so that the parents may realize that to what extent they should contribute and involved in their child’s education life. For this purpose there is a need to explore whether this scheme is effective or not so that its implementation may be considered (Jeynes, 2011).

Aims and Objectives

1. To become familiar with the Parental Participation Scheme/ Program by reviewing pertinent literature on the parental involvement in children’s learning.
2. An evaluation of the merits and demerits of the Scheme in terms of parents, students, and the school.
3. An assessment of the parents and students response to the Parental Participation Scheme
4. To observe the contribution of parent involvement scheme in the children’s learning.
5. To analyze what improvements can be made by implementing the parents involvement in terms of understanding the classroom activities and the position of their children.

Research questions

1. What are the key elements involved in the ‘Parental Participation Scheme’?
2. What is the contribution of this parental involvement in child’s education? Can it bring improvement in parents’ understanding towards their child’s education?
3. How do parents respond to the scheme?

Overview of Research Design

In this research study, the effectiveness of implementing parental participation scheme has to be analyzed. For these purposes, both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies will be used to further a thorough understanding of the situation. After that, this scheme will be utilized in our school by introducing any activity that may involve parents. Finally, the quantitative research methodology ‘surveys’ will be used to collect the opinions of the parents. This will lead to analyze the effectiveness of parental involvement scheme.

Dissertation structure

The following is the structure on which this dissertation will be constructed.

Chapter 2 will give the literature regarding parental involvement, its key elements, advantages, disadvantages and its impact on the children’s education. The provided information is able to understanding and clarification of the topic. Chapter 3 is based on the discussion of the research methodology that has been adapted to conduct this research work. The process of data collection and the employed research tools will be thoroughly discussed in this chapter. Chapter 4 will be a presentation of the results obtained as a result of the primary research conducted as well as a discussion on the findings revealed by the research. Lastly, Chapter 5 will draw relevant research conclusions, as well as identify areas that may have limited the study. Additionally, avenues for further investigation may be explored as well as a mention of the ethical considerations that were met during the course of the research.

Chapter 2   Literature Review

Introduction

The focus of this chapter is on making manifest the concepts utilized in this research study. The literature here presented attest to the importance of parental involvement in children’s education, and the factors that serve as predictors of such parental involvement. The study also concentrates over the key elements of parental involvement scheme, its merits and demerits and the response of parents’ towards this scheme. It is certainly most desirable to obtain an understanding of the relevant theories and concepts, so that the study can be conducted further.

What is Parental Involvement?

Parental involvement can be defined as a set of activities in which the parents actively participate for the development of their children and enhancing their academic career. These activities may include home parenting, regular school visits, developing good relationships with the teachers, assisting the children in their activities and dealing with their problems (Desforges, 2003). Parental involvement, then, contributes to the development of the child, whether intellectual, emotional, psychological, or social.

The seminal imperative, as Lall, Campbell and Gillborn (2004) explain, is the involvement of the parents in the activities conducted by their children’s schools, and the involvement of the schools in the community. Thus, the imperative is bidirectional, in that it requires engagement from both the parents and the schools. Schools that implement parental involvement schemes are responding to this imperative, in an effort to increase the degree to which parents are able and willing to participate in the activities carried out by the school. Frequent parent-teacher meetings are foundational to this endeavor, in order to facilitate communication and cooperation. In particular, Lall et al. (2004) recommended that parents actively take part in their children’s classroom activities, in order to maximize their efficacy. Pursuant to this end, these authors recommend that teachers and school administrators arrange such activities once or twice a month.

According to Skiba and Strassel (2000), there was once a time when parental involvement was only limited to parent teacher meetings. Now, however, things have changed precipitously, and with a new era has come new conceptualizations of parental involvement. Parents arrange activities, and often engage in a much more dynamic fashion. Thus, implementing the parental involvement scheme is not enough. It is also necessary to maximize efficacy so that it might provide the desired output. According to Hornby (2000) a good parental involvement transpires:

• when the communication between the children and parents is improved.
• when the parents take it as their responsibility to keep an eye over the education life of their children.
• when the parents always encourage the teachers for their hard work.
• when the parents take out enough time for their children out of their busy life schedules.

According to Desforges (2003), good parenting is essential for effective parental involvement. Good parenting can help a lot in developing the foundation skills, concepts, values and positive behavior in the children. It starts from the home at preschool age and continues throughout the academic life. Skiba and Strassell (2000) have indicated that for effective parental involvement plan it is necessary that the parents should commit with the school for their regular involvement. Good relationships between the parents and teachers are also essentially required to make the scheme work. Both the sides should respond positively and frequently so that the continuous contacts can be made. The parents should also be patient and optimistic enough to listen to the weaknesses of their child. Only then the scheme can be effective.

As stated by Alesia (2011), the involvement of parents can make a positive impact over the academic achievement of children. The involvement of the parents is a great support for the children. As a result, the confidence level of the children is improved and he/she is much more motivated towards good performance. Christenson and Sheridan (2001) have also stated that the framework in which parents and teachers work together for the development of a child can maximize the success rate of the students as learners. A number of studies (Marcon, 1999; Kreider, 2002, Starkey and Klein, 2000 and Miedel and Reynolds, 1999) have shown the fact that the parental involvement is quite supportive for the children in kindergarten and primary school. This is because children at early ages need a lot of attention both at school and at home in order to polish their skills. The involvement of parents motivates the children to perform better. As a result, the children’s achievement has been improved.

Although there is no standard definition of the term ‘parental involvement’, it has been explained as being definitive of myriad behaviors both at home and at school, and includes such factors as the aspirations and expectations of the parents as well as their general attitude regarding their child’s future and specifically education (Hong & Ho, 2005). Perhaps the most conclusive definition of the term has been put forward by Epstein et al (1997), which categorizes parental involvement into five distinct activities, as: ‘Parenting, learning at home, communicating, volunteering at school, collaborating and decision making’. The first activity i.e., parenting needs the school staff to assist the parents of the children so that they may train their children at home as well. This will be very helpful for the children in terms of their academic life as they will get the supportive environment at home as well. The second activity is ‘communication’, which is needed to be created in between the home and school. In this regard, the teachers need to communicate with the parents regarding the different classroom activities and the student’s progress. Third activity is known to be ‘learning at home’ that can force the parents to get involved through different kinds of homework and other curricular activities. ‘Volunteering’ is another activity that is a category of parental involvement scheme. Through this activity the schools can get the parents involved in the various school programs in order to help the students in the ways that are known by them properly. Another activity is ‘collaborating’ which is very much required. It is necessary that the school should try to coordinate with other entities within the community like universities, colleges and companies. This will make the school programs much more effective. Finally, schools should also involve parents’ opinion while decision making. This can be done by taking regular feedbacks from the parents. All these activities can enhance the level of parental involvement in any school as these are focused over making the parents to take part in their child’s classroom activities.

In this dissertation, the focus is over the parental involvement scheme in the kindergarten school in Hong Kong. It deals with the children of ages 3 to 6 years.

Impact of parents’ involvement

It has become a commonplace to remark upon the positive impact of parental involvement in children’s education. Any number of studies explore it at length, and come to the conclusion that parental involvement does indeed have an impact on students’ educational outcomes (Powell, 1989; Christenson et al, 1992; Epstein, 1992; Henderson & Berla, 1994; Keith et al., 1998; Hara, 1998; Izzo et al., 1999; Marcon, 1999; Fan, 2001; Kim,2002;  Eglund et al, 2004; Hong & Ho, 2005).  As Epstein (1992: 1141) explains, ‘students at all grade levels do better academic work and have more positive school attitudes, higher aspirations, and other positive behaviors if they have parents who are aware, knowledgeable, encouraging, and involved’. Parental involvement also has a positive and lifelong effect on future success (Keith et al, 1998). Similarly, parental involvement is found to not only have a positive effect during the initial schooling, but also throughout the academic career (Hung & Ho, 2005). There is also evidence supporting longitudinal effect on the growth of a pupil’s academic career; the more parents aspire for high educational standards for their children, the higher is the positivism associated with the child’s academic progress (Fan, 2001).

But all of this has, again, become something of a commonplace. What of the details? Responding to the fact that so much of the literature in question is qualitative and non-empirical, Fan and Chen (2001) conducted a meta-analysis of quantitative, empirical literature. They confirmed that indeed, parental involvement is correlated with positive educational outcomes, but the results were much more precise, for they were able to identify elements of parental involvement as weaker or stronger. At-home supervision appeared to be the weakest factor, while parental aspirations appeared to be much the strongest (12-13). This establishes a great deal: it is not enough for the parents to be involved; they must be involved in the right way, on the level of actionable expectations. Parents who hold such expectations for their children will generally have higher-achieving children (13).

A major theme in the literature is that of attempting to ascertain the relevant factors for predicting varying degrees of parental involvement. From the above, it is well worth asking what kind of parents have higher expectations for their children. Of the many factors evaluated, a particularly important one appears to be the parents’ own level of education. Parents’ levels of education have been positively correlated with their children’s rates of deviant behavior, and overall school performance (Abd-el-Fattah, 2006). Another important predictor appears to be family structure: specifically, students from intact, two-parent households tend to outperform students from single-parent households, or households with a stepparent.

In a study of Egyptian high school students from a region known for its conservatism, Abd-el-Fattah (2006) evaluated family structure and parental levels of education, and compared these with levels of parental involvement and student performance. The results indicated that the strongest association was ‘between academic achievement and school disengagement’, while the weakest was between students’ rates of detention and their family structure (144).  The more involved the parents were in their children’s education, the more engaged with school the children were. And an important factor in parental involvement did indeed prove to be parents’ own level of education. The significance of this factor might be explained in terms of students wishing to live up to their parents by achieving at least the same level of education, as well as student willingness to fulfill their parents’ expectations (151-152).

The above raises some important questions concerning the role of culture. In particular, it must be ascertained the degree to which cultural factors, such as attitudes towards education, may shape outcomes. On the one hand, it may very well be the case that parental involvement is correlated with better educational outcomes for students across cultures, even regardless of cultures. On the other hand, it may be the case that parental involvement is modulated by culture, and that different cultures exhibit different approaches to, and attitudes toward, education.

In this vein, the study conducted by Altschul (2011) on Mexican-American students and their families is of considerable importance because it addresses questions of parental involvement and children’s education in a population both culturally distinct in important ways, and identified as being high-risk for poorer performance in school. This population has been identified as high-risk even in comparison to other Latino/Hispanic groups living in the U.S.: Mexican-American students drop out of high school at rates two to four times higher than their Cuban-American and South American counterparts, after socioeconomic status and other measures are factored in (159).

What Altschul (2011) found was that parental involvement, beyond question, was correlated with better outcomes for students (165). In particular, students did especially well when they were able to get extracurricular instruction, or access educational resources in the home, or participate in enriching activities or discussions of schoolwork with parents (165). Family income was another factor positively correlated with performance. The factors that were not significantly correlated with increased performance were particularly interesting: in-school parental participation, and what generation of immigrants they were (165).

