M.Ed. / The purpose of this study is to investigate the parental involvement in the education of their children. This research study is also an endeavour to explore the views of parents of students in grade eleven at Sitintile secondary school and on their role as support structure. In gathering data, qualitative research methods were used. This qualitative research methods lead to the understanding of people's perceptions. Processes that were involved in the data collection were one to one interviews with each of the twelve parents and observation was employed as the secondary data collection method. The researcher approached twelve individuals and they were identified as the sample population of the study . . The main implications of these findings could be summed up this way: • For the grade eleven students to prosper and be goal directed, parent-teacher relationship need to be enhanced. • There is a need for the parents to involve parents in the education of their children. • In conclusion, parents must play a meaningful role in the education of children.

This qualitative study attempted to capture the experiences of parents of children with high-functioning autistic spectrum disorders participating in child-parent relationship therapy (CPRT). Parents of children with high-functioning autistic spectrum disorders (HFASD) are prone to experiencing stress in the parent-child relationship due to difficulty in social understanding and rigid behavioral patterns often found among children with HFASD. Moreover, parents of children with HFASD may feel challenged to find suitable interventions that are time-limited, affordable, and appropriate for parents and children with HFASD. Because no research currently investigates the perceived acceptability of CPRT for parents of children with HFASD, it was decided that a qualitative study would best capture the experiences of parents of children with HFASD participating in CPRT to understand more fully whether CPRT is an appropriate intervention for these parents. Four parents and one grandparent were interviewed prior to and following their participation in 10 sessions of CPRT. Thematic analysis of the pre- and post-intervention interviews as well as the 10 CPRT sessions revealed eight themes related to the parents overall experience of CPRT and change in the parent, child, and parent-child relationship: understanding of CPRT concepts, reactions to CPRT, group dynamic, child characteristics, parent characteristics, knowledge and experiences with HFASD, family context, and parent-child relationship. The emerging themes indicated that the five participants found CPRT to be a useful intervention for developing skills to deal with child-behavior concerns related to HFASD. The participants also reported developing a better understanding of their children with HFASD and four parents reported increased closeness in the parent-child relationship. The implications for this research are that CPRT may offer parents of children with HFASD a time-limited intervention that meets their needs as parents, as well as possibly helping parents and children with HFASD develop increased closeness in the parent-child relationship.

No description available.

This study explores the nature of the communication between parent and child as the context changes to place them into the roles of coach and member of the team. Previous studies of parents coaching their own children are limited, suggesting the need for further examination in this area. The parent/coach is becoming far more common in competitive contexts due to the growing number of programs available for children without a corresponding growth in the number of adults able and interested in coaching (Turman & Schrodt, 2004). The study examines and extends role theory, conflict theory, and communication privacy management (CPM) theory.

World events of the past few years have cast a shadow of doubt over the ability of the American school, as an agent of a democratic society, to fulfill its dual role of social and academic development. Critics of American education have pointed to social inequalities, economic pressures , technological demands, and many other areas as possible causes for the so-called malfunction of American educational institutions. The world of adult endeavor asks the American college for tremendous increases in student preparation. The college is forced to step up its demands upon the high school, which in turn demands more of the elementary school. Finally the sequence of educational and societal demands ends with the first grade teacher looking at a six-year-old child. On one hand the pressures of society and the educational system threaten her. On the other hand the needs of individual children demand from her far more than just the teaching of academic skills . These forces are in opposition. Should these two entities, the societal demands and child needs, be further reduced before they can be reconciled, or must the teacher of young children reach out for a new dimension in teaching techniques? It is not advisable to permit the rest of human endeavor to race ahead while early childhood education does nothing to keep up. It is unreasonable to presume that old mistakes may, by some educational transmutation, produce new perfect ones. This study seeks, through action research, to find ways to improve early childhood education through study of the teacher-parent relationship.

