Drawing from cultural and social reproduction theory, this research studied the relationship between social class and parental involvement in education in modern China. The study paid particular attention to parents' educational background, professional occupation and socio-economic status, and how these factors contribute to their expectation and involvement in education. The research was an attempt to explore the importance of cultural and social capital in Chinese families, which has a decisive impact on children's educational experience. It also examined how class status were maintained and perpetuated from one generation to the next through parents' role in schooling, and through China's dual track school system. / A key school and a non-key school in Shanghai were chosen for the study. Forty eight families, including children and parents, participated in this research. Data collection was completed through interviews and observations. Interview protocols were prepared and used for parents and students respectively. / The findings of the research indicate that parental expectation is closely related with parents' educational level, while parental involvement in education is determined by more than one factor, and parent's socio-economic status is the most important.

This study investigated the nature and level of parental involvement in academic and non academic activities in a secondary school in a disadvantaged township in Durban. The review of literature identified aspect of parent-educator relationships which should be developed to facilitate learner's success.It also included models of parental involvement, levels of parental involvement, role of parents in their children's education as well as barriers which affect parental involvement. The school with poor academic results is, among other factors, characterised by minimal level of involving parents in their children's education. To maximise parental involvement parents and educators should substitute the attitude ·of blaming each other, by the idea of coming together in the interests of the learners. This joint effort should also improve the schools academic results. One secondary school was used as a case study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with educators, parents and learners. Other information was taken from the departmental reports, Daily News paper, information from one of the school events speech context and the supervising manager of the school. Parents from this disadvantaged community tend to perceive educators as professionals who know everything. Educators and parents are willing to be partners but they do not know how to initiate and sustain this relationship. Perceived barriers to parental involvement are illiteracy, unemployment, ignorance and transport problems.Some parents participate at the governing body level, while most parents are inactive. Improved communication between parents and school personnel seems to be essential to achieve more parental involvement. Educators need staff development to equip themselves for this task. Workshops could be used to inform parents of their rights to services and resources. Together parents and educators could develop strategies to use the school for the benefit of the entire community. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

No description available.

A minor dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Masters in Education Department of Education Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town, 2005 / Literacy research in South Africa and other developing countries has for the most part focused on poorly resourced environments and literacy practices in lower socio-economic communities. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of parents in early literacy development in well-resourced homes in South Africa. The study was aimed at investigating parents’ roles and perceptions of early literacy development in well-resourced home environments The study presents survey data from a large cohort of parents as well as observations and in-depth interviews with a smaller group of eight families. This study was conducted in a peri urban area in the Western Cape and engaged parents whose children were in reception year classrooms. The research evidence shows that reading success does not necessarily occur through the use of a variety of resources but that it needs to be mediated and modelled by parents in the home to have significant outcomes. The study finds that the parents’ perceptions and approaches only partially reflect what is envisaged to be good reading habits. The time constraints and pressures on parents today impact on literacy practices and restrict them from spending sufficient quality time engaged in these practices with their children. Finally the study shows that although children are exposed to books, television and computers in the home environment it does not necessarily ensure proficient and interested readers.

Dissertation submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master's Degree in Technology: Education (Management), Durban Institute of Technology, 2003. / The introduction of Curriculum 21 in South Africa in 1998 has brought with it added responsibilities for parents. According to the South African Schools' Act, No.84 (1996), parents have been granted powers to "support teachers in the performance of their task "and "determine subject choices" for their children. However, when Curriculum 21 was introduced in 1998, relevant programmes for introducing parents to these ideas dia not exist. According to Schlebusch and Spady (1999) family, home, identity and respect are important features of Curriculum 21 and only parents can create the best conditions for the academic development of their children. Therefore, the involvement of parents in the education of their children is vital. This dissertation is a case study of a rural KwaZulu- Natal public school, Hopewell Primary School, in which a pilot study of a programme to introduce parents to their responsibilities in the implementation of Curriculum 21, was first introduced. / M

The study was conducted in the backdrop of Section 24(1)(a) of the South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996 which promulgated that parents should be involved in the education of their children. To fulfil this requirement, each school is expected to have a legally constituted School Governing Body (SGB) as part of school governance. The involvement of the SGB does not exclude parents involving themselves in school activities as individuals but as organised groups geared towards working on a specific project of the school. Involvement also implies helping the child at home. The study investigated the extent to which black parents involve themselves in school activities as envisaged by the SASA. Conceptual literature relating to issues of parental involvement in school was reviewed. Specifically the concept parent/parental involvement as it relates to black parents was explored. Factors promoting or hindering parental involvement in school were also examined. The research is qualitative. Participants included principals, teachers, learners and chairpersons of school governing bodies of ten selected schools in the major townships of Port Elizabeth. Views and experiences of participants were captured and explained through in-depth interviews and observations. Results are discussed in relation to the relevant literature, allowing grounded theory to emerge. What emerged was a desperate situation of non-involvement of black parents in school activities largely because of the failure of the Department of Education (DoE) to capacitate all parties involved in strategies to involve parents in school. The potential for generalizability and transferability is discussed in the report and possible intervention strategies are recommended at micro- and macro-levels. The study demonstrates that the DoE needs to follow up on its policies to ensure that the envisaged change is realized.