Similarly, and again in accordance with the findings of Fan and Chen (2001), Ceballo, Maurizi, Suarez and Aretakis (2013) studied the impact of parental involvement on adolescents’ education in lower-income Latino families. They specifically examined the influence of a key Latino cultural value: respeto (Sp., “respect”), which, in cultural context, refers to obligations of respect towards one’s elders and towards professionals, respect that is vouchsafed in order to maintain felicitous relationships (3). They also identified a number of types of parental involvement that were positively associated with adolescents’ educational achievement: gift/sacrifice, future discussions/academic socialization, and school involvement. The category of gift/sacrifice encompasses student attitudes of wanting to succeed in order to be able to help their parents in the future, in view of their parents’ hard work and sacrifices on their behalf. Future discussions/academic involvement encompasses the degree to which students reported that their parents had discussions with them emphasizing the importance of planning for the future, and encouraging them to think about what they wish to be. Finally, school involvement encompasses parental involvement in the affairs of the school (6). And in keeping with predictions, students’ sense of respeto positively predicted their academic success (8).

In discussions of the impact of ethnicity and culture on education in a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society, a couple of particularly salient factors for evaluating the significance of such include self-identification with the group, measurable in terms of cultural socialization, and exposure to people of diverse cultural backgrounds on the other hand (Banerjee, Harrell, & Johnson 2011). In a sample of African-American students and their mothers, Banerjee et al. analyzed both of these measures and compared them to cognitive ability and achievement, with maternal involvement as a moderating factor. The significance here is two-fold: the literature indicates that as with other cultural/ethnic groups, African-American students perform better in school with parental involvement. The literature also indicates that cultural socialization, including even an awareness of racial barriers in society, is correlated with increased educational achievement. In particular, positive messages of cultural identity, self-esteem, and pride in one’s culture are correlated with more achievement (596).

What Banerjee et al. (2011) found was that the degree to which mothers culturally socialized their children in the 4^th grade was a predictor of the children’s levels of achievement in the 5^th grade. In fact, the relationship was even more interesting, because parental involvement by means of cultural socialization was also correlated with high levels of cultural exposure, meaning that parents who were involved enough to instill positive messages about cultural heritage, identity, and self-worth were also inclined to try to expose their children to other cultures—and these children did significantly better in school (599). Measures such as passage comprehension and picture vocabulary scores were significantly improved. However, although an association with cognitive ability was not found, indicating that neither cultural socialization nor cultural exposure impact cognitive outcomes (599-602).

Considerations of children’s age must necessarily be taken into account when ascertaining the most efficacious strategies for parental involvement, although this is of course not mutually exclusive with culture: all studies of elementary school-aged children occur in some kind of cultural context. Bridge (2001) documented a case study in the preschool cultural context of the United Kingdom: an action research strategy designed to use parental involvement as a means of improving outcomes in a preschool. The plan called for parents and their children to plan out play activities for school in the home; the children were then observed, and the parents consulted on their involvement. This enabled the school to implement a pattern of triangular interactions between the children, their parents, and the staff, which facilitated greater confidence for the children. In particular, the children were able to design play activities based off of their own ‘home culture’, the ways in which they interacted with their parents, and the parents were able to give insightful input on the planning process that increased their own involvement in the school, and thus with their children’s education (5-20).

When the author specifically considers the elementary years of schooling, there exists research that shows a positive co-relation between parental involvement and academic success on beginning elementary education (Miedel & Reynolds, 1999). In this context again, as noted above parental involvement, specifically, parental educational involvement, may be construed to mean those activities that parents initiate at home as well as throughout childhood that are structured to provide a supporting role to their children’s academic learning. Consideration of parental involvement is deemed to be crucial for two key reasons: firstly, such an attitude contributes towards a child’s smooth transition to kindergarten; secondly, it ‘sets the stage’, so to speak, for the involvement of the parent throughout his/ her child’s academic career (Kreider, 2002).

As the above demonstrate, cultural context and students’ age do indeed matter. However, there do appear to be some common themes to parental participation across cultures: parents who are involved in their children’s education, parents who take an active interest and set expectations for their children, seem to be correlated with higher-performing children. However, the cultural context relevant to this project is that of East Asia, specifically China, and so it is to the literature on East Asian or East Asian-origin populations to which this project now directs its focus.

In the United States, Asian-Americans (East Asian origin, i.e. China, Japan, Republic of Korea [South Korea]) are perceived as being high achievers academically. This has driven much of the literature on East Asian parenting styles. Barry, Bernard, and Beitel (2009) found support for an association between traditional child-rearing attitudes (TCRA) and less acculturation to the United States. In other words, Asian-Americans who had been in the U.S. for the least amount of time were more traditional in their outlook with regard to raising children, and more attached to their culture. The Korean-American group, in particular, scored highest on measures of TCRA (347).

Moon and Lee (2009) found multiple predictors of academic achievement for Asian American schoolchildren, in a sample of 1,100 kindergarteners and their parents. Parents’ education was a significant predictor for school achievement, as per the findings of Abd-el-Fattah (2006) with Egyptian high school students. Other, relatively predictable, predictors included income, psychological well-being, and family structure (137). However, parent school involvement was not correlated with school achievement. This was the more significant in light of the fact that the study also tested the model on white (non-Hispanic) American students, and found that with these students, parental involvement in school was correlated with their achievement (137-139).

Since this dissertation is concerned with Hong Kong, examples in the literature that pertain to Hong Kong are particularly relevant. For example, Tam (2009) specifically evaluated the contributions of fathers and mothers of Hong Kong children from grades 3-5, with ramifications for children’s achievement. Mothers were found to be ‘higher in nurturance, involvement, and academic efficacy than fathers’ (152). However, the sex of the child had an impact as well: parents of girl-children were ‘higher in nurturance, involvement, and academic efficacy but lower in psychological control than those of boys’ (152). Overall, mothers made significant contributions to their children’s academic achievement with their levels of psychological control and efficacy, while fathers made significant contributions through involvement and efficacy (152).

But the results were even more interesting than this, for they differed somewhat between girl-children and boy-children: for boy-children only, their mothers’ levels of psychological control was negatively correlated with their academic performance, while for girl-children only, their fathers’ efficacy was correlated positively with their academic achievement (Tam 2009: 152-153). The efficacy displayed by the mothers also had a stronger positive impact on their sons than on their daughters (153). Thus, parental involvement does matter to the academic success of Hong Kong schoolchildren, but the gender of the parents also matters with regard to what sort of involvement is in question (153).

Tam and Chan (2009) studied parental involvement in Hong Kong primary school-aged students’ homework. They found that, firstly, parental involvement was considerably higher with junior primary students. Secondly, parents’ own educational level mattered as well: parents who had education at the secondary level or above were more involved, spending more time with their children’s homework, than those who had advanced no further than primary school (89). Parents also gave the most help in the form of autonomy support, helping their children learn how to be self-sufficient, followed by direct involvement to a much more moderate degree, and finally with provision of structure (90).

Elements of Parental Involvement Scheme

 In every situation, the involvement of parents can lead a child towards success. A child really feels encouraged when observes the interested presence of his parents in his life. A little interest from the parents would be enough to encourage a child. However, in some cases much involvement is required. These situations include when the child is facing some challenging situation or when he is going through some discouraged feeling. The involvement of parents may highly help the children to overcome these situations (Putman, 2011).

According to Topping and Wolfendale (1985) the key elements of good parental involvement scheme include enthusiastic staff, communication, confidence, strong strategy and resources for arranging different activities. One of the studies performed by Wright (2009) indicates that for developing strong and effective parent involvement scheme needs productive programs, positive response and two way communications as the key elements.

Different studies have indicated different elements in order to develop a successful parental involvement scheme. Few of these elements are discussed below:

• Purpose: While developing the parental involvement scheme, an objective should be there in mind. Various plans and programs for the involvement of parents should be developed by the teachers. Each plan should be developed by keeping the purpose of involving parents in mind. Also it is recommended that the teachers should discuss their plans not only with the other teachers but with parents as well (Wayne, 2011).
• Communication: Communication is another essential element in order to successfully integrate parents into child’s academic life. The communication should be maintained between parents and children as well as in between parents and teachers. It is the key element and is very much required in maintaining the behavior of a child. The children may also have some behavioral issues like any kind of phobia, fear, stress, discipline problem, language issue, speech delay, nail biting, eating disorders and temper tantrums. All these issues can be well addressed and resolved easily if the parents do communicate effectively and frankly with their children (Wayne, 2011).
• Transparency: The transparency related to every affair of parental involvement scheme is different from one matter to another. There are few things that should be kept open for the children. Especially the things that can make it obvious to a child that he/she is being loved and cared. There are certain things that should not be kept open to the children like the discussions between parents and teachers highlighting the weak points of the child. It should be kept a secret as it will discourage and disturb the child (Wayne, 2011).
• Credibility: Credibility is another important element that should be there for involving parents. It is very much required in order to create an open and trustworthy environment. In order to create a sound environment with quality practices, the trustworthiness is the element that should not be ignored. An integrated model of children, parents and teachers can be created only when credibility is centered (Kerrins & Greene, 2011).
• Resources: It is also required that the teachers or practitioners who are going to plan and implement the parental involvement scheme should be well equipped with the resources. It includes both the basic and technical resources. They should be provided with a comfortable space provisioned with the basic necessities of life. Only then they can peacefully perform their task. If the practitioners would not be provided with the resources and facilities then they will be stressed. This will affect their working zest and as a result the system might get weak. The lack of resources might also create the feeling of frustration (Kerrins & Greene, 2011).
• Building Relationships: The school should also try its best to develop good relationships with the other centers. These centers can be then implied within the system and help to develop the children. These centers might include day care, therapist, karate club, health care centers and other departments (Kerrins & Greene, 2011). Maintaining good relationships with such institutes around may help the center to arrange workshops for the awareness of children.
• Training Experience: The practitioners who are going to implement the parental involvement scheme should be trained. Special training programs should be arranged for them by the school management. This will guide them to deal with the parents effectively. Also it will be helpful for them to create the programs and plans that may involve the parents within the child’s academic life. Training would create a big difference (Kerrins & Greene, 2011).

All the above defined are the basic elements that can help to create and establish a successful parental involvement system.

Parents’ Response to Parental Involvement Scheme

A study conducted in Mitchell county school system, it was said that parent involvement is required at every stage of child’s development. This will allow them to keep an eye over the academic record, behavior and upbringing. The parental involvement is highly required at kindergarten level. Parents are also very enthusiastic and willing to get participation within the children activities and programs at kindergarten level. The involvement of parents should be integrated in the phase of planning, designing and implementing the programs. The parents want to have systematic, informative, organized, ongoing and timely manner of involvement. This can help them to keep the parental involvement activities in their routines (Mitchell county school system, 2011). This report was based on the Mitchell county school system based in Georgia. The school has implemented the parental involvement scheme and has found it quite effective. The findings are quite effective as it allows observing the results of implementing this scheme. In this school different involvement activities are held that may let the parents to get involved.

The parent involvement in their children activities is very enthusiastic. Especially, it is observed that the parents of kindergarten students are always willing to meet the teachers and discuss the performance and behavior of their child. Majority of the studies show that parent teacher meetings are successfully held. Majority of the parents show their readiness for the parent teacher meeting at kindergarten. This is quite overwhelming and suggests that the participation should be made stronger. In these meeting parents get a chance to overview their child’s performance and problems. They explore their child’s behavior with in the class and with the class mates (Christopher house, 2012; Graham-Clay, 2005; Patrikakou, 2008 and Persky & Golubchick, 1991). Although there are few parents who are not much interested in such conferences and do not consider them important. But this percentage is very less (Fong & Murphy, 2006).

