The goal of this study was to examine the perceptions of disability, parental rights, roles, and advocacy actions of Mexican American parents with elementary-aged children classified as having an emotional disturbance. It explored parents’ understanding of their child’s disability, knowledge of their educational rights, and their perceived roles in special education. It also examined how parents ensure their children’s needs are met by the special education system. Six parents from five elementary schools in a Texas urban school district were interviewed. In addition to data gathered from the semi-structured interviews, data was also collected through direct observation of parent participation in ARD (Admission, Review, and Dismissal) meetings and a review of the students’ special education file for documentation of parent participation, such as questions, input, and concerns given by parents. Inductive coding was used to analyze the data. Findings generated by the study revealed that despite the complexity of the special education system, parents educated and empowered themselves to ensure their children’s needs were met. They constructed various understandings of their children’s disability, perceiving it to be a genetic illness, gender specific (“boys will be boys”), or the result of having an absent parent. In regards to the parents’ understanding of their rights in the special education process, parents had a general understanding or limited awareness of these rights. Parents also perceived themselves in a variety of roles, from advocate to educator to caretaker, within the special education system. Parents engaged in a number of actions to ensure their children’s needs were met; they questioned the special education process, maintained high expectations, met with administrators, researched their rights, and pursued outside resources. Contrary to previous research that suggested low rates of parent participation in special education, the parents in this study actively participated in their children’s special education. These findings contributed to the limited research in this area, providing valuable insight into the perceptions of Mexican American parents of children classified as emotionally disturbed. / text

Lack of parental involvement is one of the biggest challenges schools face. Due to lack of support or too much interference from the parent the academic learning process of the student is disturbed and delayed. This also puts a lot of stress on the teacher trying to support the student in achieving to the best of his or her abilities as well as managing the parents on the side. The purpose of this study was to investigate how 1) different parenting styles deliver different results and if that implies that there exists a more effective parenting style when it comes to school performance, 2) if we could make any correlations between school behaviour, motivation, results and how parents approach their children at home, and 3) to further explore how parenting style affects the academic performance of students in a local Hong Kong kindergarten. Therefore the aim was to explain the relationship between parenting styles, goal orientation and academic achievement in an Early Years Hong Kong school setting. This study identified the parenting styles prevalent in the kindergarten and explored which of the four parenting styles from Baumrind (1971) and Chao (1994) are being used by the kindergarten parents. It continued by identifying the academic achievement prevalent amoung the students and correlating it with their parent’s parenting style. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used throughout this study. A group of 60 Kindergarten students were monitored through observation for a period of 6 months in order to track their academic achievement. A survey was sent home and completed by the 60 parents of these students collecting information on parenting style and socio-economic information. Finally both findings were correlated and significant similarities and connections were identified between both parenting style and academic achievement. The study found strong correlations between parenting styles and the performance of students in school especially concerning authoritative, authoritarian and training parenting styles. The results indicated students from authoritative parenting background scored significantly higher in academic achievement while students from authoritative and training background had low performance. There was no significant correlation found between goal orientation and parenting style or academic achievement. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

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Previous research has suggested that parent involvement with children at home and in school is positively related to academic performance. Children with little to no parent involvement are at a distinct academic disadvantage. In light of this disadvantage, the present study examined the possibility that participation in extracurricular activities might serve as an alternative option for the school success of these children. Past research has found a significant positive association between participation in extracurricular activities and performance in school. Thus, this study tested the hypothesis that the relationship between parent involvement and school performance depended upon participation in extracurricular activities. In other words, children with low parent involvement who participated in extracurricular activities were expected to academically outperform children with low parent involvement who did not participate in extracurricular activities. This study also contributed to the literature on parent involvement and extracurricular activity participation by testing the relationship of each to academic performance. Participants came from a longitudinal, nationally representative data set and included 8410 third grade children. Parent involvement was measured with a composite variable including home-based and school-based involvement items (derived from parent and teacher report). Extracurricular activity participation was measured by parent report. Each child's academic performance was measured by teacher report of academic competence in reading and math. This study controlled for sex, race/ethnicity, previous achievement and family structure. Contrary to what was expected, the interaction between parent involvement and extracurricular activities was not significant. Although the relation between extracurricular activity participation and academic performance was statistically significant, that of parent involvement and academic performance was not. Supplementary analyses revealed a positive, statistically significant association between school-based parent involvement and school performance; a negative, statistically significant relation was found between home-based parent involvement and school performance. Previous research supporting home-based parent involvement has utilized parent training provided by schools and teachers. Results of the current study, which did not involve formal parent training, may therefore suggest that children stand to gain more from home-based parent involvement when schools and teachers encourage, train, and support parents. In response to the encouraging finding with respect to extracurricular activity participation, future researchers may wish to delve further into the topic by examining the activities or characteristics of those activities that prove most beneficial for the academic performance of children. / text

