Submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, 1991. / The ever depreciating quality and quantity of matric results in black schools has called for the urgent attention for all educationists, decision-makers and parents, as well as pupils with the aim of joining hands to save and improve this appalling state of affairs. There has been much speculation ranging from the malfunctioning of the education system for the black community to the racially segregated education system. This thesis presents the findings of a study which describes the role played by parents in the academic performance of pupils in Senior Secondary classes in the Nseleni and Ongoye Magisterial districts. The Study was conducted among 150 Standard 9 and 10 pupils, 12 subject teachers, six principals of schools and 50 parents. The questionnaire and interview tools of research were used in the collection of data. The data collected by means of both the questionnaire and research tools, were analysed quantitatively. The analysis of results led to the emergence of numerous closely related factors which formed the basis of poor academic performance of pupils in Senior Secondary classes, especially standard 10. The findings indicated work time-tables, viz. shift work undertaken by parents, lack of parental support due to illiteracy, conditions of employment, lack of space and furniture conducive to study - due to unfavorable socio-economic factors prevailing within the family, absence of a well-structured personal study time-table for pupils, lack of regular contact between the school and parents, low occupational status of the parents, discrepancies in the staffing procedures and a high teacher-pupil ratio in schools are factors responsible, to a large extent, for the poor academic performance of pupils. In the light of these findings, it is advisable that these factors should not be regarded as separate, units, but as complementary to one another, forming a complete whole.

Asian American students have done well in school; they have had higher academic achievements, higher academic scores, lower dropout rates and higher college entrance rates as compared to other minorities and generally other students in the United States (U.S.). A possible explanation to the higher academic performance and achievement of the Asian American students is that they are more likely to have experienced an environment that is conducive to learning at home; their parents were involved and held higher expectations. Immigrant minorities have been found to do well in schools in many parts of the world. Similarly, here in the U.S. there has been increasing evidence that students of Asian ancestry, both immigrants and U.S. born, complete more years of education than most of the other ethnicities. Current research and data on the academic performance of Asian immigrants includes most Asian countries. This study reviewed the current literature regarding the factors that influence the academic performance of "Asian Indian Americans" who attended high schools in the U. S. This correlational study examined the relationship between various factors, such as parental participation, parental expectations and involvement, discipline, cultural beliefs, personal identity and values, language spoken at home, and the academic performance of the Asian Indian Americans.

Research clearly indicates that parental involvement plays an essential role in the educational process of any student regardless of grade level. However, technology is changing the way schools communicate, which affects the way parents are involved in their children’s education. Research on the digital divide indicates that there are differences in access based on race and family income. In other words, lower income and minority families tend to have less access to technology, and therefore may be less able to fully participate in schools. This issue of social justice was investigated at a small charter school located in West Los Angeles, California, where the researcher was an administrator. Over the past several years, there had been a demographic shift in enrollment. Teachers and administrators noticed a problem related to parental involvement at the school and all school communication relied on technology. The purpose of this study was to investigate the intersection of technology and parental involvement at West Los Angeles Charter (WLAC). Applying the theoretical lens of Epstein’s (1988) work on parental involvement and Davis’s (1989) work on technology acceptance, the administrator-researcher interviewed 16 parents, stratified by income level to guarantee that various experiences were represented, and concluded that while all parents expressed interest in being involved in their child’s education, barriers limited that involvement, particularly for the lower-income families. These barriers included issues related to language rather than issues related to access, which WLAC will be able to address to support parental involvement among all families.

With just a click of a button, individuals from across the world can communicate and share information with ease and efficiency through the internet. Employing similar technology, schools are implementing student information systems with a parent portal component to provide parents, students, teachers and guidance counselors with anytime, real-time avenues of communication regarding attendance, grades and standardized test scores in an effort to increase parental involvement and student achievement. Schools must collect and review data to make sound decisions to guide practice (Mann & Shakeshaft, 2003). Therefore, utilization of parent portals should be evaluated along with the strategies employed to increase parental use. This study is an investigation of the perceptions of high school teachers and guidance counselors on the impact of a parent portal on parental involvement and strategies used to increase parental use. Through descriptive and inferential analyses of survey data, key findings were revealed. Overall, guidance counselors perceived the impact of the parent portal to be positive and indicated more strategies were used in their schools differing from the teachers' perception. However, both indicated a need to partner with the community to improve parental use of the parent portal.  Publishing an annual user guide on the parent portal for all stakeholders (teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, students, parents and the community) was one major implication. Centralizing information distributed regarding the parent portal will strengthen the overall intent of the program and the division's goal of providing opportunities for all to actively engage in student achievement (Longfellow, 2004). / Ed. D.