Better utilization of foster families might be linked to parents' reasons for fostering. This study used data from the National Survey of Current and Former Foster Parents to examine relationships between reasons for fostering and types of services and length of service foster parents provide. Top reasons for fostering were child-centered. The least endorsed reasons were self-oriented. Those who fostered to help children with special problems were more likely to have a child placed, had more children, and had fostered more types of special needs children. Parents who fostered because their children were grown were more likely to have a child placed, had more children, and were more likely to intend to continue fostering. Conversely, parents who wanted to be loved or who wanted companionship fostered fewer children Implications for improving foster family utilization are discussed.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education Faculty of Education University of Zululand, South Africa, 1996. / The aim of this investigation was to establish black parents' perceptions regarding their educational responsibility in a changing educational dispensation. From the literature study it became clear that rapid change represents one of the most dynamic features of modern society and the traditional black family is not left untouched by this. The influence of permissiveness, materialism and the mass-media forces parents to educate their children under circumstances quite different to those under which they themselves were reared. Industrialization, urbanization, politicization and the norm crisis are the most dominant characteristics of modern society which gave rise to numerous problems regarding the adequate functioning of the family. In the historical overview of black education in South Africa it was revealed that during the nineteenth century the education of black children in South Africa was funded and controlled by different churches. Between 1904 and 1953 the administration of Black Education was jointly performed by the churches and provinces and during these years the policy of segregation and inequalities in education are well-known and well-documented. After the National Party's accession in 1948 and the passing of the Bantu Education Act in 1953, separation in black education became formalised through legislation and was vigorously implemented. Since the early 1950s apartheid education was vociferously opposed by black students and teachers. The sporadic protests and boycotts of the 1950s and 1960s culminated in the student riots of 1976 which signalled an end to apartheid education. Changes in society had remarkable and adverse effects on the educational responsibility of black parents. The traditional practice, where children learned from their parents and eiders, changed to a Western system where professionals teach children with the aid of textbooks. Parents should, however, have no uncertainties as to their educational responsibility as parents. As the child's primary educators, parents are responsible for the child's adequate education at home, which serves as a basis for school education. They should be fully aware of their role, purpose and task, as well as the possibilities and limitations of their activities as regard the education of their children. The purpose of the child's education is not only adequate support and guidance towards adulthood, but also optima! realization of the child's unique potential. Responsible education can only be adequately realised if the educational relationship between parent and child is based on trust, understanding and authority. For the purpose of the empirical investigation a self-structured questionnaire was utilised. An analysis was done of 150 questionnaires completed by the parents of standard 8 pupils in Umlazi schools. The data thus obtained was processed and interpreted by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. The hypothesis, namely that the relationship of trust, understanding and authority between parent and child has no relation with the gender or age of the parents or the number of school-going children in the family, has to be accepted. In conclusion, a summary and certain finding emanating from the literature study and the empirical investigation were presented. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made: Cultural leaders must re-establish and meaningfully foster the efficient functioning of the nuclear family. Parent guidance and parent involvement programmes must be established at schools.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2007 / This study is about rural parents who are expected to participate in some of the activities and programmes of rural secondary schools. This is a questionable expectation because rural parents are mostly illiterate, i.e. they cannot read and write. This study revealed that the Department of Education is not doing enough to empower and enlighten rural parents in terms of skills investment This lack of support to rural communities is difficult to understand, as their plight and predicament is known to the Department of Education. Rural secondary learners have suffered a tremendous loss due to this lack of commitment. Rural secondary schools do not have sufficient teaching and learning aids that can enhance the teaching and learning process in rural secondary schools. It is recommended that the Department of Education's officials should visit rural secondary schools more often in order to address issues pertaining to these schools' infrastructures and parental involvement. Parental supervision should be established in each rural secondary school to optimise the learners' academic achievement. The school management teams (SMTs) should also welcome and assist with parental involvement. This study further revealed that subject advisors seldom visit rural secondary schools to review and monitor the learning and teaching process. It is recommended that subject advisors should visit each rural secondary school quarterly, i.e. once in every three months. Simultaneously, Superintendents of Education Management (SEMs) should workshop the school governing bodies (SGBs) of their duties at schools. Superintendents of Education Management are recommended to often visit rural secondary schools as "developers" and not as "judges". They should not only visit schools when there are problems, but also on ad hoc basis to ensure that the culture of teaching and learning is intact.