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Enhancing parental involvement in primary schools in disadvantaged communities

The main research question guiding this study is: “What strategies can be established to enhance parental involvement in primary schools in disadvantaged communities in the Northern Areas of Port Elizabeth”? To answer this question, this study examines parents’ and teachers’ practices concerning parental involvement in the Northern Areas of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan. Parents and teachers were purposely selected from participating schools. In this qualitative study, the researcher proposed strategies to enhance parental involvement at primary schools. Qualitative research methods, associated with phenomenological inquiry were employed to explore the life-world of the participants who have had personal experience with the phenomenon of parental involvement. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers. This allowed the researcher to gather in-depth information about opinions, beliefs, practices and attitudes concerning the involvement of parents in their children’s education. Bronfenbrenner’s ecosystemic theory served as the theorectical framework of this investigation. Since this study is about parental involvement in primary schools educational policies like inclusive education as well as different models of parental involvement were investigated in the literature study. The results of the study indicated several barriers to the enhancement of parental involvement for instance communication barriers between parents and teachers. The researcher established four strategies for the enhancement of parental involvement and recommended that these strategies should be employed by schools and other stakeholders. She also made further recommendations for parents, teachers, school principals, Department of Basic Education and professionals in the community.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:9461
Date January 2014
CreatorsHendricks, Charlotte Augusta
PublisherNelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Education
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis, Doctoral, DPhil
Formatxi, 405 leaves, pdf
RightsNelson Mandela Metropolitan University

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