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Research studies emphasize the need for a supportive educator-parent relationship in promoting teaching and learning in Life Orientation. This study is based on the assumption that educators are supposed to supplement the teaching of values by building on what parents have already taught at home and this means that learners need the support of their parents in their academic achievement especially in Life Orientation. The aim of this study is to explore the role that educators and learners expect parents to play in creating a positive climate in the teaching of Life Orientation. A qualitative approach was applied in this study in order to get in-depth information about the experiences of educators and learners of parental involvement in creating a positive climate for the teaching of Life Orientation. The researcher collected data through semi-structured interviews from four Life Orientation educators and Grade 10 learners from two Secondary schools at Phokoane Circuit. The data was analysed resulting with themes and sub-themes. The researcher ensured that data collected enhance trustworthiness. Both educators and learners experienced minimal parental involvement in the teaching of Life Orientation. They both recommended partnership, openness and regular meetings amongst partners for effective teaching of life orientation. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Parental involvement in the process of implementing inclusive education is one of the major considerations for ensuring support, especially to learners with learning difficulties. The involvement of parents in their children’s education has been found to have a positive contribution and results in good learning outcomes. In the South African context, the Education White Paper 6 (EWP 6) and the policy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) emphasizes the importance of the role of parents in the process of implementing inclusive education. This study aimed to explore the ability of teachers to engage parents to assist their children with learning difficulties. A qualitative research method with a phenomenological research design was deemed suitable for the nature of this study with Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological systems theory as a theoretical lens to underpin this study.

This comparative study explores parental involvement during the process of mainstreaming Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Using an ethnographic approach with emphasis on a subtle realist ontology it compares two ECE centers operationalisations of parental involvement and staff's experiences of this aspect of their work. Findings showed that the centers had to navigate cultural underpinnings of parental mistrust and knowledge deficiency in their operationalisation of parental involvement. The centers navigated the cultural conditions by allowing parents CCTV access, or by providing parental education and workshops via scaffolding techniques of experts to gain an audience amongst parents. The center's proactive or reactive approach during the initial stages of parental involvement resulted in various implications for the continuous collaboration between staff and parents at the center. The study contextualises parental involvement within the broader Bangladeshi society, suggesting that the ECE centers becomes an external societal actor interfering in home life, creating a collision between cultural understandings of the home (poribar/bari) and the ECE center, which presented hindrances to parental involvement. The study additionally discusses implications of the Covid-19 epidemic and suggestions for the future of ECE mainstreaming in Bangladesh.

To find out how adolescents' individual and environmental factors impact adulthood education and employment outcomes, this longitudinal study examined 10th graders' individual (such as math scores, intrinsic motivation, and school engagement) and environmental (i.e. parental involvement) factors through their education and employment outcomes in emerging adulthood. The current study examined the differentiated effect of parental involvement being autonomy-supportive or control on adolescents' academic achievement in high school and also young adulthood educational and occupational outcomes 10 years later. This research is based on an analysis of data drawn from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), which is a nationally representative longitudinal study that follows adolescents at four main timelines: the base year of students in 10th grade (Time 1), the first follow up at 12th grade(Time 2), the second follow up two years after the expected high school of high-school, and the third follow up when students who may have gone on to post-secondary education would complete their postsecondary education (Time 3). 5,439 students and their parent(s) were included in the study. Overall, the final model supported the majority of the hypotheses and revealed how differentiated parental involvements and students' previous academic performance influence their math scores at Time 2 (r = .80), and both educational (r = .32) and career (r = .27) outcomes at emerging adulthood.