The studies also show that parents also show their interest in regular or periodic participation activities. Many studies have proven the case that the more the parents get involved into the children studies, the more success is achieved. A large number of parents even do show their involvement on weekly basis. Such parents prefer to consult with the teachers weekly regarding their child’s performance. This is because they want to be in regular contact with the teachers. These parents do keep themselves updated regarding the activities and programs that are being held within the schools. This shows the positive response of parents towards parental involvement scheme. Some of the parents show their interest in keeping information of their children activities once or twice a month. Parents also do prefer to consult with the teachers in order to evaluate the performance of their children. The parents do visit the teachers even during school hours or after the school time. Parents who want to meet the teachers during school time are very keen to observe their child’s behavior within the class. Also they want to monitor the class activities. This is highly observed at kindergarten level (Young, 2007).

Most of the parents want themselves to get reasonably involved within their child’s academic life. The study has figured out that the parents who want to be ‘very involved’ include the mothers, parents of children who need special education, parents who did not get higher education and parents having Black British or Black backgrounds. The parents are immigrants as well as the single parents do not feel like involving themselves much. They want an average level participation in their children academic life. This is because of their tough lifestyle and hardships that they have to face. They are unable to take out much amount of time in keeping an eye over their children’s activities. The less involvement has been shown by the men parents, parents having white and Asian backgrounds and those who have not taken even basic education. Such parents do not understand the significance of quality education in the development of their child (Department for children, schools and families, 2008). This study has helped a lot in observing the parents’ response towards the involvement of parents in their child’s education. This study can be applied in any context as these are the normal circumstances that can be found everywhere but the frequency may vary.

The literature review also reveals the presence of the parents believe that it is completely their own responsibility to look after a child’s education. On the other hand, there are parents who believe the fact that the child’s education is not a complete responsibility of the parents but it is the combined effort of both the parents and the school. Such parents have got high believe in parental involvement scheme and want it to get implemented.

The trend of implementing parental involvement scheme is now initiated in the schools of Hong Kong as well. A number of activities are being arranged in order to get the parents involved. These activities do include the parent teacher meetings, library assistance, field trips, bringing proficiency in the classroom, school fun activities and events (Hong Kong Academy, 2011). In Hong Kong apart from the local children; children from Ethnic minorities also do study in large numbers. Parents from both the groups have seen to get involved in the parental involvement programs. Parents having different ethnic background feel difficulty in communicating with the teachers. Also these parents may not help their children in their homework and other activities. This is because they do not have much knowledge and skills regarding the language of education. Still they try to get into contact with the teachers so as to have an understanding regarding the progress and activities of their children (Hong Kong council of social service, 2010).

The parental involvement scheme can be applied trough different school activities in which the parents do participate with their children. Parents do involve in performing school projects with their children. Parents also have been observed to make different things for their children. Parents were involved in the extracurricular activities of their children. Parents’ involvement is also seen in reading and studying activities (Department for children, schools and families, 2008). This piece of research is quite relevant to this dissertation as it has shown the response of parents towards the parental involvement scheme. These findings are very useful as they help in finding out that parents today are very much active in taking part in their children’s education and school activities.

Parents today feel that they do not have enough time to spend with their children- perhaps this feeling may result, in part, from a pressurized expectation for ‘intensive parenting’- a theory that raises the bar for parenting quality as well as expectations of parents, both in terms of self and for the wider community (Bianchi, Robinson & Milkie, 2007). Research further indicates that when parents give quality time to their children, whether it is everyday leisure activities, or participating in religious activities, they tend to perform better academically and are less inclined to veer off towards unusual and risky behaviors (Zabriskie & McCormick, 2001; Smith & Kim, 2003; Smith, 2003). Interestingly though, academic success has been reported in children whose parents (both mothers and fathers) spend more time with them during their time away from school- Luster et al (2004) advocate that interactive mothers are central to their children’s academic success while Cooksey & Fondell (1996) believe that the participation of fathers in a child’s everyday activities allows for positive academic performance. As is evident, there is an abundance of literature available that shows the effects of parents spending quality time with children on not only the child’s academic performance but also with the positive and confident outlook of the growing child.

Merits of Parental Involvement Scheme

The parents’ involvement in child’s school activities can be very beneficial. The involvement can be made by using a number of opportunities and activities.

The research shows time after time that the parent involvement produces a positive impact on a child’s school behavior. This parental involvement strongly and positively impact on academic achievement, behavior, social adjustment and attitude about school in general. A study has conducted by John Fantuzzo, Christime McWayne and colleagues, about the involvement of parents in kindergarten. The study has found following helps these findings (Hinkle, 2010).

The study proved that kindergarten students whose parents were involved in their learning have performed better than the students whose parents were not as much involved in their education. The study has also shown that the students in kindergarten have high levels of social skills and observed to be more self-controlled, and more engaged at both home and school environments (Hinkle, 2010).

The involvement of parents at kindergarten level helps child to learn basics that includes the surety that your child gets enough rest, gets ready for the school each day and is eating right. The parents should also participate in reading daily and helping with homework. Also should arrange the trip out to museum, parks and learning places. It is very important to establish and maintain an open line communication with the school. It is a key component of parent involvement. If you maintain a healthy parent-teacher relationship your kindergarten student will take benefit from it (Hinkle, 2010).

The scheme has proven to be effective in improving the level of communication between parents and teachers as well as in between parents and children. The link is established between the families and the schools. It also improves the reputation of the school by building the trust and satisfaction of the parents. It also provides a chance to the schools to find out their weak points and improve them. The communication also makes it possible for the school and parents to realize the importance of each. A school cannot build its reputation if it is not in the good words of the parent (Lal, Campbell & Gillborn, 2004).

The scheme also encourages the children and as a result their self confidence is highly increased. In order to confident nurturing of a child, the involvement of parents is essential. Children feel highly encouraged when they are appreciated by the teachers in front of their parents (Lal, Campbell & Gillborn, 2004).

Parental involvement scheme also helps in improving the child behavior and their relationships with their class mates. If parents will be frequently involved with the teachers and keep on taking their feedback regarding their child then they will be aware of the issues (if any) being faced by their children. The parents can then discuss the problems of their children by giving them more time and resolving their issues. The parents can motivate their children to develop good relationships with their class mates by sharing things and playing. This will make good impact over the child’s behavior, classroom attitude, motivation, self esteem, absenteeism. (Lal, Campbell & Gillborn, 2004).

According to Chen (2008) the involvement of parents with their children at home also improves their reading and writing skills. Reading together will allow the child to learn from his/her parents. He/she can point out the mistakes and get them corrected. So in this way reading and writing skills are greatly enhanced.

The parent involvement scheme also motivates the teacher to the large extent. At many stages, the parents appreciate the teachers for their hard work. This lifts the morale of the teachers and they put into more efforts. Teachers have to deal with a number of students within the class. All the students show different attitudes and behaviors. It is a challenge for the teachers to deal with all the children successfully. They need encouragement which can only be obtained if parents are involved.

Demerits of Parental Involvement Scheme

Apart from many advantages, parental involvement scheme has also got its disadvantages as well. These disadvantages can be observed if the implementation of this scheme is observed through the available literature.

The scheme may not be effective for all the students as there are parents who do not find enough time in their busy schedule to take part in such activities. Such children may be left behind from their classmates and also their morale will be down.

Also the literature review has pointed out the fact that the literacy level of all the parents is different from one and another. The implementation of such schemes will be quite difficult for them to handle. Also the ethnic background may create a difference.

Whenever parents involve themselves into their child’s education, they have the best plans in their mind. In many cases, it has been see that the parents forget the fact that they are not the teachers. The parents should not impose their opinions in the presence of teachers. A teacher can handle the learning process of a child in a much better way. The degree and experience that is possessed by a teacher cannot be replaced by the opinions of the parents. The parents should only discuss their thinking with the teachers and should not try to implement. The teachers do have the command over the particular subject matter and can lead the children in the expert way. The schools hire the teachers so that they can guide the children to the right track. The parents should only show their involvement in helping the children with their homework. They should not guide the teachers for their job (Koble, 2012).

After critically observing the literature review it is also found that the parents should be involved to a certain extent and the children are needed to have some time apart from their parents. This will help the children to develop their own personality according to their own nature (Koble, 2012).

Another disadvantage that can observed due to the extreme involvement of parents in children education is the difference in children performance level. The involvement should be limited to a certain extent so that every child may have the same skills (Reynolds, 2007).

Parental Involvement Scheme Motivates Parents to get involved within Children   

Activities

A number of studies (Hendersen & Mapp, 2002; Dempsey & Sandler, 1995; Senechal & LaFavre, 2002; Jeynes, 2007) have proved the fact that parental involvement has improved the academic performance of the students. The results have motivated the parents to the large extent and they have increased their involvement in their child’s education. The basic aim of parent involvement scheme is to motivate the parents to get involved with the children and their academic life. The scheme tries to create a link in between the parents, school and teachers. In order to make this scheme successful it should be emphasized by the school management to implement the scheme in such a way that large number of parents is attracted towards it. The schools that manage to get more parental involvement are successful in implementing the scheme properly. On the other hand, there are many schools who still are struggling to find out what can work for implementing successful parent involvement scheme.

Before implementing the scheme it is required that policy should be developed by the management of the school that decides the extent for parents’ involvement. Feedback should be then taken by the parents to find out their requirements. The planning consists of deciding every factor including the extent of involvement, the activities to involve the parents and the ways to encourage the children.

A number of schools have implied this scheme and the results are remarkable. By observing the success of these schools, the parents got motivated and preferred such schools for their children where they can observe their child’s performance. The scheme has made the parents to take their decision of getting involved. The following aspects motivated the parents to get involved in their children activities:

• The schools and parents are together responsible for the development and growth of the children. It will provide the children a continuous process of learning which can enhance their personality.
• The scheme can show effective results over the children. The prominent differences were seen
• The school staff develops the plans and arranges the activities that need more parent involvement.
• Due to the parental involvement activities, children want their parents to take part in each of the activity being performed. This is also quite motivating for the parents when they observe that their children want them.
• The children can get successful if the parents are involved. This is another motivating factor.

It is seen that the parents who consider that parents and teachers together can responsibly help in the proper development of a child. This motivates the parents a lot to contribute in their children education. It shows that the schools should focus over developing effective teacher parent partnership plans so that more number of parents is attracted (Dempsey and Sandler, 2002).

Conclusion

The chapter has explained the concept of parental involvement scheme. The chapter has also discussed the merits and demerits of implementing this scheme. Also the impact of this scheme has been analyzed in this chapter. This scheme needs few elements to make it effective and these have been discussed in this chapter. The literature has been reviewed that shows the response of parents towards this scheme. This response also explains that to what extent parents want to contribute in their child’s education. The chapter presents critical observation for the different aspects of the scheme. It will help in further evaluation.

Chapter 3   Context

Education in Hong Kong

Education in Hong Kong has shown a series of changes and transitions. These changes have also been observed in the Kindergarten schooling. The Hong Kong education system has tried a lot to bring some kind of professionalism into the kindergarten schools. Hong Kong government has focused over early childhood education with great emphasis. Research in this area is required that by using what means the education level in kindergarten can be improved. Parental involvement is one of these ways. Parental involvement in early childhood education can bring much improvement in the education and development of the children. For this purpose, this dissertation is being performed. It will try to find out the effectiveness of the parental involvement programs in early childhood development and education.