Thesis (MTech. degree in Education) -- Tshwane University of Technology, 2009. / Parents are less involved and less committed in the education of their children. As a result, it is difficult for the school to function properly. The South African Government has promulgated the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 and introduced White Paper 6, in 1995, as a way to encourage parental involvement in schools. This study was undertaken to determine the involvement of parents in a secondary school in Northern Cape.

This study addressed the questions of whether parents can give effective phonological and phonics skills instruction to their own young children, who are at risk for reading difficulties, and whether any positive changes in child attitude and parent confidence occur as a result of the instruction. Early phonological and phonics skills instruction is known to be effective for children at-risk for reading difficulties, but is not always provided in schools. Two groups of families (experimental and "waiting list" control) used a home program (providing phonological and phonics skills instruction, and Paired Reading guidance) for two separate, daily, ten-minute activity and reading sessions, for ten weeks. The program also included a process to address reading motivation, whereby parents used the language of strategies of mediation based on Vygotsky's social learning theories. Significant Time by Group interaction effects were calculated for Word Attack and Phoneme Deletion (Initial Sound). Parent and child pre-test and post-test questionnaires explored changes in motivation and attitude to reading. There were significant positive changes in child attitude to reading, and parent perceptions of progress. Small but significant correlations were also found between parent perceptions and treatment integrity, and between treatment integrity and achievement outcomes. It was concluded that the study provides limited support for the idea that parents of grade 1 children at-risk for reading difficulties can give instruction effectively when given detailed information about all three aspects of early reading.

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.

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To what extent does students' perceived parental cultural capital affect support for students' music listening and students' instrumental learning?;A mixed-method sequential research study, consisting of two distinct phases - quantitative and qualitative - collected data form junior secondary school students in grades seven to nine in eight secondary schools in Beijing and nine in Hong Kong. Survey questionnaires and individual interviews were conducted from mid-June to September 2015, and from April to May 2016, respectively. Completed questionnaires (n=3,288 - 1,674 from Beijing and 1,614 from Hong Kong) complemented by interviews involving 56 respondents (28 students from each region), provided nuanced insights on the interplay between parental cultural capital and parental support, and on how parental support influenced students' participation in music activities.;This study found students in both Beijing and Hong Kong perceived their parents to be generally more supportive of their at-home music activities, and that parental support, both physical and personal, enhanced their motivation to participate in music activities. The perceived degree and perceived importance of parental support for student's music activities were positively associated. Moreover, the study also found that while parental cultural capital may not predict students' musical listening preferences, it may inform the frequency and types of parental support offered, which mediates the intergenerational transmission of musical preferences. This study found Beijing and Hong Kong parents generally exerted similar parental influences on students' music activities; however, Beijing students generally perceived their parents to offer greater physical and mental support than did their Hong Kong peers, and to have greater influence over their music listening. This study also found differences between the types of support Beijing and Hong Kong parents offered for students' instrumental learning.;Secondly, the study shows parental cultural capital predicts the level and types of parental support offered for students' music activities, in both Beijing and Hong Kong. Parents with greater cultural capital may be more capable of providing more musical support and a musical home environment for students' music listening and instrumental learning, which may help cultivate students' cultural capital, particularly in terms of their musical development and enrolment into instrumental class.;This study argues and further complements Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1973, 1986), which holds the intergenerational transmission of musical disposition, namely musical listening preference and musical knowledge, is facilitated by parental support and mediated by the home music environment, both of which are governed by parental cultural capital. This study implies the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital may not be a direct process, and parental support is necessary to impart parental cultural capital into students' cultural capital. This study further supplements Bourdieu's theory that parental support for their children's music activities reproduces parents' cultural capital as students', in the Chinese context. It found that parental cultural capital informed the types and extent of parental support for students' music activities, which may, in turn, have enhanced students' motivation for participating in music activities. This study argues that the mechanisms for intergenerational transmission of musical dispositions - i.e., musical preferences and musical knowledge - were facilitated by parental support and mediated within a musical home environment, both of which were governed by parental cultural capital. The study suggests a close collaboration among parents, school educators (including school music teachers), and instrumental instructors would best facilitate students' music learning, by providing a more comprehensive and immersive music education to students in their daily life.