Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Twomey / Thesis advisor: Robert Starratt / This qualitative case study focused on K-2 Parent Involvement in a small rural elementary school. It was designed to review the types of parent involvement that occur over time and to identify the most effective forms of parent involvement. The study also investigated specific teacher beliefs and behaviors related to parent involvement and documented any changes in these beliefs and behaviors as a result of being in the study. A final review of challenges to parent involvement was documented. Data was collected from six volunteer teachers working in kindergarten, grade one, and grade two. Data collection tools included staff pre and post interviews, staff surveys, classroom parent involvement logs, and teacher monthly reflection prompts. The findings of the study indicate that teachers do value parent involvement and that they believe they encourage this involvement in their classroom. The teachers also believe there is a link between parent involvement and student achievement. The teachers in this study identified many challenges to the creation of a parent involvement program including time constraints of parents and teachers, a classroom and school structure that may not welcome or support parent involvement, as well as an education or training issue for parents, so that they may understand the benefits of parent involvement. It was also suggested that teachers would benefit from professional development in the area of parent involvement. Implications for practice include offering workshops for parents on curriculum expectations and on the importance of parent involvement, professional development for teachers highlighting the need for parent involvement, initiating a coordinated school wide parent involvement program, and creating a welcoming and supportive school climate that encourages parent involvement. Limitations to the study include the small sample size, the short duration of the study, and the researcher's role as superintendent. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

This research was an attempt to understand the concept of community participation as a tourism development approach. Four main objectives were established; 1) to examine the current practice of, and potential for community participation in the tourism development process in Urgup, 2) to determine views of interest groups on various issues of community participation, 3) to explore the expectations of the local community from the tourism development; and 4) to develop policy suggestions to facilitate community participation in the tourism development process (TDP). This study has adopted an inductive research approach, rather than a deductive one. The pre-determined research objectives have led and structured the study. Both theoretical discussions and empirical field research are employed to achieve the pre-determined objectives of the study. Several general conclusions are drawn from this study: 1) There is a theoretical gap in the knowledge of participatory tourism development which may be closed from an understanding gained in other community participation areas such as health, housing, etc. 2) Many local tourist destinations are at different levels of development; thus, it may be naive to claim that one form of participatory tourism development approach will provide a universal model. 3) This study has revealed that there are three main groups of limitations to the participatory tourism development approach. These limitations can be classified as operational limitations, structural limitations and cultural limitations. 4) Implementation of a participatory tourism development approach requires the re-structuring of the public administration system, and re-distribution of power and wealth, for which hard political choices and logical decisions are a sine qua non. 5) Adoption of contemporary approaches to tourism development emerged and refined in developed countries is not a panacea for poor planning in developing countries that do not have the basis of the pre-industrial phase experienced last century in Europe and North America. Thus, a cautionary approach is needed to follow what developed countries are doing in the context of tourism development.

MASTER OF EDUCATION in the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY of the FACULTY OF EDUCATION at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2006. / The aims of this study are: ~ To pursue a study of relevant literature on the parent-educator partnership. ~ To undertake an empirical investigation concerning parents and educators as partners in the education of the child. ~ To formulate certain recommendations that may serve as guidelines for the establishment of an effective partnership between parents and educators at schools. Research with regard to this study will be conducted as follows: ~ A literature study of available relevant literature. ~ An empirical survey comprising a questionnaire to be completed by educators. Chapter 2 will be a literature review on the parent-educator partnership. Chapter 3 will explain the planning of the empirical research. Chapter 4 will be a presentation and analysis of the research data. Chapter 5 will contain a summary, findings and recommendations.

The purpose of this study was to examine the high school teacher's perceptions of parent involvement and how viewpoints differ based on years of experience and the population served. The study consisted of a survey with open-ended questions given to teachers and administrators and other non-classroom instructional personnel at a high socio-economic school and at a low socio-economic school. The surveys were analyzed and data were presented based on the viewpoints of teachers with fewer than six years of experience, between six and fourteen years of experience and greater than fifteen years of experience. Responses were also presented from non-classroom educators such as guidance counselors and administrators. There were five findings emerging from this study. The first finding revealed that teacher perceptions of parent involvement varied between low and high socio-economic schools. Another finding discovered that the group of students being taught may play more of a role in teacher perception of parent involvement than the socio-economic status of the school. The third finding was teacher perceptions of key characteristics of parent involvement don't necessarily align with ways teachers say parents are involved. The next finding revealed that teachers communicate with parents via various forms of technology. The final finding exposed that teachers feel that school related involvement at home is important. / Ed. D.

Using Delgado-Gaitan and Trueba’s (1991) empowerment/disempowerment definition as a framework, this dissertation investigated how Korean immigrant mothers perceived and practiced parental involvement in their children’s schooling, and how an empowerment/disempowerment process occurred during their involvement. To inquire into the research questions, this study used the qualitative case study method, and five Korean immigrant mothers were the cases. The interview method was used to gather data, and an unstructured interview protocol, as well as a semi-structured interview protocol, was used for the interviews. Each mother was interviewed three times. From this study, I found these things: For the concept of schooling, all the Korean mothers in this study agreed that schooling is all activities relevant to acquiring abilities related to having a better school life, and that the concept of parental involvement includes all the activities to support their children’s schooling, regardless of activity types. In a comparison of their beliefs and their practices for involvement, they show accord in terms of the comprehensive nature of parental involvement. However, there were also discrepancies between their perceptions and practices of involvement. To get an understanding of the discrepancy issue, their involvement experiences were explored, based on an empowerment/disempowerment framework. The Korean immigrant mothers showed distinctive features in empowerment and disempowerment while they were involved in their children’s schooling. First, they felt contradictory feelings—guilt and pride-- toward their identity, and this influenced their empowerment and disempowerment. The second feature was the struggles that the Korean immigrant mothers reported: cultural differences, exclusion, and a lack of English skill for involvement. Last, the most salient feature to influence their empowerment/disempowerment was the standard they were using to evaluate their involvement. These findings were discussed in terms of the features of empowerment/ disempowerment and the factors that influenced their empowerment and disempowerment. The Korean mothers’ standard of evaluation was discussed in depth, since it was determined to be the most basic issue to impact their empowerment/ disempowerment experiences. Based on the findings, this dissertation concluded with presenting implications for teachers, educational administrators, and Korean immigrant mothers themselves, and with suggestions for future research. / text

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