No description available.

This study examined Chinese university students enrolled in a Sino-United States university and how they perceived learning processes, academic value, and cultural awareness at two distinct campuses. Comparing and contrasting student experiences at a foreign satellite campus in China (Wenzhou-Kean University) with the experiences of those same students at an American host campus (Kean University), I examined academic and cultural learning as well as the achievement of “global competence.” Through the prism of student learning, the nature and quality of student experiences at the two campuses informed my perceptions of the students’ understanding of culture and context. Moreover, I attempted to gain a greater understanding of the role of Chinese parents in the university decision-making process. This study was framed by human capital theory (Schultz,1961; Tan, 2014), situated cognition theory (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989), and experiential learning theory (Rogers, 1969). As the study investigated both Chinese students’ experiences and parental involvement within the university decision-making process, I deemed a mixed-methods design most appropriate. Data were collected by surveying 313 targeted persons, yielding 86 valid response surveys and 16 individual interviews. The results were instructive. At both campuses, a university infrastructure existed to maximize the cognitive and academic benefits of joining American and Chinese student cohorts, the goal of English language proficiency, and an awareness of global competence. However, while the Chinese satellite campus may have required a more rigorous academic curriculum, the American Kean campus provided high-quality meaningful learning opportunities to Chinese students. Indeed, while only a small percentage of the Chinese students were able to obtain long-term competency-based professional opportunities, those students who were able to build local connections premised on global competence were the most successful. The study highlighted the necessity of global competence as an explicit function of the academic experience, the need for domestic and international students to participate in the formal and informal ways in which the cultural context of language is learned, and the desire of Chinese parents to have a university education that is competitive in the global marketplace.

The incidence of overweight conditions among children and adolescents is a growing national concern. Although current literature suggests that parental health behaviors could influence health behaviors of children, studies have not explored the actual predictive relationships of parents' and their children's weight statuses and weight-related behaviors. In addition, current studies have not tested the influence of parental authority, family communication, or demographic characteristics on the relationships. This study first examines factors that contribute to overweight conditions among children and adolescents and the associated costs. Studies of interventions that target children's and adolescents' weight-related health are then reviewed and provide evidence that parental involvement contributes to intervention success. The theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory, social action theory, and systems theory are discussed and support the notion that parental influences contribute to the development of children's weight-related health behaviors. To test the relationships, 151 young adults and their parents were recruited and completed a series of questionnaires to describe their weight statuses, dietary behaviors, and physical activity behaviors. In addition, the young adult participants completed questionnaires to further describe their parents' parental authorities and their family communication environments during childhood and adolescence. Comparisons of body mass index, average daily energy consumption, average weekly energy expenditure, and physical activity enjoyment of young adult participants and their parents were conducted with correlation analyses and paired-samples t-tests. Further, multiple regression analyses were used to explore the influence of parental authority and family communication, and demographic characteristics were also considered. The empirical results of the current study indicate that, overall, parents' weight statuses and dietary behaviors help predict weight statuses and dietary behaviors of their young adult children. Further, parental authority scales interact with the relationships. At high levels of authoritarian and permissive parental authorities, young adults tend to have weight statuses that are opposite to those of their parents; at high levels of authoritarian parenting, young adults also tend to follow opposite dietary consumption patterns. The findings in this study have implications for professional practice, parenting practices, and the design of intervention activities. Recommendations for future research are provided.

This dissertation includes three papers. Using two nationally representative datasets – Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K: 1998) and 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2010) – the first paper examines changes in disparities in school readiness by parental education from 1998 to 2010 in the United States. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis is used for investigating if financial resources, in- and out-of-home environment and activities, parenting, and child care contributed to these disparities differently in 2010 compared to 1998. The second paper follows the achievement trajectories of these two cohorts of kindergarteners and studies how school readiness disparities by parental education changed in 2010 compared to 1998 when children progressed through third grade. Using hierarchical linear modeling with piecewise spline function, it also estimates the roles of family and school factors at kindergarten in predicting school achievement growth rates for these two cohorts and compares to examine if there is any change in these roles. Since the content and data collection procedures of the two ECLS-K cohort datasets are very similar, the second paper pools these two datasets and uses interaction terms to examine the changes, providing more precise estimation. The third paper pools the China Family Panel Study (CFPS) 2010 and 2014 and investigates disparities in vocabulary and math by parental education and the roles of parenting and home environment in explaining and accounting for these disparities in China. Besides the whole sample, analysis is also conducted for the subsamples of children in rural, urban, and migrant settings due to different economic and cultural factors in these settings.