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Planning and Administration in the University of Zululand, 2004. / The present study examines principals, educators and parents' partnership in creating a culture of teaching and learning in schools. The first aim was to ascertain the extent to which parents, educators and principals play a partnership role in creating a culture of teaching and learning. The second aim was to ascertain the extent to which parents, educators and principals perceive problems that contribute to the decline of a culture of teaching and learning. The third aim was to determine whether parents' educators' and principals' biographical factors such as gender, age, academic qualification nature of stakeholder as well as the highest grade of the school have any influence on their partnership role which they play in creating a culture of teaching and learning. The last aim was to determine whether parents, educators and principals' biographical factors such as gender, age, academic qualification, nature of stakeholder as well as the highest grade of the school have any influence on their perception of problems that contribute to the decline of a culture of teaching and learning. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to a randomly selected sample of two hundred and four parents, educators and principals, inclusively. The findings reveal that parents, educators and principals, as a group, differ in the extent to which they play a partnership role in creating the culture of teaching and learning. A very high percentage (97.5%) of parents, educators and principals, as a group, report an above average level of partnership role. The findings also show that parents, educators and principals differ in the extent to which they perceive problems that contribute to the decline of a culture of teaching and learning. A very high percentage (90.2%) of parents, educators and principals, as a group, report an above average level of perception of problems that contribute to the decline of culture of teaching and learning. The findings further indicate that, with the exception of the nature of stakeholder, parents', educators' and principals' personal variables such as gender, age, academic qualification as well as schools' highest grade have no influence on their partnership role which they play in creating a culture of teaching and learning. The last findings show that parents', educators' and principals' biographical characteristics have no influence on their perception of problems that contribute to the decline of culture of teaching and learning. On the basis of the findings of this study, recommendations to the Department of Education and Culture as well as for directing future research were made.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / To date, only two studies, both using the same sample at two different time points, have quantitatively examined outcomes in Black caregivers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined family adaptational outcomes in Black and White caregivers of individuals with ASD using the double ABCX model of family adaptation to examine the impacts of stressors, the A in the model (e.g., autism symptom severity, general life demands), resources/supports, the B in the model (e.g., social support), and individual coping/stress appraisal styles, the C in the model (e.g., cognitive appraisal, religious coping) on caregiver positive and negative adaptation outcomes, the X in the model, (e.g., caregiver strain, benefit finding, family quality of life). Black and White caregivers were compared on adaptation outcomes at the family, dyadic, and individual level, including both positively valenced (e.g., benefit finding) and negatively valenced outcomes (e.g., depression, caregiver strain). Participants were Black (N = 24) and White (N = 32) primary caregivers of individuals with ASD. Racial differences were found for both the general and racial-specific factors in the ABCX model. White and Black caregivers reported moderate and equal levels of caregiver strain. However, Black caregivers reported greater levels of anxiety and depression and lower levels of life satisfaction. When adjusting for potential ABC covariates, racial differences in outcomes were no longer significant. That is, racial differences in outcomes could be explained by differences in the proximal elements represented by the ABC variables of the model (e.g., passive-avoidance coping, religious coping). Black caregivers reported higher levels of pile-up of demands, formal social support, threat appraisal, passive-avoidance coping, and positive and negative religious coping than White caregivers. Different factors were related to caregiver strain in the two racial groups. Conscientiousness was a protective factor against caregiver strain for Black caregivers, whereas greater use of passive-avoidance coping and threat appraisal, higher levels of neuroticism and barriers to care, and lower levels of satisfaction with services, parenting self-efficacy, and formal social support were explanatory factors for increased caregiver strain among White caregivers. These results are helpful in informing interventions and support the cultural adaptation of care as provided to Black caregivers of individuals with ASD.