Category: Inquiry

Fuller, G. O. (2010). The Benefits of Parent Involvement: What Research Has to Say. Retrieved February 24, 2017, from https://www.education.com/reference/article/benefits-parent-involvement-research/

This resource is a meta-analysis of eighty-five studies that document benefits of parent involvement in children’s education. The resource list not only the benefits for the children, but also the parents, educators, and the school. In general, the benefits for students include higher academic achievement, self-esteem, discipline, motivation, and lower dropout rates of school when the child reaches junior high and high school. One of the most important benefits to the parents that Fuller (2010) acknowledges is that parents increase their interaction and discussion with their child about their education. They also become more responsive and sensitive to their child’s social-emotional learning and their intellectual developmental needs. The benefits for educators include a higher percentage of parental involvement and also greater respect from parent/guardians on the teaching profession.

The strength of this resource is that it is a meta-analysis so it considers many different research articles and perspectives on this topic. They break down the benefits into benefits for the student, parents, educators, and school. A drawback of this resource is that there was not full access to the article available, so there was not a list of the resources it had used to verify reliability and peer review. This resource is valuable in my inquiry quest because it looks at the benefits of the children. At the end of the day, the reasoning behind building a better home-school relationship would be for the benefit of the student.

 

Keel, K. (2000). Building Relationships: Parents, Students, Teachers, and Real Data. Multimedia Schools, 7(4), 36.

The purpose of this article was to assess how technology, specifically an online interface, would support the home-school relationship. K12Planet is an online student portfolio that allows parents/guardians to access their child’s grades, attendance, and transcripts. This interface also allows students to make academic plans, which the application plots their performance against afterwards. Keel states in their conclusion that this online portal allows for collaboration between home and school which ultimately supports student achievement.

A strength of this reading is relativity, in that many school districts in the Lower Mainland have been turning to online portfolios and reporting. The researcher also acknowledges that there are safety considerations to take into account when posting student information to the world wide web. However, this resource does not consider language barriers at home or home even access to a device that allows for this kind of access. In conclusion, this resource is useful for my inquiry because of the relative nature of the type of home-school communication that it is looking at. My class is using FreshGrade and so it is important to look at all types of communication and collaboration that can occur between home and school.

 

TedTalk. (2013). Retrieved February 24, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxJIsZsYKQQ

This resource was a TedTalk on the topic of parent-teacher relationships. The presenter discussed many ideas of how to engage parents and create open communication between teachers and parents. A couple ideas that were beneficial from this video were sending a questionnaire home with the student at the beginning of the school year to find out from the parents how that child learns and what is the child’s personality. Another idea was sharing your teaching philosophy with parents. This includes strategies to how you teach and expectations in the classroom. All-in-all this resources main message was the transparency of communication from teachers to parents is the most beneficial asset to building strong relationships.

A strength of this resource is experiences of the presenter; she is both a mother and a teacher so she understands the complications and difficulties of both sides. A drawback of this resource is that the presenter relied solely on anecdotal evidence without citing any of the research done on this topic. In conclusion, this resource provided some interesting approaches to fostering parent-teacher relationships like sharing your teaching philosophy with students and meeting parents where they’re at. A line that the presenter said that really stood out to me was “teacher’s working conditions are students learning conditions”. I think that speaks to the importance of transparency in communication to parents.

Aslan, D. (2016). Primary School Teachers’ Perception on Parental Involvement: A Qualitative Case Study. International Journal of Higher Education, 5(2). doi:10.5430/ijhe.v5n2p131

The purpose of this studying conducted by Aslan (2016) in Istanbul, Turkey was to highlight the opinions of teachers regarding the approaches of parental involvement in their child’s school. This research qualitative in nature with data being case studies with six primary school teachers (three female, three male). The data was obtained through demographic information forms, semi-structures interviews, and minutes from teacher-parent meetings. After analysis of the data, findings demonstrated that teachers expressed their relationship with parents as being negative and attitudes of parents were not developed enough to conduct high quality parent-teacher dialogue.

The weaknesses of this resource are that it was conducted in Turkey and the nuances of the study could have been lost in translation. Another weakness of the study is the findings cannot be generalized to a Canadian context. Strengths of the study include that it is a case study and acts as good preliminary research for this topic. Although this study demonstrates that some parent-teacher relationships can be strained and some of the explanations of what was occurring in the conferences, this study is difficult to draw conclusions about my inquiry from due to the nature of this resource.

 

Finders, M., & Lewis, C. (1994). Why some parents don’t come to school. Alexandria: Assoc Supervision Curriculum Development.

