Importance and implications of the parent school partnership Tunde Kovacs-Cerović 1 Parental involvement in the life of school matters Becici, 2010
Mar 27, 2015
Importance and implications of the parent school partnership
Tunde Kovacs-Cerović
1
Parental involvement in the life of school mattersBecici, 2010
Content of presentation
• Preliminary remarks
• Role of parents: from micro to macro picture
• The Study
• Some results
• Conclusions and implications
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Preliminary remarks• What is education about?
OECD, Social outcomes of learning, 2007
• Parents’ interest – society’s interest• Parent - school synergy
Personal benefits
Social benefits
Financial IncomeWealth Productivity
+Tax revenues-Social transfers- Healthcare costs
Non-financial HealthSatisfactionWell-being
Social cohesionTrustFunctional democracyPolitical stability
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Preliminary remarks
Two-way asymmetrical relationship
• In number• In influence on child• Source of funding
• In education level• In organizational structure• In power
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Preliminary remarks
Fundamental mistake of attribution
• consequences of own behavior– Good: competencies, intention– Bad: chance
• consequences of other’s behavior – Good: chance– Bad: intention, lack of competencies
• Parents? Teachers?
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Teachers’ and parents’ perceptions: Gray area between cooperation and
conflict
The origin of unsatisfactory teacher-parent communication is perceived to lie within the school who should initiate the collaboration being more responsive to parental and children’s needs (Lawson, 2003) 6
Gray area/cont.• Creating synergy between parents’
and society’s interest in education essential, but not easy
• Gray area from policy perspective:• Variety of levels of parent participation• Variety of models• Variety of interests & lobbying, possible
power-games• Trend or basic accountability mechanism?
Can research help?7
Gray area/cont.
• Gray area from research perspective:– Conceptual inconsistencies:• Variety of dimensions• Interaction and mutual influence• Mediating variables
– Methodological inconsistencies:• Sensitivity to contextual factors• Variety of methodologies
What can research tell to policy-maker?
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Combine policy and research perspective
• Overview of levels & dimensions of participation
• Models of participation
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EVROPA i MI
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Preparation Homework
Motivation Support
biology
Communication with teacher - meetings11
Parents’ need of information on time spent in school
Place of intimatesocial experience:
– Learning – Deep understanding– Creativity – Respect – Values
Development and learning outcomes
depend on thequality of IA between
parent and teacher12
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Communication with school, directly or through parent representatives – source of school effectiveness and
accountability
School-community
actions
VolunteeringGetting
information
Decision making
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Social construction
EquityEquityEquityEquity Quality Quality Efficiency Efficiency
Education policy development
Parents’ role in systems’ accountability – communication with policymakers?
14policy
?15
Model of family-school partnership (Sheridan and Kratochwill)
Partnership orientation
Traditional orientation
Clear commitment to work together in order to promote child’s performance/achievement
Emphasizing the school role in promoting learning
Frequent communication that is bidirectional
Communication initiated just by the school, infrequent and problem-
centredAppreciating the cultural differences and recognizing the importance of it contribution to creating the positive
learning climate
“One size fits all” – cultural difference is a challenge that needs
to be overcome
Appreciation of the significance of different perspectives
Differences are seen as barriers
Roles are clear, mutual, and supportive
Separate roles distance participants
Goals for students are mutually determined and shared
Goals determined by school, sometimes shared with parents
Plans are co-constructed, with agreed upon roles for all participants
Educational plans devised and delivered by teachers
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Partnership process (Hoover-Dempsey)ion
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From both policy and research perspective:
All 3 levels important
Several distinct dimensions relevant
Partnership orientation and partnership process exciting
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The study
10 countries
AlbaniaB&H
BulgariaCroatia
KosovoMacedonia
MontnegroMoldova
RomaniaSerbia
Two perspectives
Principals’ perspective Parents’ perspective
Two methodologies
Qualitative – focus groups Quantitative - survey
Four angles
Mainstream parents
Excluded groups parents
Parent representatives - MSP
Parent representatives - EGP
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Sample
Mainstream
Excluded
Parent repr
Exclparent
rep
Total
Principals Principals of all schools where from the sample was drawn
Schools 311
Parents of children 7-15
urban
rural
total 9076 491 1359 124 11127 21
Parents’ Questionnaire
Based on:1.Literature review:
1. Epstien’s (1987) six dimensions of parental involvement2. Green, Walker, Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2007)
model of the parental involvement process.2.Results of focus group discussions in the 10 SEE countries3.Results of 2008 cross national study of school principals
Consisting of 3 parts:1.Q for mainstream parents (used for all samples)2.Q for excluded parents (additional part)3.Q for parent representatives (additional part)
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Questionnaire
Background variables
Child characteristics(age, gender, achievement etc)
Family context(wealth, employment, etc)
Mother characteristics
(education, aspirations)
Dimensions of participation
school meetings
information from school
Supporting learning at home
volunteering in school
decis. making
school-community coop
Mediating variables
motivation for participation in school life
perception of school openness
perception of pr’s
beliefs about school-parents partnership
Outcome variables
satisfaction re child well-being, progress in school
satisfaction re communication with school
satisfaction with influence
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Results
• On individual/parent level • On school level• On national/regional level
• Descriptive• Regression analysis• SEM
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1. How does basic support for successful education look like in SEE?