The educational reforms in Hong Kong have brought a great deal of change in the education system. The government of Hang Kong has established and implemented the School Based Management (SBM) in each of the public sector school. This management is responsible for bringing huge positive changes within the education sector. The purpose of implementing the SBM is to bring improvement in the quality and level of education. This is done by involving all the people linked up with the school. Also, it aims for improving the culture of the school where students can be brought up positively and parents can get satisfaction. SBM is successfully implemented and working in all the public schools of Hong Kong. The government schools of Hong Kong emphasizes over the involvement of parents along with the other stakeholders. The parents in Hong Kong are always shown interest in involvement and this should be encouraged. Almost all the public sector schools of Hong Kong today establish parent-teacher associations so that the link between the parents, teachers and school can be maintained. These associations started to establish in 1991. The Education commission report of Hong Kong suggests that the parents should be involved and their involvement should be promoted (Yuen, 2004).

Before 1990s, the involvement of parents was not appreciated by the school management and staff in Hong Kong. The teachers always showed an unpleasant attitude towards the parents. Before that the government only used to focus over improving the education through management, quality education and curriculum. In past, the parent involvement was only considered to be as one way communication. Under this communication, the parents used to get the information of school. The parents were only supposed to come to the teachers in the case of problems. The Education Commission is the coordinating body that has been established by the Hong Kong government so as to develop the policies for education. The education commission also published a book for parents named as “better parenting” in which the involvement of parents was emphasized. The home school communication was very much emphasized and the SBM started to force the staff to start developing the link between the school and parents. In this way, the parent involvement started to develop in Hong Kong (Wing, 2006).

School Profile

I am the Head Teacher of a kindergarten. My school is a private bilingual kindergarten with 265 students and 25 teachers. Two class teachers teach one class and the class size is about 20-25 students. The medium of instruction is either Cantonese/English or Putonghua/English.

In my school, parent involvement scheme has been recently implemented. There was a need of such scheme as it was a collective decision of the management that parents should be involved in their children education. The scheme may become useful and helpful for the children to develop their personality. This scheme suggests that different activities should be arranged that boost up the involvement and participation of parents in their children’s classrooms. For this purpose, an activity has been arranged in my school that will make the parents to participate in their child’s classroom for some time. This will help the parents to improve their understanding level about the education process being followed in the classroom. By this they can share their views about it.

My research will be investigating the effects of the newly implemented Parent Involvement Scheme. My school offers the IB (International Baccalaureate) Program which encourages parental participation. The ultimate objective of the school is to “encourage students to become active, compassionate, life-long learners”. Central to the philosophy is a strong link between home and school: we believe that parental participation in school engagements is fundamental to the development of the holistic child. The IBO states;

“The IB schools are given the right approach that allows parents to construct meaning based on their previous experience and parents are often relieved hearing about the program and are very supportive to it. The school is accountable to parents and their children for the education it chooses to provide (IBO Making the PYP Happens, 2007).”

The management of school is now trying to implement the parental involvement scheme. This scheme is not the part of IBO as it will not only allow the parents to construct some experience regarding the school but it will also allow them to have an understanding about the classroom activities, learning process and the atmosphere being adapted for their children. Since the school did not have formal system for parental involvement before and this is difficult for the school to measure how parents are doing in participating ‘Parent-child’ activities. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to focus on parents’ responses to this ‘Parent Involvement Scheme’ and to investigation how the scheme stimulates the parents to contribute and get involved in students’ learning.

The parental involvement scheme that is applied in our school has been established by School Based Management. The Management of the school has designed it by making use of the elements like purpose, communication, resources and experience. There should be an objective behind every activity that is being arranged in order to involve the parents. The objective of our school behind arranging such activities is to encourage the children and develop their personality. Also, it may provide the school management with the feedback so that improvements can be made. These activities should also be able to incorporate the parents to the required extent and improve the level of communication. The activities should be designed that can improve the communication between the parents school and children. The improved communication may largely help in helping the child to grow positively. It is also necessary to have an eye over the available resources before implementing any activity. Finally the experience of the management that is developing these activities also does matter.

After the setting up of the ‘Parental Participation Scheme’, we need to jump to the second part of the research. To start the research, we need to introduce thoroughly to parents about the scheme first since this scheme is brand new to them. They must understand the scheme before being asked to comment on that. The school then arranged the teachers to introduce and promote the scheme on the Parents’ Orientation Night at the beginning of the school year. At the same time, this is a good chance to inform the parents that we will soon start to do evaluation on the scheme. The school stated that parents are free to commend and make any suggestions they like to get their involvement.

The school is not very big in size and it was possible to make all the parents involved in this research work. We have decided to do the research by levels; e.g. K1, K2 and K3 classes. The number of parents that we got is 108 from K1, 82 from K2 and 75 from K3 respectively.

Conclusion

In this chapter it has been tried to explain that it is being tried to implement the parental involvement scheme in our Kindergarten. The School Based Management (established by the Hong Kong government for each public sector school) is responsible for developing and implementing this scheme. This scheme can be implemented by various activities that may result in parental involvement.

Chapter 4   Research Methodology

Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the practical elements and the conceptual framework of the research. The chapter describes the methods that are the most appropriate for solving the research question. It is made quite clear through this chapter that how this research has performed. In this chapter, the adapted research methodology has been explained followed by the research philosophy. In the next part, the approach that has been taken to carry out this research work has been defined. The chapter also justifies its choice of methodology and research tools. Finally, the sample size, data analysis and data collection methods have been explicated in the subsequent sections.

Research Philosophy

The research philosophy defines that how the knowledge has been developed in the research study. As in this research study, the focus is over the opinion of people and then interpreting results out of them by applying some quantitative method. For this reason, it can be applied that positivistic research philosophy has been adapted to understand the reality and develop the results.

Research Approach

The research is actually an analysis of the ‘Parental Participation Scheme’.Basically, the research is divided into three parts.

In the first part of the research, the key elements of the scheme have been found. The key elements which are involved in the scheme are discussed. Apart from the key elements, the merits and demerits of the scheme are also discussed. A thorough discussion of impact of this scheme and the attitude of parents towards this scheme are also included. By observing this information, it will become quite easier to develop a clear understanding towards the topic.

In order to assess the impact of parental involvement scheme, it is needed to implement it first. This scheme has recently implemented in our school by the school management under the Hong Kong government’s School Based Management Policy. The impact of the scheme is tried to analyse by making use of an activity that may involve parents. The activity that has been involved in this research study is known as parental participation. In this activity the parents will be allowed to spend some time with their children in the classroom. The third part of the research is to carry out the research, gather information and further do the analysis. During the process of the research, the school will assign 2 teachers (1 English teacher and 1 Chinese teacher) from each level to handle all matters concerning the scheme so as to maintain the communication between levels, researcher and administrators. Finally the parents will be provided with a questionnaire in order to conduct the survey. This is useful for the researcher to check for status and progress of the research. As Grundy and Kemmis state;

“Communication is an intrinsic element, with communication being amongst the community of equals (Grundy and Kemmis, 1988).”

The purpose of performing this research is to find out the answers for the research questions which are the basic objective of this study. The following are the research questions that have been answered through this study:

1. What are the key elements involved in the ‘Parental Participation Scheme’?
2. What is the contribution of this parental involvement in child’s education? Can itmbring improvement in parents’ understanding towards their child’s education?
3. How do parents respond to the scheme?

The research has followed the above defined strategy in order to obtain the answers of the research questions.

Research Methodology

For performing this research work, methodology played the key role. Research methodology has combined together all the tools, techniques and strategies that are going to be used for collecting data and performing analysis. According to Saunders et al (2003) the chapter of research methodology is to thoroughly observe the research objectives and make use of the strategies that can help the best to perform the research and achieve the objectives. In this dissertation, the aim is to find out the effectiveness of parental involvement scheme along with its merits, demerits and impact over the child’s education. The development of research strategy is a crucial task as it should be planned in such a way that all the research objectives are met and all the questions are answered (McBurney & White 2009).

In order to perform any research study; two research methods are available. These methods are named as qualitative and quantitative research method.

Quantitative Research Method

The methods that can be used to store, measure, calculate and classify the data are known as quantitative research methods (Creswell 2010). In this research, a survey has been conducted in which the questions will be asked from the parents in order to evaluate and analyze their response. This evaluation will allow developing and generating the result.

In this research study, quantitative research methods has been adapted. This method has allowed conducting the survey in order to observe the opinion of the people.

Survey

Survey can be defined as tool that is used to collect the information that is quantitative in nature. The data is collected from a specified sample of a population. In majority of the cases, questionnaires and interviews are involved for performing surveys. The choice of questionnaire or interview is made according to the need of the research (Fowler 2009).

In this dissertation, for sampling, we will gather information from all parents basically and the number of all parents is about 265. We have decided to do the research by levels; e.g. K1, K2 and K3 classes. The number of parents that we got is 108 from K1, 82 from K2 and 75 from K3 respectively. The reasons of dividing the parents into 3 groups because the expectations and there will be some specific contents for each group.

The data is collected in two different stages. In the first stage of data collection, the quantitative research method has been used i.e., survey. The parents of all levels will be given a ‘self-completion questionnaire’. The contents of the questionnaire will consist of close-ended questions. As Williams states;

“Questionnaires consist not only of questions. They will contain instructions to the interviewer, they may contain ‘filters’ to take some respondents on different routes to others and they will often contain things that are to be read out by the interviewer or respondent (Williams, 2003).”

Also, the design of the questionnaires is based on scale which is known as a ‘Likert scale’. The questionnaire consists of a number of questions or statements which the respondents are asked to agree or disagree. At the end of the questionnaires, there will be an area for asking further comments from the interviewees. The interviewees can express their point of views freely in this area.

For gathering the quantitative data from the first step of the research, the data is grouped in K1, K2 and K3 respectively for analysis. This made the data more easily understood (Denscombe, 2003). After this, Excel is used for doing the analysis of the gathered response. For the data calculation, the total number of people along with the provided options is mentioned and then the actual percentage of people with each option is calculated (Lucas, 2007). In this stage, all the data is organized into tables and finally the data is presented by histograms.

Choice of Research Strategy

In this research study, both the quantitative and qualitative research methodologies have been followed as it was the most suitable one. This research method can be used to find out the answers of all the questions. The methodology makes it possible to gather huge amount of information. Also, the opinions from different people can be collected by using this methodology. A tool like survey has been utilized along with this methodology in order to get perfect results. In this dissertation the quantitative research method that has been applied is ‘survey’.

The survey will be performed by asking some questions regarding the research. For this purpose, a questionnaire has been prepared. The respondents have been assured that their confidentiality will be maintained. In order to maintain the confidentiality, the respondents have not been asked for any personal details. They have been kept anonymous. Survey is the best way to gather huge amount of information efficiently and effectively within the given time period. Also, the information gathered by this methodology will be much inclined to normality instead of artificiality (Saunders 2009).

The qualitative research seeks to explore the phenomena into its original context while the quantitative research helps to collect and calculate the results. For this purpose, this combination of methodologies has been selected as it was necessary to systematically inquire the meanings, concepts and theories related to the context. This understanding will allow the author to develop the understanding and investigate the area of study. Finally the use of quantitative research method will help us to test the developed understanding and verifying the results by performing some tests.