Finders & Lewis (1994) delve into the realm that is quite often unacknowledged among educators, that there are barriers coming from home that prevent a strong relationship between school and home. Finders & Lewis (1994) take on these barriers from the parent’s perspective and parents are interviewed. The first barrier Finders & Lewis (1994) explain is the diverse school experiences of parents. This includes both negative experiences and school level of the parent. A second barrier that parents face with connection to school is their diverse economic and time constraints. This includes working nights or hours that are not conducive to attending evening programs or picking a child up from school. Thirdly, parents often face a diverse linguistic and cultural barrier. Those parents who do not speak fluent English can feel inadequate in a school context or just not be able to communicate with the teacher. Finders & Lewis (1994) also make suggestions to parents on how to get more involved. These include, clarifying to parents how they can help, encouraging parents to be assertive and active, developing trust, building on home experiences. In conclusion, Finders & Lewis (1994) suggest that as educators, we must use the diversity of home life for educational enhancement and as valued knowledge. Assumptions about parental absence must be aired and reinterpreted.

A limitation of this resource is that it is quite outdated (1994), however it does raise points that are just as valid in today’s society. A strength of this resource is that it is heard from the parent’s perspective and gives anecdotal evidence to how parents are feeling about engaging with teachers and the education system. This resource truly demonstrates the barriers parents face when interacting with the educational institution. I appreciate that it is from the parents perspective and has the voice of parents thread throughout.

 

Graham-Clay, S. (2005). Communicating with parents: Strategies for teachers. School Community Journal, 15(1), 117.

Graham-Clay states that to support students learning, teachers strive to establish partnerships with important. This connection can build a sense of community between home and school. Graham-Clay presents many strategies to improve communication including communication that may involve impressions created or simply just words, like a welcome sign. There is also one-way communication that occurs around the education system, like newsletters, school-to-home notebooks for daily communication, and report cards. Two-way communication occurs when teachers and parents create a dialogue together. Phone calls and conferences are examples of this two-way communication. Another source of communication that is emerging is communication through technology. This form of communication is innovative and time-efficient. Graham-Clay also states many barriers that hinder communication between educators and parents. Some of these barriers are on the side of the parent which include the parent feeling unsupported, misunderstood, and overwhelmed, cultural differences, history of parental school experiences, economic and time constraints, and lack of technology. On the school level, teachers often use education jargon to communicate with parents/guardians and there leaves little time for meaningful communication when a traditional conference is only 5-15 minutes.

Graham-Clay concludes the article by stating that effective communication is essential to create a strong partnership and to increase parental involvement. The strength of the resource is that Graham-Clay provides three great avenues to increase effective communication between home and school, and she also acknowledges there are barriers to effective communication at both the end of the parent and the teacher/school. A limitation to this reading is that it is almost twelve years old and some of the points Graham-Clay brings up are outdated. This article is a great resource for my inquiry because it outlines three ways to improve communication between home and school as well as acknowledging the limitations/barriers of doing so.

 

TedTalk. (2013, November 07). Retrieved February 02, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kin2OdchKMQ

Megan Olivia Hall, who was named the Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2013 delivers a Ted Talk on the importance of building relationships between parents and teachers. Hall explains that there is an academic gap between high and low income families, where the students who come from low income families tend have lower academic performance than those students who come from high income families. This gap does not only pertain to academic but also social skills, confidence, etc. Hall lists a few barriers to bridging this gap, which include: not knowing what is on the other side of the bridge, fear of the unknown, parents having a bad experiencing with attempting to close this gap when they were younger, or mistreatment by peers. Hall goes on to explain that one of the post powerful and simple ways we can attempt to bridge this gap for students is by reaching out to parents. Reaching out every day to one students parents with a positive interaction immediately makes a difference and the teacher also learns more about the student. This does not go in a one-way direction; parents can also reach out to teachers.

A strength of this resource is that the presenter is a teacher herself and sees how this strategy has worked first-hand. A limitation to this resource is that it is not backed by any scientific research and although the presenter lists some of the barriers to helping to bridge this gap, she leaves out important variables like parents/guardians who do not speak English. This is a valuable resource to begin research on my inquiry question as it both details a few barriers of strong parent/guardian-teacher relationships and one strategy to overcome those barriers.

 

Wang, Y., Deng, C., & Yang, X. (2016). Family economic status and parental involvement: Influences of parental expectation and perceived barriers. School Psychology International, 37(5), 536-553. doi:10.1177/0143034316667646

Wang, Deng, and Yang (2016) were interested in the mechanisms that explain the association between family economic status, and parents’ educational involvement. They used a large low-income sample in northwestern China they examined the influence of expectation for children’s highest educational attainment and perceived barriers. The other variable that was examined was the parents’ level of education. After collecting data and examination of the data, the researchers’ results suggested that parental expectations and perceived barriers mediated the relationship between family economic status and parental involvement. A sub-group of their sample was more prominent than others, in that they found that this relationship especially prominent among highly educated mothers. The researchers concluded that these findings support in understanding the link between family economic status and parental educational involvement.

The limitations of this research in the context of my inquiry question is that this research was conducted in China, and may not be generalized to a Canadian or even Vancouver context. The strength of this resource is that the sample was large and it relied on quantitative data versus qualitative data (e.g. anecdote). Although this resource may not be able to be generalized to a Canadian context, it does provide valuable preliminary research to begin my inquiry into the barriers and strategies to forming strong home-school relationships.