Parental Involvement in raising the Achievement of Primary School Pupils: why bother? (Updated)

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The aims of this study

The primary schools in this study invested considerable time and effort in securing parental involvement in their children's learning. The authors set out to discover exactly what reasons were offered by schools for the time they had invested in parental involvement. What did the schools think was the role and value of parental involvement?

The authors review a range of research on parental involvement and support Vincent and Tomlinson's conclusion that the research into parental involvement is thin and "under-analysed and under-theorised". While policy-makers, Ofsted and other influential education agents all promote parental involvement in schools as a "good thing" there is little evidence in the literature of the effectiveness of different forms of parental involvement. They could find no analyses which addressed how parental involvement could help improve children's performance as learners, although there were what they called 'wish lists' or generalities stressing the benefits of parental involvement. The authors state:

‘What appears to be missing from analyses so far is just how parental involvement may be justified in terms of currently established understandings of how children learn. Without such a rationale strategies for parental involvement appear at worst to be strategies for asserting school values over those of parents and at best concerted efforts at whistling in the dark. If it is the latter, why do schools bother?’

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction The aims of this study How was the study designed? What did the research find out? Is "getting parents in" to school enough? What were parents asked to do with their children? Conclusions Implications Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests How classroom talk supports reading comprehension To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader Parental Involvement in raising the Achievement of Primary School Pupils: why bother? (Updated) This digest found in Parents Send to a friend Word doc 60KB Printer friendly Collate for later The aims of this study The primary schools in this study invested considerable time and effort in securing parental involvement in their children's learning. The authors set out to discover exactly what reasons were offered by schools for the time they had invested in parental involvement. What did the schools think was the role and value of parental involvement? The authors review a range of research on parental involvement and support Vincent and Tomlinson's conclusion that the research into parental involvement is thin and "under-analysed and under-theorised". While policy-makers, Ofsted and other influential education agents all promote parental involvement in schools as a "good thing" there is little evidence in the literature of the effectiveness of different forms of parental involvement. They could find no analyses which addressed how parental involvement could help improve children's performance as learners, although there were what they called 'wish lists' or generalities stressing the benefits of parental involvement. The authors state: ‘What appears to be missing from analyses so far is just how parental involvement may be justified in terms of currently established understandings of how children learn. Without such a rationale strategies for parental involvement appear at worst to be strategies for asserting school values over those of parents and at best concerted efforts at whistling in the dark. If it is the latter, why do schools bother?’