More households have a computer than a working table per child
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Big mainstream – Roma differences
1. How does basic support for successful education look like in SEE?
More than 60% have less than 50 books in household
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1. How does basic support for successful education look like in SEE?
Big mainstream – Roma differences
Mostly secondary education of mother
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1. How does basic support for successful education look like in SEE?
Big mainstream – Roma differences
Mostly tertiary education aspirations for child
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2. How does education look like in SEE?
About 25% report on difficulties
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2. How does education look like in SEE?
Big mainstream – Roma differences
Low percentage of low achievers
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2. How does education look like in SEE?
Children love/like school
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2. How does education look like in SEE?
Achievement, liking school and difficulties of child correlates with:
Achievement Liking school Difficulties
Education aspirations of family
0.46 0.27 -0.41
Wealth index 0.42 0.24 -0.30
Number of books in household
0.32 0.11 -0.24
Education level of mother
0.30 0.13 -0.32
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3. How does parent-school cooperation happen?
Schools do not invite parents (%)
never 1 2-3 3+
To meetings
- class 3 9 34 54
- individual 50 14 18 19
To volunteer
- infrastructure 70 17 9 4
- extracurricular 66 16 13 5
- curricular 86 7 5 2
- additional (library, lunch) 85 9 4 234
3. How does parent-school cooperation happen?
Schools do not invite parents/cont (%)
never 1 2-3 3+
To give opinion on
- financial management 79 8 8 5
- extreacurricular activities 66 16 13 6
- organization of school event 45 25 21 8
- health safety issues 58 20 15 8
- school management shifts, merger
82 9 6 3
- education issues 75 10 10 5
- violence 65 15 13 7
In Roma sample “never” is around 90%In Roma sample “never” is around 90%35
3. How does parent-school cooperation happen?
Systematic difference between parents’ and principals’ perception
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3. How does parent-school cooperation happen?
Even if rarely invited, parents eagerly accept, see benefit of, feel capable for, and feel duty to participate
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3. How does parent-school cooperation happen?
Problem attributed more to parents than schools. Parents are not assessed as not interested, not have time or don’t know how to communicate
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3. How does parent-school cooperation happen?
Problem attributed more to parents than schools. Parents are perceived as motivated and competent to participate
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4. Outcomes of parent-school cooperation ?
Parents are least satisfied with their possibility of influence
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5. Connections?
• Correlations between individual level variables significant but low
• Significant differences between mainstream and Roma sample
• Significant differences between countries
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ConclusionsGray areas – what have we learnt?
• Trends are expected, but their pervasiveness is striking – Discrepancy between the mainstream and the
excluded sample– Discrepancy between parents’ and principals’
perception– Lack of opportunities for cooperation and partnership– Opportunities even less present for those who need it
most
• Several striking mismatches call for further detailed analysis
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Mismatch 1
– Parents mostly accept every invitation
– Feel competent to contribute
– Feel duty to participate– Assess participation as
beneficial for child
► Lack of invitation in all 6
dimensions (17 of the 18 items presented)
► Parents are least satisfied with the possibility of their influence
School openness
Parents’ eagerness
Partnership?
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Mismatch 2
Parents and principals agree that it is not true that parents:
– …are not interested – …don’t have time – …don’t know how to
communicate with school
► Problem more attributed to parents than to schools
Attribution of problem
Parents’ motivation & skills
Source of problem?
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Conclusions/cont.
• Individual parent level mediating variables do not predict outcomes strong enough - it seems that individual parental motivation, attitude, belief does not matter much
• Mediating variables at school level?
• Country level analysis?
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Policy implications
Micro level
Meso level
Macro leveli
Lacking parent-school partnership endangers
parenthood and leaves teachers isolated from deep
understanding
Without cooperation school gets constructed in unbalanced way
Lack of parent involvement – lack of accountability
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EVROPA i MI
Thank you for your attention 48