Data Collection

A number of tools and techniques are available for collecting data. In this dissertation both the primary as well as secondary data has been used. Both kinds of data were required in order to meet the goals of the study.

Primary data can be defined as the information that has been conducted by the researcher himself (Wiid & Diggines 2010). In this dissertation, primary data has been used in order to find out the opinions of the different people associated with the organization. For this purpose, the researcher has made use of survey questionnaire to get the desired information.

A questionnaire is prepared in order to let the parents to self evaluate themselves. The questionnaire has also helped to let the parents analyzing their understanding towards the child’s learning process. The questionnaire was distributed among the parents after a session of parent participation activity. The special activity was planned in order to allow them to have an insight into their child’s classroom and the activities. This is the basic objective of performing this research work. The aim is to involve the parents and allow them to observe their children’s education and process of learning. After the parent participation session, face to face parent teacher meeting was also conducted which was not of long duration. The questionnaire was then distributed among the parents that were later submitted by them in a box where all the surveys were randomly collected. In this way, the effectiveness of parental involvement scheme and the opinions of parents regarding this scheme have been observed. These questionnaires will help to take the feedback from the parents regarding the parent participation. In this section, the analysis has been made on the basis of these questionnaires in three levels; K1, K2 and K3.

In addition to the quantitative data collected by means of the questionnaire, I devised also a set of questions to serve as the basis for semi-structured interviews. Ninety-eight parents agreed to do these interviews. The interview results are summarized and synthesized in chapter 5.3. The seminal advantages of qualitative research are certainly manifest: unlike quantitative research, qualitative research does not start out with a predetermined hypothesis, which allows the research itself a great deal more fluidity and flexibility. The goal of this qualitative research was to elicit information about parents’ experiences and perceptions that would be difficult to capture in questionnaire form. The idea was that by allowing them a much more open-ended format to express themselves, the parents would be able to volunteer a great deal of information that an instrument such as a questionnaire is simply poorly equipped to capture.

On the other hand, secondary data is the one that already exists (Guffey & Loewy 2009) in some form (books, articles, journals, research work). In this dissertation, secondary data has been collected first in order to find out the overall scenario and situation. It has been tried in this dissertation to obtain the secondary data from the reliable sources only.

Ethical Considerations

The process of research involves many parents and I have to make every parent clear about their roles and responsibilities so as to minimize the possible ethical issue concerning the interviewees of the research. Also, every parent involved should be informed before the starting the research and they have the rights to know the issues related to the research.

There are lots of investigations to be carried out in the research. It was needed to assure the parents that all the information and data will be confidential. This can also make the participants to feel more comfortable and secure to raise their opinions and thoughts of the research issues. As Tim Hill states;

“Doing research in your own workplace raises particular ethical issues to do with trust and confidentiality (Hill 2007).”

We have to make sure that all the respondents are not required to put their name on the questionnaires. The data will be collected anonymously. It was also explained to the parents that this participating in this survey is volunteer activity and they can withdraw if they want to. But the survey was attempted by all the parents. There were no demographic questions which satisfied the participants for their confidentiality. As Cohen, Manion and Morrison state;

“The second way of protecting a participant’s right to privacy is through the promise of confidentiality. This means that although researchers know who has provided the information or are able to identify participants from the information given, they will in no way make the connection known publicly (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2000).”

Conclusion

The chapter has clearly defined the picture of the study. The study is qualitative as well as quantitative in nature. Both the research methodologies have been incorporated to obtain the information and data that will be then used to generate the results. The study has been performed by keeping ethical considerations in mind.

Chapter 5   Findings and Discussion  

Introduction

The purpose of the chapter is to present and analyze the primary data collected from the parents after administering both questionnaire and semi-structured interviews.

Results of Research at Level K1, K2 & K3

At this stage of research, 108 parents were involved in level K1, 82 were in level K2 and 75 were in K3. Each cohort answered different questions as a veritable means of feedback to the parental involvement scheme. This data has been collected by the means of, in the first place, distributing the survey questionnaires to the parents after the parental involvement activity, and in the second place, administering the semi-structured interviews at agreed-upon times felicitous to the parents.

Analysis of Parents’ Responses

By observing the responses of the parents it is quite clear that the responses of parents from all the levels were similar indeed, though the frequencies were, of a surety, different. The following findings were obtained:

Firstly, parents involved in this participation scheme were from multitudinous walks of life. Many expressed how busy they found themselves in these hectic modern times, an all-too-common refrain in this frenetic age. A clear indication here was that for many parents, teachers play an important role as surrogates with regards to the upbringing of their children.

Nonetheless, the majority of the parents from level K3 stated the position that they are giving appropriate time to their children. These parents normally provide their offspring with help for their problems through at-home discussions. They also help out children in their homework, reading and writing skills. These parents take their responsibilities seriously, and they are used to providing their progeny with help in cultivating their academic skills, notably the arts of reading and writing.

Questionnaire

Did you feel that you had enough time to participate in your child’s classroom activities?

In level K1, in reply to this question, none of the parents replied with more than enough. The majority of the parents replied with ‘enough’. Some of the parents replied with ‘just enough’. Far fewer parents replied that they were not really satisfied.

In level K2, 37 of the parents replied with ‘more than enough’, 21 replied with ‘enough’, 12 of them replied with ‘just enough’, 8 with ‘not really satisfied’ and 4 with ‘not satisfied’. The following graph depicts this response.

At K3 level, 11 parents answered that they are giving more than enough time.38 parents replied with ‘enough’, that means they are helping out in their problems. 13 parents replied with ‘just enough’ means they are giving time to their children but are not satisfied. Very less number of parents (10) has replied with not really satisfied. Finally 3 of the parents responded with ‘not satisfied’.

The first question that was asked by the parents was that are they giving enough time to their children by participating with them in their activities.

There were no parents in level K1 who considered that they are giving more than enough time to their children. The majority of the parents from all the levels consider that they are giving enough time. Some of the parents have also replied with ‘not really satisfied’.

Were you satisfied with the arrangement of the scheme?

At level K1, Majority of the parents (82) replied with ‘very satisfied’. Some of the parents (20) replied with ‘satisfied’ and 6 of them with ‘just satisfied’. None of them replied with ‘not satisfied’ which means that almost all the parents who took part in this activity were satisfied to some particular extent.

In level K2, 26 of the parent replied with ‘very satisfied’, 38 with ‘satisfied’, 16 with ‘just satisfied’, and 2 with ‘not really satisfied’ and none of them replied with ‘not satisfied’.

In level K3, 18 have responded with ‘very satisfied’, 25 of the parents involved in the survey have replied that they were ‘satisfied’, 20 replied that they are ‘just satisfied’. Still, few of the parents were not satisfied with the arrangements. 10 of the parents replied with ‘not really satisfied’ and 2 with ‘not satisfied’.

This question that was asked was regarding the satisfaction of parents for the arrangement that has been made for the parent participation scheme. This refers to the setting up of the activities. It was evident from their participation and response that they have really liked the arrangement of parent participation scheme. This response has also shown the encouragement for these kinds of activities. It evinces parents’ desires to have such activities so that they can participate with their children. These activities have also facilitated parental understanding of their education and activities. For this reason, the parents got satisfied with the arrangement. This response is very encouraging for motivating the parental involvement scheme and its related activities. The response shows that the parental participation activity was successfully held and such activities should be arranged in future. This huge level of satisfaction from parents shows that they were most enthusiastic concerning the arrangements of this activity. The response also evinces the degree to which parents do appreciate the involvement activities so that they may get to know about the classroom activities of their children. The parents have highly encouraged these activities through their response. The response shows that majority of the parents are quite satisfied with the arrangement of this parent participation scheme. It concludes that in future these schemes should be encouraged. Hence it shows that the arrangement of this activity was quite satisfactory and should be carried out in future as well.

Were you able to gain a better understanding of how your child is learning?

In level K1, 15 of the parents replied with ‘a much better understanding’, 38 of them replied with ‘a better understanding’, 23 have replied with ‘a satisfactory understanding’, 20 of them have replied with ‘not a satisfactory understanding and 12 have replied with ‘an unsatisfactory understanding’.

In level K2, 28 of the parents replied with ‘a much better understanding’, 20 with ‘a better understanding’, 12 with ‘a satisfactory understanding’, 18 with ‘not a very satisfactory understanding’ and 4 with ‘an unsatisfactory understanding’.

In level K3, 6 of the parents replied with ‘a much better understanding’, 38 with ‘a better understanding’, 20 with ‘a satisfactory understanding’, 6 with ‘not a very satisfactory understanding’ and 4 with ‘an unsatisfactory understanding’.

This question that was asked by the parents in this survey was regarding their understanding towards their child’s learning process. This question was of immense importance for the parents as well as for the school. Through this question, it was desired to assess that to what extent parents are participating in their children education. If they know about the learning process that is being followed by the children then it means their involvement is enough. Also the question finds out the satisfaction level of the parents for the education process. If the parents will not be satisfied enough then the school management will try to make some changes so that the parents may become satisfied. The basic reason behind asking this question was to find out the effectiveness of this parental involvement scheme. Through this question, the school also wanted to know about the opinion of parents for their learning process. The staff wanted to assess whether the parents are satisfied with it or not. The activity allowed the parents to understand the process and then develop their opinion for it. The response shows that majority of the parents think that this activity has improved their level of understanding regarding their child’s classroom activities. This response shows that the parents are quite satisfied with this scheme and they are getting better understanding of the process. But still there are parents who want more understanding. Such parents want more involvement in the classroom activities so that they can improve their level of understanding. This response also shows that parents are willing to get more involved. This question is really important for the parents to assess the school. The purpose for this question was to gain useful information about their involvement in their children education.

Did you find participating in your child’s classroom beneficial to his/her learning?

In level K1, 11 of the parents have replied with ‘very helpful’, 46 of them have replied with ‘helpful’, 38 of the parents have replied with ‘moderately helpful’, 13 of them have replied with ‘not helpful’ and none of them have replied with ‘not helpful at all’.

In level K2, 25 of the parents replied with ‘very helpful’, 18 with ‘helpful’, 24 with ‘moderately helpful’, 10 with ‘not helpful’ and 5 with ‘not helpful at all’.

In level K3, few of the parents responded that this scheme is not helpful and these parents do not take interest in their children’s activities and want the teachers to educate them. 17 of the parents replied to this question with ‘very helpful’, 10 with ‘helpful’, 23 with ‘moderately helpful’, 15 with ‘not helpful’ and 10 with ‘not helpful at all’.

This question is about the effectiveness of parent participation in their child’s learning process. The purpose of this question was to assess the effectiveness of parental involvement in their child’s education. Do they find it useful or not? This question is very significant in order to find out the significance of parental participation in the children education. The response has allowed evaluating the parents’ opinion in this regard. It has also let the parents to find out whether they want to get involved in their child’s learning. This question has allowed to analyze whether this parental involvement scheme be incorporated within the schools or not.

