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

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Conclusions

The authors conclude that the main emphasis in the schools' rationales for parental involvement was on breaking down barriers between home and school to improve the one-way flow of information and materials which carried school values into pupils' homes. They also report that some schools felt that breaking down the barriers between home and school helped with discipline. They believed that parental involvement showed the children that school and parents were on the 'same side' so they did not try and play off school against home.

Transmitting school values to parents, according to the authors, ignored the parents' own identities and communities and did not take account of the ways in which self concepts are formed, personal identities constructed and selves situated in their social worlds.

In primary schools, they concluded that teachers were looking towards parents to help them to deliver aspects of the "overloaded" primary curriculum. Hence, if parents could act as home tutors, then teachers' efforts in encouraging parents to get involved would have been worthwhile. At the least, barriers between home and school could be whittled away so that parents would come to value the efforts of the school, ensure their children's attendance and show that they supported the school so that pressure on hard-pressed teachers could be eased.

Whilst sympathetic to the hard-working teachers, the authors go on to argue that schools could be placing children from disadvantaged homes in a "double bind." Children whose parents operated in ways approved by the school were likely to be those least in need of additional help and most likely to benefit from the strategies advocated by the school.

Overall, they concluded that perceptions of parental involvement by teachers and schools represented less a partnership than a "colonisation of home by school". They argued that a new view of parental involvement is needed which might require teachers to have a better understanding of the social conditions of identity construction, a fuller understanding of the demands of literacy and numeracy pedagogy and more time to prioritise curriculum demands.

Specifically, they recommended that before teachers engage in negotiations with parents about what they might mutually expect, there are a number of conditions in their initial training, professional development and working contexts which should be met:

updating teachers' explicit understandings of the complexities of teaching literacy and numeracy so their expectations of parents build on what they can offer as parents;
improving teachers' understanding of the limits of self esteem and the importance of social conditions in the development of children's sense of who they are. They can then work more effectively to help parents help their children by starting from where the parents are; and
reducing curriculum delivery demands on primary teachers so they can adapt curriculum priorities flexibly to meet the needs of their local communities.

While acknowledging that this represents "yet another wish-list" the authors argue that any response to the question "why bother with parental involvement" has at least partly to be a pedagogic one, based on analysis of how children learn and informed by current theory about teaching and learning. Their report shows that the schools involved in the study were still a long way from approaching parental involvement in this way.

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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 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 Conclusions The authors conclude that the main emphasis in the schools' rationales for parental involvement was on breaking down barriers between home and school to improve the one-way flow of information and materials which carried school values into pupils' homes. They also report that some schools felt that breaking down the barriers between home and school helped with discipline. They believed that parental involvement showed the children that school and parents were on the 'same side' so they did not try and play off school against home. Transmitting school values to parents, according to the authors, ignored the parents' own identities and communities and did not take account of the ways in which self concepts are formed, personal identities constructed and selves situated in their social worlds. In primary schools, they concluded that teachers were looking towards parents to help them to deliver aspects of the "overloaded" primary curriculum. Hence, if parents could act as home tutors, then teachers' efforts in encouraging parents to get involved would have been worthwhile. At the least, barriers between home and school could be whittled away so that parents would come to value the efforts of the school, ensure their children's attendance and show that they supported the school so that pressure on hard-pressed teachers could be eased. Whilst sympathetic to the hard-working teachers, the authors go on to argue that schools could be placing children from disadvantaged homes in a "double bind." Children whose parents operated in ways approved by the school were likely to be those least in need of additional help and most likely to benefit from the strategies advocated by the school. Overall, they concluded that perceptions of parental involvement by teachers and schools represented less a partnership than a "colonisation of home by school". They argued that a new view of parental involvement is needed which might require teachers to have a better understanding of the social conditions of identity construction, a fuller understanding of the demands of literacy and numeracy pedagogy and more time to prioritise curriculum demands. Specifically, they recommended that before teachers engage in negotiations with parents about what they might mutually expect, there are a number of conditions in their initial training, professional development and working contexts which should be met: updating teachers' explicit understandings of the complexities of teaching literacy and numeracy so their expectations of parents build on what they can offer as parents; improving teachers' understanding of the limits of self esteem and the importance of social conditions in the development of children's sense of who they are. They can then work more effectively to help parents help their children by starting from where the parents are; and reducing curriculum delivery demands on primary teachers so they can adapt curriculum priorities flexibly to meet the needs of their local communities. While acknowledging that this represents "yet another wish-list" the authors argue that any response to the question "why bother with parental involvement" has at least partly to be a pedagogic one, based on analysis of how children learn and informed by current theory about teaching and learning. Their report shows that the schools involved in the study were still a long way from approaching parental involvement in this way.