Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:57:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Luiza Franco Nery Machado.pdf: 571758 bytes, checksum: 7a8cd268bf5af27a419c42b2a73d8f85 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-27 / This research aimed at investigating, through the education professionals point of view, how parents/guardian are participating at school, what professionals expect from this participation and which factors could damage or help its promotion. Two auxiliary canals at Public State Schools: Parent and Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Councils were approached as they are in force and guaranteed by law. Fourteen subjects (directors, teachers and employees), from seven Elementary Schools - Cicle I, in Franca-SP, took part in the research. A questionnaire and an interview were used to collect data. Results showed that school professionals recognize the importance of parents/guardian at school, but they also recognize the difficulty to promote it. The study revealed that Parent and Teacher Associations (PTAs) and School Councils could not be firmed yet as effective auxiliary canals for the Education Institutions. On the contrary, the participants consider these canals as formal, bureaucratic spaces: the first, giving priority to the finance dimension, without any connection with the pedagogic dimension; the latter, it is showed through reports, have little performance in the everyday school life. About both Parent and Teacher Association (PTAs) and School Councils it was detected a lack of clearness on the part of the school professionals as for the aims, rights and owes that these canals point, discrediting, thus, the power of decision and participation on them, in the sight of improving education. On the other hand, it was observed a change, at least in the discourse, going towards the recognition that the school is not self-sufficient to take decisions and it needs the parents/guardian to achieve the goal of a school with better quality / O trabalho que aqui se apresenta teve como objetivo investigar, na visão dos profissionais da educação, como está acontecendo a participação dos pais/responsáveis na escola, que expectativas têm os profissionais sobre tal participação e quais os fatores que prejudicariam ou auxiliariam sua promoção. Foram focalizados dois canais auxiliares existentes no Sistema de Ensino Público do Estado de São Paulo: as Associações de Pais e Mestres (APMs) e os Conselhos de Escola, ambos em vigor nos dias atuais e garantidos por lei. Participaram do presente trabalho 14 sujeitos (entre diretores, professores e funcionários) pertencentes a sete escolas de Ciclo I do Ensino Fundamental do município de Franca SP. Para a coleta dos dados foram utilizados o questionário e a entrevista. Os resultados indicaram que os profissionais da escola reconhecem a importância da participação dos pais/responsáveis na instituição escolar, mas reconhecem, também, a dificuldade em promovê-la. Revelou-se que a APM e o Conselho de Escola ainda não conseguiram se firmar como canais auxiliares efetivos para a instituição escolar. Pelo contrário, os participantes percebem tais canais como espaços formais, burocráticos: o primeiro priorizando a dimensão financeira, sem que esta apresente ligação com a dimensão pedagógica; quanto ao segundo, evidencia-se, a partir dos depoimentos, a pouca atuação do mesmo no cotidiano escolar. Em relação aos dois APM e Conselho de Escola detecta-se a falta de clareza por parte dos profissionais da escola quanto às finalidades, direitos e deveres que esses canais apontam, desprestigiando o poder de decisão e participação nos mesmos com vistas à melhoria educacional. Em contrapartida, observa-se uma mudança, pelo menos no discurso, em direção ao reconhecimento de que a escola não é auto-suficiente para tomar as decisões e necessita dos pais/responsáveis para concretizar a meta de uma escola com maior qualidade

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / Parental involvement in rural multigrade schools in South Africa is poor. This is mainly due to a lack of support for and insufficient knowledge regarding the development of a programme that would increase parental involvement at rural multigrade schools in South Africa. The context of multigrade education in South Africa reflects the reality of a lack of parental involvement. South African rural multigrade education is beset by a variety of internal and external challenges which have a detrimental effect on effective parental involvement. However, in the rural multigrade school context, parents have untapped potential that needs to be identified and acted upon in order to empower parents; this could provide the rural marginalised children with meaningful access to quality education. Research has proved that parental involvement has a positive effect on the quality of education. According to research, the six types of parental involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making and collaborating with the community. In this study the focus was on involving parents in learning and allowing them to become active partners in education. To increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools in South Africa, an intervention was needed. This intervention came in the form of a school, community and family partnership programme. The core elements of a school, community and family partnership programme (SCAF partnership programme) were the creation of partnerships and communication channels between the school, community and family, as well as the utilisation of existing community resources. These core elements had a specific focus on learning. This study used Bourdieu's (1986) theory on capital and Epstein's (1995) theory of overlapping spheres of influence. The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of an effective school, community and family partnership programme that would increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools in South Africa. Design-based research was employed in order to design, develop and test the proposed programme. Research was conducted in two phases. During the preliminary phase, a needs and content analysis, review of literature, and the development of a conceptual or theoretical framework for the study were conducted. This was followed by a prototyping phase which is an iterative design phase consisting of iterations, each being a micro-cycle of research with formative evaluation as the most important research activity, and which is aimed at improving and refining the intervention. Summative evaluation was conducted during the prototype phase in order to determine whether the solution or intervention met the pre-determined specifications. Data gathered during this study indicated: 1. The SCAF partnership programme can increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools if certain product and process characteristics are active. 2. The SCAF partnership programme allows utilising school, home and community capital through interaction and collaboration to increase parental involvement in learning. 3. A SCAF partnership programme should focus on learning through creating partnerships and opportunities for communication, and utilising community resources. 4. A SCAF partnership programme should be employed through a specific process. 5. Design research offers an appropriate and powerful approach to design, develop and implement a SCAF partnership programme that increases parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools. Keywords: Parental involvement, Parents, Design Research, Rural multigrade schools, Rural multigrade education