The response indicates that very few parents consider this scheme to be not helpful, and that such parents do not take this as their responsibility, seeing it rather as the teachers’ responsibility. But the response show that majority of the parents agree the fact that their involvement in the children’s education make it easier for them to get adjusted and develop their personality. It was also necessary to observe the effectiveness of involving parents into their children’s education. Through this survey, it was tried to find out that in their view how much effective this participation can be. The response shows that majority of the parents believe that they can help in improving the learning process of their children by showing full involvement. This means that they are willing to take part in such involvement and participation activities. Such parents do feel themselves responsible for the proper learning and development of their child. On the other hand, few of the parents think that this practice is not helpful. Such parents do not want to take the responsibility of their child. They consider that the education of their child is the sole responsibility of the teachers. For this reason they are not satisfied with the parent involvement.

Do you now have a better understanding of learning at our school?

In level K1, 32 out of 108 parents replied with ‘very good’, 47 have responded with ‘good’, 23 with ‘fair’, 6 with ‘not clear’ and none of them replied with ‘not clear at all’. The response show that majority of the parents were happy from this activity.

In level K2, 28 out of 82 parents replied with ‘very good’, 17 with ‘good’, 19 with ‘fair’, 10 with ‘not clear’ and 8 with ‘not clear at all’.

In level K3, out of 75 parents 33 replied with ‘very good’, 11 replied ‘good’, 26 with ‘fair’, 3 with ‘not clear’ and 2 with ‘not clear at all’. Majority of the parents are in favor of this scheme. This clearly suggested that parents like to involve in learning of their children’s activities.

This question is regarding the result of this parental involvement activity that has been arranged to improve the understanding of parents regarding their children’s education. In response to this question parents have shown a very positive attitude. They were found quite happy after their involvement activity. This activity have made the parents to realize that parent involvement is not only limited to the homework activities and parent teaching meetings. This response encourages the schools to increase the incorporation of parents by arranging such activities. In the next question, it was tried to observe that after performing this activity what is the learning status of parents about their child’s classroom activities and learning process? It has been tried to analyze that has this activity been helpful in allowing the parents to gain more understanding. The response will allow assessing the effectiveness of this activity. The response shows that majority of the parents felt that this activity helped them in improving their understanding regarding their child’s education process. They have felt improvement in their understanding and have encouraged these activities. Few of the parents have shown that they are not clear about the education activities being performed. Perhaps they want less involvement and want teachers to get fully engaged with their children. The next question was actually the result of parental activity regarding to improve their children education.  Surprisingly parents have shown very positive response. They were very pleased after this activity. All the arrangements have made to understand the parental involvement is really important in children learning process. The schools also encourage this response from the parents by arranging such activities.

How did your child feel about having you in the classroom?

In level K1, 17 of the parents agreed that their child ‘enjoyed it very much’, 56 replied that their child ‘enjoyed it’, 21 stated that their child ‘moderately enjoyed it’, 11 said that the child ‘did not enjoy it’ and 3 replied with ‘did not enjoy at all’.

In level K2, 64 of the parents stated that their child ‘enjoyed it very much’, 12 replied with ‘enjoyed it’, 6 with ‘moderately enjoyed it’ and none of the parents replied with ‘did not enjoy it’ and ‘did not enjoy it at all’.

In level K3, 45 of the parents replied with ‘enjoyed it very much’, 28 replied with ‘enjoyed it’, 2 with ‘moderately enjoyed it’ and none of the parents replied with ‘did not enjoyed it’. This response was quite positive and none of the parent gave the negative response.

This question of this survey was about the feelings of children when they see involvement of their parents. It has been observed that children feel very happy when they see that their parents are interested in their classroom activities. This is quite enthusiastic for the children and they feel excited for sharing their classroom stories. After conducting this activity, the reaction of children was also asked. The result shows that the parent involvement is quite motivational for the child and it also makes them happy. This will no doubt help a lot in developing their personality and positive impacts will be observed. The response shows that children have highly welcomed this activity and they felt really happy when they saw their parents in classroom. The response shows the overwhelming reactions of the children for this activity. It shows that they enjoyed it very much. This makes it quite clear that the presence of the parents is quite motivating for the children and may help them to groom well. It has been found that the children were excited and happy to see their parents’ involvements in their learning process.  It is always excited for children to share their class room stories. The huge amount of children really enjoyed it.

Semi-Structured Interview

I conducted ninety-eight interviews; of necessity, the data here presented constitute synthesis and summary.

What kinds of activities would you like to see in your child’s classroom? And, how do these compare with what is available now?

Here, the responses were quite varied: some parents, a considerable lobby in fact (perhaps thirty or so), wanted to see more reading, and were quite definite on this point. ‘Reading is very important in our household, and we want to see more of it in the school’ was a common refrain with this group. They were perhaps divided evenly between those who expressed disapproval with the school for not working in more reading, and those who phrased it in terms of thinking well of the school, and merely proffering a mild suggestion for improvement. An even larger group, perhaps forty or more, wanted to see more play activities, and many of these individuals talked about ways of integrating play and learning. ‘Learning must be fun’ was the essential message here. This group included a few members from the ‘reading’ group as well. Their responses included plenty of helpful critique, but in the main the vast majority of the parents were overwhelmingly positive. Easily two-thirds of them expressed appreciation for the school, and quite a few of these did so warmly.

Overall, however, most of the parents said they approved of most of what the school was doing. Thus the responses were quite positive in many ways, but naturally the parents with critiques wished to enumerate them, meaning that the critiques of necessity occupy a larger portion of the discussion as here presented.

How do you find your interactions with the school? Is anything unsatisfactory, and if so, how could it be improved?

Here, most of the parents were again quite happy with the school, the more because of their participation. However, there were a number of them who expressed disaffection with regards to their understanding of the overall process of learning at the school (in keeping with K3). ‘I have a hard time understanding the value of some of these assignments’ was a common refrain here, with some parents feeling that a number of the assignments—not necessarily a majority, but enough to remark on—were of questionable educational value. Clarity was the main thing they sought: a better understanding of why a given assignment was given to their child.

A number of other parents, however, reported that their interactions with the school had been quite positive. Efficiency, cheerfulness, and professionalism were some of the virtues they enumerated. ‘This is a great school’, they said over and over. ‘My child loves it here, and everyone is always so courteous and respectful’ was another common statement. Many of these parents mentioned having had occasion to voice some concern with a teacher or administrator, and having their minds put at ease quite readily.

How would you describe your child’s school experience for them? Is your child enjoying school, or not? Are they learning well, or not? 

Here, the results were quite mixed, with parents reporting a spectrum of reactions and perceptions. Some parents said they believed their children simply found education to be a kind of a game at this stage, while others said that their children seemed to find it a source of difficulty. According to the parents, some children loved their schooling, while others didn’t. Some children were learning well, according to their parents, while others were not.

Many parents talked about their own efforts to mold their children into responsible, capable students, young people who would respect their teachers and be diligent with their schoolwork. Although no small number of parents confessed that they had had occasions of frustration with their children in this vein, they were also clear that they had every hope that their children would succeed. ‘We help our son with his homework,’ one mother said. ‘He’s been having trouble, so every night one of us sits with him and helps him do it.’ The parents’ commitment to their children was clear, and definitely emerged as one of the major themes here. This was interesting, because the conversations so often headed in this direction despite the initial question being about the parents’ perceptions of their children’s education.

How do you think your child understands education? What does it mean for them, so far?   

According to many parents, their children understood at least some of the importance of education, in however limited a fashion. ‘My child understands it is important for them to be able to achieve what they want to be when they grow up’ was a pretty common theme here. However, many parents said their children largely understood education in terms of fun versus obligations: some of the activities education entails are fun for their children, while others are obligations and not necessarily welcome. Another major theme, of course, was that of friendship: many parents said their children enjoy the friends they have at school, and this makes a big difference.

Does your child ever express frustration or dissatisfaction with school? If so, what do you tell your child?

Virtually all of the parents said that yes, their child has expressed frustration or dissatisfaction with school, typically on many occasions. Most of the parents seemed to find this question the most self-evident one. ‘Every child has trouble with school at some point,’ one parent said. ‘My daughter gets frustrated with schoolwork sometimes, but I just tell her it is extremely important if she wants to achieve great things,’ one father said. Typical frustrations the parents recounted centered around their child being asked to do something that seemed difficult or impossible to the child, often something that the child had barely begun to learn.

As for what they told their children, here many of the parents laughed and said something to the effect of, ‘I tell my child that being frustrated is an important part of life.’ Parents explained that they often tried to encourage their children by telling them to start with what they already knew: no matter the subject, the child could usually be counted on to know something, and in true Vygotskian fashion, this could serve as the springboard to further knowledge. Parents were also very clear that they did not allow their children to just give up when things became difficult. ‘My child is not allowed to quit’ was the essential message here, and one father not only explicitly said this, but also quite proudly volunteered the fact that he told his son this.

Here, the key theme seemed to be the parents’ love for, and pride in, their children. All the parents understood that their children had difficulties with some of the material, but they were clear that they tried to communicate to their children that while having trouble is fine, quitting because of it is not. This was an extremely common line.

Does your child ever express enthusiasm with, or happiness about, school?

According to the parents, their children tended to express plenty of enthusiasm: about their friends, sometimes about their teachers, and in many cases, even their schoolwork at times. Friends and those teachers who were likeable dominated these reports, indicating the importance to students of their social environments. However, there was also a current of enthusiasm for at least some of the schoolwork, according to the parents. ‘My daughter loves learning,’ one proud mother told me. ‘This school is very good for my son; he loves it,’ another parent said. All in all, the responses here were much in keeping with similar indications from the other questions.

How would you describe your role in your child’s education?

The parents described a very wide range of philosophies on this, giving the lie to any uniform, monolithic ‘Asian’ approach to education and child-rearing. For some parents, the role they described was extremely hands-on, involved, and managerial. ‘It is important to me to be very involved in my child’s education’ was the main theme here. ‘I’m not going to allow my child to not take schoolwork seriously’ was essentially what several parents said, either implicitly or explicitly. These parents stressed the importance of school, and the need to not allow children to shirk their responsibilities. ‘Children need guidance’ was a very common line from these parents. Although they were clearly hands-on parents, their deep concern for their children’s well-being was very clear: all of them wanted nothing but the greatest success for their children, and were bound and determined to see that this came to pass.

From there it was a continuum, with many parents envisioning their role as providing a substantial amount of guidance, but still allowing their children considerable scope for autonomy. One parent gave the colorful metaphor of riding a bike: ‘It’s difficult at first, and you need your parents to watch you and catch you if need be,’ she said. ‘But, with time, you start to be able to do it, and then you don’t need anyone to hold you.’ She said that she and her husband tried to do this for their son: allowing him room to grow and explore and test his limits, but at the same time, providing him with enough of those limits to keep him safe.

‘The hardest part of being a parent is knowing you can’t always be there for your child,’ one father said. ‘So I try to teach my daughter now the ways in which she can teach herself.’ This father described one of the more hands-off philosophies of parenting out of the whole group. He and a small but significant minority explained that although they circumspectly kept their children safe and provided them with guidance, much of their parenting was geared towards teaching their children to discover and learn for themselves. A key idea here was that learning should be something that a child learns to love, so that they will want to learn, not merely think that they have to learn. ‘That way, they want to learn and so it’s not a chore,’ one mother said to me.

What are your own aspirations and hopes for your child’s education?

Predictably enough, all of the parents expressed very high aspirations and hopes for their children. Many said that they hoped their children would be far more accomplished than they were themselves. Upward mobility was a major theme here, with parents stressing that they were trying to instill in their children the importance of a good education, so that the children would grow up to become very accomplished people in their own right, and hopefully more accomplished than their parents.

