In recent years interorganizational collaboration has increasingly been emphasized as an important step for addressing inefficiencies in the delivery of human services. Among the many benefits of collaboration described by human service authors are the creation of a more consumer-friendly service system, more efficient use of available resources, and avoiding service duplication. During the Spring and Summer of 1996, six focus groups were conducted in Oregon to assess the quality of collaboration between local social service providers and Even Start, a federally funded family literacy program. The federal Even Start legislation required that all Even Start programs collaborate with social service providers in their local communities to improve services for families and avoid duplication of services. This study examined data from the Even Start focus groups using a three-level hierarchical model to determine the approximate level of collaboration that existed in each of six Even Start communities. Results of the analysis indicated that collaboration in three of the six Even Start communities was at or near coordination, the middle level of the three-level model. Collaboration in the other three communities appeared to be somewhere below the lowest level of the model, cooperation. Although agencies at such a minimal level of collaboration may consider each other partners, they are likely to have limited knowledge about each other's operations and clients. Because three of six Even Start communities fit below the lowest level of the model, the model had limited utility for this analysis. However, for interagency relationships at higher levels, the model was effective in helping to find the approximate intensity of collaboration. Although the primary focus of the model used in this analysis was on collaboration intensity, a comprehensive evaluation of collaboration would include numerous additional variables, especially outcomes related to the purposes of the interagency relationship. Several lessons learned during the course of this study have implications for future research. First, by creating data sets that are amenable to examination from multiple perspectives, qualitative methods offer unique flexibility for data collection in secondary circumstances such as the present study. Second, it is likely that collaboration in occurs in varied patterns, few of which resemble the highest levels of collaboration advocated by authors in the field. Finally, rather than broadly encouraging human service organizations to move toward the highest levels of collaboration, researchers need to provide answers to basic questions about what forms of collaboration are most helpful, in which circumstances, and why. / Graduation date: 1999

Graduation date: 1996

Not available / text

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / The improvement of the teaching-learning process in schools is enhanced by the involvement of parents in their children's learning. Parental involvement has the capacity to create a partnership between the most important role players in the education system, namely; teachers, parents and learners. According to this approach, parents are the most effective and reliable individuals who play a significant part in their children's education. The aim of this study is to investigate the nature of parental involvement in the education of learners in the Vhuronga II Circuit.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

The primary research question of this paper examines teachers' philosophies concerning parental involvement and pedagogical practices. Specifically, what are violin teachers' attitudes and practices concerning parental involvement? Secondary research questions were formulated as a result of major topics arising from the review of literature and focused on how and why teachers formed their personal philosophies towards parental involvement. The following research is unique in that it defines the concept of parental involvement directly from the perspective of the teacher. Because anyone teacher oversees the development of many violin students, he/she is in an extraordinary position to comment on factors, conditions and behaviours across a large sample of students with differing types and degrees of parental involvement. Specifically, this study investigates factors of parental involvement that violin teachers believe to have a positive impact on student success.

Apartheid education in South Africa created and maintained deliberate inequalities between schools serving the Indian, Coloured and African communities on one hand and the White population on the other hand. The advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 addressed a range of issues, one of which was school governance. The South African Schools Act of 1996 was a bold attempt by the government to address issues like school governance. This act created a new school-governance landscape based on a partnership between the state, schools, learners, parents, school staff and the local communities. The aim of this study was to establish reasons why parental involvement is muted in some public schools but more active in other public schools. The participants in the study were parents, school principals and the chairpersons of the school governing bodies of the two schools. The purpose of the study was to listen to differing perspectives on why parents were involved, or not involved, in school governance. The research used both quantitative and qualitative methodology to gather data, and it assumed the form of a comparative case study of the two schools. A survey questionnaire and semi-structured interview were used as data collection techniques. Findings of the study revealed that those parents who were involved in school governance did so because they wanted to be of assistance to both their children, as well as the schools their children attended. In addition, parents who were not involved in school governance cited different reasons for their noninvolvement, ranging from a lack of time, a lack of knowledge and skills, as well as institutional difficulties at the schools their children attend. There was evidence of a conflict between policy and practice in respect of parental involvement in school governance. Policy expected parents to be involved in school governance, and assumed that all parents were familiar with the roles of school governors. Parents, on the other hand, seemed to lack a clear understanding of what school governance entailed, and what the school governance policy expected from them. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This research project attempted to examine the relationship between parental involvement / Thesis (M.Ed) - University of Kwazulu-Natal, 2005.

This study investigates the work that is currently being done to promote contact between home and school at a residential school situated in a rural area of KwaZulu- Natal. The school serves primary school children with physical disabilities between the ages of five and seventeen years. The subjects in this study were twenty five parents, teachers, learners, and support staff. The research methodology was in the form of a qualitative case study. Individual interviews, focus group interviews, observation as well as document analysis were used to investigate the nature and extent of parental involvement, the areas in which parents participated, and how the school supported parents and the learners. The results revealed that the school acknowledges the value of parents a partners, and has initiated a parent involvement programme. Parents are involved in structures created by the school, namely, a parent teacher association, parent groups in the communities, learner adoption scheme. However, findings revealed that in a number of important areas parents are not equal partners. These are school governance, curriculum decisions regarding their children, choice of school placement, and admission and discharge of their children. An important finding was that in residential schools, because parents are not part of the immediate school community the concept of "parents as partners" is difficult to achieve. Most rural parents live great distances away from the school. Time, distance, work commitments, family commitments, and financial constraints make participation almost impossible. An implication of this study is that if residential schools continue to exist there is a need for the school to take cognisance of the various contextual factors that influence parental involvement in such a setting. Schools should find creative ways to overcome barriers that may exist. Schools need to be aware of recent policy developments regarding the rights of parents, for example, the South African Schools Act. Issues such as parent participation in school governance, their right to choice, and their rights regarding educational decisions on their children, enshrined in policy documents need to be, addressed collaboratively with parents. Another important implication is that policy makers need to review the role of large residential schools in meeting the educational needs of children with disabilities, in particular the long term goal of children gaining full citizenship in their communities. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1996.