Quite a few parents expressed hopes that their children would become something specific, like a doctor, engineer, lawyer, architect, or the like. Many parents said that they hoped their children would turn out to be creative types: musicians, writers, artists, dancers. They were somewhat divided on the degree to which they expected that their children would go through with these aspirations, however: some parents were quite adamant that they expected their children to choose well-paying, high-powered vocations, while others adopted a more laissez-faire attitude about the whole subject, stating their convictions that their children should be allowed to choose for themselves.

Conclusion

The quantitative findings indicate that the parents tend to be extremely busy, and this creates certain trade-offs with respect to how they manage their time. Many were at least reasonably satisfied with the parental involvement activities, and similarly, many found that this contributed substantially to their understanding of their children’s education. The qualitative findings provided a wealth of information that would not have been available by the quantitative means of the questionnaire here used: parents expressed a range of opinions about how the school allocates time, about their interactions with school personnel, and about how they think their child values education. Parental philosophies on education and child-rearing were also quite diverse, and cast much light on parents’ perspectives in coming to this exercise.

A final word is in order concerning my own role. As the head teacher, it is indeed quite possible that the parents tempered their reactions so as to avoid giving offense, or at least minimize doing so. Unfortunately, this is something that is difficult for me to measure. While I am gratified that a number of the parents were candid about their concerns and their issues, and have indeed known many to be so in the past, it nevertheless remains the case that it is somewhat difficult to gauge how many parents may have put a better face on things for the sake of politeness.

Chapter 6   Conclusion

In this dissertation the role and need of parental involvement scheme has been observed. The study has demonstrated that the role of parental involvement is scarcely limited to parent teacher meetings, inasmuch as it extends to many activities both in and out of the school. Parents today can help children in many ways, not only at schools but also within the home. This involvement is beneficial not only with respect to the education of their children but also in developing their personality. The involvement of parents has been largely observed at different stages of their children education. In this report, the focus is over the parental involvement in kindergarten schools. For this purpose, a case study has been performed by considering a school.

The school is of kindergarten level and not a very large one. As a result it was possible to involve all the parents within the research. A total of 265 parents are linked up with this school. The survey involves 108 parents from K1, 82 from K2 and 75 from K3. The survey has been performed by involving the parents of the children studying in this school. The research has been performed at three different stages; K1, K2 and K3. This has made the research to be simpler and the results will be more authentic. A questionnaire was formulated for the purposes of conducting quantitative research, while semi-structured interviews were conducted for the purposes of qualitative research. These questions are very helpful in evaluating the role and need of parental involvement scheme at kindergarten level.

The research has shown that parents’ involvement is largely observed at every stage. The parents today are very much concerned with their children’s education. According to them, this is the only way to find out the academic as well as behavioral performance of their children at school. The study has also verified that parents consider that because of the involvement of parents in their children education, the rate of children success has also been improved. The parent involvement is not only limited to schools but it also covers the guidance provided by the parents at home to their children. The parents should concentrate over children at home to improve their learning. The involvement of parents has been highly observed in kindergarten stage. At this initial stage of academic life children needs a lot of support from their parents.

The research report has confirmed the fact that the parents of children at kindergarten stage were highly involved in their children’s school life. Mostly mothers are seen to be involved. Parents at this age of children do regularly keep on visiting the teachers once or twice in a month. These parents are very much concerned about the activities of their child in the classroom. Although the parent involvement has shown improved results and the success of children has encouraged this scheme. But it is better to create a policy for this scheme so that the parental involvement scheme may not show any negative impacts. In this dissertation, it has been showed that the involvement of parents should be within limits. If the limits are exceeded then it can be a disadvantage rather than being an advantage. The parents should consult with the teachers regarding the performance of their child. They should also share the child’s problems with the teachers. They should never try to guide the teacher or take their place. Teachers are experienced in their own subject areas. They know how to handle the child and how to make them learn the things. Also they know to deal with the children of different behaviors. So, the parents are not required to guide them. They should only discuss the concerned issues with the teachers and then leave over them to handle these issues.

The research has shown that majority of the parents find enough time to participate in the classroom activities of their children. Although there are few parents who do not find really satisfactory time for participating in their children’s classroom activities. The high percentage of parents has shown the successful implementation of parental involvement scheme within the kindergarten stage. The response shows the interest of parents in their children activities. This response is very encouraging for implementing the parental involvement scheme and improving it by introducing new techniques and methods.

The questionnaire performed in the dissertation has also allowed judging the satisfaction level of the parents regarding the performance of school in terms of involving parents. This is another good way of assessing how well a school is performing in terms of parental involvement. The survey shows that majority of the parents were not having any complaints and were very satisfied. On the other hand, there were few parents who were not really satisfied. These parents also suggested improvements. Most of them wanted to have much time so that they may have fact to face conversation with the teachers regarding their children. The comments of parents in this aspect have been respectfully taken so that in future more improvements can be made.

It was also tried to assess that to what extent, the parents have got the understanding of their child’s learning process. The response has shown that the understanding level became much better after this parent participation. After having a conversation with the teachers, the parents were able to ask many questions regarding their child’s learning. It largely improved their understanding towards their children activities. None of the parents were dissatisfied from this participation. This shows the success of parental involvement scheme and the response of parents towards this scheme. This participation has helped parents a lot as they discussed their concerns for their children with the teachers. It has also strengthened the trust of parents over the teachers and the school.  The parents feel more relaxed from their children when they have the understanding of their learning process and their activities. Hence the parent participation can also improve the satisfaction level of the parents from their children’s academic life. The response has encouraged the school staff to promote such activities that do involve parents along with the children.

Another question that was asked of the parents in this questionnaire was whether they find this involvement effective in their child’s learning process or not. Majority of the parents replied with very helpful. It means that such parents have observed that their involvement has improved the learning of their child. This fact has been explained by a number of studies in the past as well. When parents get themselves involved with their children at home then they can teach them a lot. It is required that all the parents should give time to their children at home so that they may not feel left behind from other students who are given appropriate time at home. This activity also improves the confidence level of the child and grooms his/her personality. Children also want to get the attention of their parents. The parents should talk about their activities in school and listen to their experiences. The parents should also assess the reading and writing abilities of their children at home. This can help the children to come over their mistakes and improve their reading and writing skills. Children also feel good when they see their parents getting engaged with their studies.

The involvement of parents also allows them to have an eye over the activities and studies that are going on within the school. This is not only beneficial for the parents and children but for the school as well. It is helpful in developing the reputation of the school. The parents feel very comfortable and relax when they are aware of the activities that are being performed within the classroom. The dissertation has made it clear that the parents believe that because of parental involvement scheme they have got much better understanding of the classroom activities. This has also led to the parents’ satisfaction towards their children education. This is one of the main issues that have been resolved by the parental involvement scheme. Otherwise this issue has caught the parents’ attention to the large extent. As they always feel disturbed and concerned regarding the selection of institute for their child.

The results have also attested that children also enjoy their parents’ involvement within their classrooms. Such activities should be arranged that may involve parents with their children. It is quite encouraging for the children and they feel very excited about it. The children feel very excited to hear good remarks from their teachers in front of their parents. The feeling of having parents in their classroom also encourages the children to perform better so that their teachers praise them in front of their parents.

The findings of the study show that in each and every aspect, the parental involvement scheme is quite helpful and effective. The scheme has not only benefited the parents but also the children and school. The scheme has shown encouraging effects over the children and the parents have also shown their satisfaction. This scheme can also help to leverage the reputation of the school as well.

This study is quite effective as it has practically implemented the parental involvement scheme and then analysed its impacts. Strength of this study includes that it has thoroughly investigated the education background of Hong Kong. Due to which the background of parental involvement scheme became quite clear. Another positive aspect of this study is that the parental involvement scheme has been performed by establishing an activity in which the parents have been given a chance to observe the classroom environment of their child and also the learning process. The only limitation of this study that has been observed includes that the time period was short. The parents wanted to have one to one discussion with the teacher but that was not planned within the activity so it was not possible.

Recommendations

Although parental involvement scheme has shown remarkable results but still there are few things that should be considered in order to bring more improvements. These recommendations are listed below:

• Parental involvement scheme should provide advantages to all the children and should equally develop the personality of every child. The research has shown that the involvement of parents do vary from one child to another. This also brings a difference in the education and development of children. The school management should try to develop the measures that can reduce the difference between the involvements of parents in their children’s education. This will bring equilibrium in the development and performance of children. Such strategies should be developed that can make the parents t get involved. Also the awareness programs should be developed that may give awareness to the parents about the benefits of their involvement.
• It is also recommended that the school should provide training to the teachers that they may effectively deal with the parental involvement scheme. This may help in creating the activities for the involvement of parents. The involvement of parents should be to a certain extent in order to take full advantage of it. The extra involvement of parents might lead to the disadvantages. It might not only affect the teachers but also the children as well. The teachers should also be trained for making the parents to involve within their limits.
• The policy should be maintained for implementing the scheme and this policy should be regularly updated. For this reason, the development of a proper policy for the implementation of parental involvement scheme is necessary. The policy should define the role and responsibility of parents and teachers.
• For performing any involvement activity the school needs an amount of budget and resources. The activity that was arranged for conducting this research is of small scale and not many resources were required. The schools should provide enough amount and resources to the staff for arranging large scale activities. By keeping this amount in mind the staff can plan the activities that might help in promoting parental involvement. These activities can be in the shape of some meetings, conferences, events and shows. These activities can boost up the interest of parents as well as children. The children remain active and excited for these activities. These are also helpful in boosting up their confidence.
• The scheme should be promoted and the parents should be pushed to take part in the activities. This can be done by performing the quarterly or annually surveys. It can be made prominent from the surveys that how many parents are taking part in these activities. Also the rate of success of the children whose parents are involved should be shown. This will encourage the parents who do not take interest in these activities. This measure will greatly help in increasing the parent involvement and participation rate.
• It is also recommended that during the activity, the teachers should not discuss each and every thing in front of the students. For the kindergarten students, it is recommended that only positive aspects should be discussed. This will be encouraging for the students. The negative aspects should be discussed with the parents in private. Otherwise the children will feel disheartened and discouraged.

If the above recommendations are followed properly then the implementation of parental involvement scheme can become more effective. Involving the parents is not the only thing required but it is also required to involve them effectively. Otherwise no benefits will be obtained from the scheme.

Suggestions for Further Research

In future this research work can be extended by analyzing the effectiveness of parental involvement scheme at higher grades. Also the research can be done to monitor the performance difference between the students whose parents are involved and the students whose parents are not involved. Also it can be investigated that how this scheme can be made effective and improved. This is a vast area and much more research works can be conducted in this context.

References

Abd-el-Fattah, S. M. (2006). ‘Effects of family background and parental involvement on Egyptian adolescents’ academic achievement and school disengagement: A structural equation modeling analysis.’ Social Psychology of Education, 9, pp. 139-157.

Alesia, (2011) ‘The impact of Parental Involvement on Children’s Education.’ Department of Education.

Altschul, I. (2011). ‘Parental involvement and the academic achievement of Mexican American Youths: What Kinds of Involvement in Youths’ Education Matter Most?’ Social Work Research, 35(3), pp. 159-170.

Banerjee, M., Harrell, Z. A. T., & Johnson, D. J. (2011). ‘Racial/ethnic socialization and parental involvement in education as predictors of cognitive ability and achievement in African American Children.’ Journal of Youth Adolescence, 40, pp. 595-605.  

Barnard, W. M. (2004). ‘Parent involvement in elementary school and educational attainment.’ Children and Youth Services Review, 26(1), pp. 39-62.

Barry, D., Bernard, M., & Beitel, M. (2009). ‘East Asian child-rearing attitudes: An exploration of cultural, demographic and self-disclosure factors among US immigrants.’ International Journal of Psychology, 44(5), pp. 342-350.

Bianchi, S. M., Robinson, J. P., and Milkie, M. A. (2007) Changing Rhythms of American Family Life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Bloom, B. (1984). ‘The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring.’ Educational Leadership, Vol.41 (8), pp. 4-17.

Bridge, H. (2001). ‘Increasing parental involvement in the preschool curriculum: What an action research case study revealed.’ International Journal of Early Years Education, 9(1), pp. 5-21.

Brito, J. & Waller, H. (1994). ‘Partnership at a price? Ruling the Margins: Problematizing Parental Involvement.’ London: Institute of Education, University of London, pp. 157-166.

Ceballo, R., Maurizi, L. K., Suarez, G. A., & Aretakis, M. T. (2013). ‘Gift and sacrifice: Parental involvement in Latino Adolescents’ Education.’ Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, pp. 1-12.

Christenson, S. L., Rounds, T., & Gorney, D. (1982). ‘Family factors and student achievement: An avenue to increase students’ success.’ School Psychology Quarterly, 7(3), pp. 178-206.

Christenson, S. L., & Sheridan, S. M. (2001). Schools and families: Creating essential connections for learning. New York: Guilford Press.

Cohen, L. et al. (2007) Research Methods in Education. Canada: Routledge Publications.

Cooksey, E. C., and Fondell, M. M. (1996). ‘Spending time with his kids: Effects of family structure on fathers’ and children’s lives.’ Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58(3), pp. 693-707.

Crane, J. (1996). ‘Effects of home environment, SES, and maternal test scores on mathematics achievement.’ Journal of Educational Research, 89(5), pp. 305–314.

Desforges, C (2003) The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievement and Adjustment. DfES Research Report 433.

Douglas,J.W.B. (1964). The Home and School.

Englund, M. M., Luckner, A. E., Whaley, G.J. L. & Egeland, B. (2004). ‘Children’s Achievement in Early Elementary School: Longitudinal Effects of Parental Involvement, Expectations, and Quality of Assistance.’ Journal of Educational Psychology, 96 (4), pp. 723-730.

Epstein, J. (1992). ‘School and family partnerships.’ In M. Alkin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Research (6^th ed.), (pp. 1139-1151). New York: MacMillan.

Epstein, J. L. et al. (1997). School, family, and community partnerships. Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Fan, X. (2001). ‘Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A growth modeling analysis.’ Journal of Experimental Education, 70, pp. 27-61.

Fan, X. & Chen, M. (2001). ‘Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A meta-Analysis.’ Educational Psychology Review, 13 (1), pp. 1-22.

Feinstein,L & Symons, J (1999) Attainment in Secondary School: Oxford Economic Papers, 51.

Fong, V. L., and Murphy, R. (2006). Chinese citizenship: views from the margin. London: Routledge.

Graham-Clay, S. (2005). ‘Communicating with parents: strategies for teachers.’ The school community journal, vol. 1, pp: 117-130.

Grolnick, W., Benjet, C., Kurowski, C. & Apostoleris, N. (1997). ‘Predictors of parent involvement in children’s schooling.’ Journal of Educational Psychology, 89 (3), pp. 538-548.

Hampton, F. M., Mumford, D. A., & Bond, L. (1998). ‘Parental involvement in inner city schools: The project FAST extended family approach to success.’ Urban Education, 33(3), pp. 410-427.

Hara, S. R., and Burke, D. J. (1998). ‘Parent involvement: The key to improved student achievement.’ School Community Journal, 8(2), pp. 9–19.

Henderson, A., & Mapp, K. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

Henderson, A. T., & Berla, N. (Eds.). (1994). ‘A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to student achievement.’ Columbia, MD: National Committee for Citizens in Education. (ERIC Document No. ED375968) Retrieved September 15, 2006, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/23/60/0b.pdf

Hess, R. Holloway, S., Dickson, W. and Price, G. (1984). ‘Maternal variables as predictors of children’s school readiness and later achievement in vocabulary and mathematics in 6^th grade. Child Development.’ JSTOR, Vol.55, pp.1901-1912.

Ho, S.C. (2003). Teachers’ views on educational decentralization and parental involvement in an Asian educational system: the Hong Kong case. International Studies in Educational Administration, 31(3), 58-75.

Hobcraft (1998) Childhood experience and the risk of social exclusion in adulthood. CASE Briefing Nov 1998.

Hong, S. & Ho, H.Z. (2005). ‘Direct and Indirect Longitudinal Effects of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement: Second-Order Latent Growth Modeling Across Ethnic Groups.’ Journal of Educational Psychology, 97 (1), pp. 32-42.

Hong Kong Academy, ‘Parent involvement’. Hong Kong Academy. Retrieved June 12, 2012, from http://www.hkacademy.edu.hk/page.cfm?p=378

Hong Kong council of social service, (2010). ‘Parent involvement for children’s education advancement: a comparison between Chinese and ethnic minority parents.’ Hong Kong council for social service. Retrieved June 11 2012, from www.hkcss.org.hk/cm/cc/press/documents/em_e.ppt

Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. (1995). ‘Parental involvement in children’s education: Why does it make a difference?’ Teachers College Record, 97(2), pp: 310-331.

Izzo, C. V., Weissberg, R. P., Kasprow, W. J., & Fendrich, M. (1999). ‘A longitudinal assessment of teacher perceptions of parent involvement in children’s education and school performance.’ American Journal of Community Psychology, 27(6), pp. 817–839.

Institute of Education (2002).Technical Paper 8A. Measuring the impact of preschool on children’s cognitive progress.

Jeynes, W.H. (2007). ‘The relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary school student academic achievement: A meta-analysis.’ Urban Education, 42(1), pp: 82 – 110.

Jeynes, W. H. (2011). Parent involvement and academic success. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Keith, T., Keith, P. B., Quirk, K. J., Sperduto, J., Santillo, S. & Killings, S. (1998). ‘Longitudinal effects of parent involvement on high school grades: Similarities and differences across gender and ethnic groups.’ Journal of School Psychology, 35, 335-363.

Keith, T. Reomers, T., Fermann, P. Pottebaum, S and Aubey, L. (1986). ‘Parental involvement, homework and TV time: Direct and indirect effects on high school achievement.’ Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol.78, pp. 373-380.

Kerrins, L., and Greene, S. (2011). ‘Developing Early Years Professionalism.’ Children’s Research Center.

Kim, E. (2002). ‘The relationship between parental involvement and children’s educational achievement in the Korean Immigrant Family.’ Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 33 (4), pp. 529-543.

Kreider, H. (2002). ‘Getting parents “ready” for kindergarten: The role of early childhood Education.’ Amherst, MA: Harvard Family Research Project. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/research/kreider.html

LaBhan, J. (1995). ‘Education and parental involvement in secondary schools: problems, solutions and effects.’ Educational psychology interactive. Valdosta: Valdosta State University.

Lall, M., Campbell, C., & Gillborn, D. (2004). Parental Involvement in Education. Research Report 31, Educational Policy Research Unit.

Little, P. M. D., and Bohan-Baker, M. (2002). ‘The transition to Kindergarten: A review of current research and promising practices to involve families.’ Harvard Family Research Project.

Luster, T., et al. (2004). ‘Predictors of academic motivation in first grade among children born to low-income adolescent mothers.’ Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 19, pp. 337–353.

Marcon, R. A. (1999). ‘Positive relationships between parent school involvement and public school inner-city preschoolers’ development and academic performance.’ School Psychology Review, 28(3), 395–412.

Miedel, W. T., Reynolds, A. J. (1999). ‘Parent Involvement in Early Intervention for Disadvantaged Children: Does it matter?’ Journal of School Psychology, 37(4), pp. 379-402.

Moon, S. S., & Lee, J. (2009). ‘Multiple predictors of Asian American children’s school achievement.’ Early Education and Development, 20(1), pp. 129-147.

Parikakou,E. N. (2008). ‘The power of parent involvement: evidence, ideas and tools for student success.’ Center on innovation and improvement.

Persky, B., and Golubchick, L. H. (1991). Early childhood education. London: University Press.

Pianta, R. C., Cox, M. J.,Taylor, L., & Early,D. M. (1999). ‘Kindergarten teachers’ practices related to the transition to school: Results of a national survey.’ Elementary School Journal, 100, pp. 71–86.

Powell, D. R. (1989). Families and early childhood programs. (Research monographs of the National Association for the Education of Young Children No. 3). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. (ERIC Document No. ED309872)

Putman, M. M. (2011). ‘What makes and effective parent involvement plan?’ Live strong. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/281438-what-makes-an-effective-parent-involvement-plan/

Redding, S. (2006). The mega system: deciding, learning, and connecting. Lincoln, Il: Academic Development Institute.

The Scottish Office (2003) Parental Participation in Schools

Sénéchal, M. & LeFevre, J. (2002). ‘Parental involvement in the development ofchildren’s reading skill: A five-year longitudinal study.’ Child Development, 73, pp: 44-460.

Sheldon, S. B. (2002). ‘Parents’ social networks and beliefs as predictors of parent involvement.’ Elementary School Journal, 102 (4), pp. 301-316.

Smith, B. D. (2003). ‘How parental drug use and drug treatment compliance relate to family reunification.’ Child Welfare, 82(3), pp. 335-365.

Smith, C., and Kim, P. (2003). ‘Family Religious Involvement and the Quality of Parental Relationships for Families with Early Adolescents.’ Research Report of the National Study of Youth and Religion, 5, pp. 1-23.

Tam, V. (2009). ‘A comparison of fathers’ and mothers’ contributions in the prediction of academic performance of school-age children in Hong Kong.’ International Journal of Psychology, 44(2), pp. 147-156.

Tam, V. C., & Chan, R. M. (2009). ‘Parental involvement in primary children’s homework in Hong Kong.’ School Community Journal, 19(2), pp. 81-100.

Topping, K. J., and Wolfendale, S. (1985) Parent involvement in children’s reading. New York: Taylor and Francis.

Wayne, J. (2011). ‘What makes and effective parent involvement plan?’ Live strong. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/281438-what-makes-an-effective-parent-involvement-plan/

Williams,B,Williams,J & Ullman,A (2002) Parental Involvement in Education: DfES Research Report 332

Wing, S. (2006). ‘A chronological analysis of the development of parent school relationships in Hong Kong.’ Education training: the search of quality, pp: 1-8.

Wright, T. (2009) ‘Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Effective Parental Involvement.’ Liberty University.

Yuen, Y. (2004). ‘Country report on School Based Management in Hong Kong.’ Hong Kong SAR.

Zabriskie, R. B., & McCormick, B. P. (2001). ‘The influences of family leisure patterns on perceptions of family functioning.’ Family Relations, 50, pp. 281-289.