Determining Best Practices of Effective School Communication - Dissertation Example

?Determining Best Practices of Effective School Communication METHODOLOGY Introduction This chapter describes the methodological approach for this research project to derive outcomes from the aims and objectives of this research. The methodology section explains in detail the research theory and research strategy, research design, data collection and analysis methods besides reliability and validity. As stated in the introduction, the parents’ involvement is critical in furthering the cause of education, and a lot depends on the effective communication of the school teachers with parents of the school children to ensure better academic performance. The purpose of this research is to zero-in the methods that help students in bettering their academic performance via effective parental participation. As the purpose of the study is to research highly dependable communicative means to be used by schools, it is also the aim of this study to validate that motivation of the parents help school-going students to perform better. The introduction to the topic includes a background to the research topic of determining best practices of effective school communication, the problem statement, the purpose statement, research questions, theoretical framework, nature of the research, scope of the research, its assumptions, limitations and delimitations, besides the importance of the research work in the context of its implications for social change, ending in the summary of the introduction. Research Theory and Research Strategy Methodology for the research is theory based, totally depending on qualitative research method for the analysis of the conducted research. A qualitative research needs to comprehend processes, happenings, and connections between them from social and cultural perspectives. Qualitative research demands no numerical calculations to prove the facts, as it is based on direct information availing from people and social communities in favorable surroundings (Sociology, 2003). As my research is based on similar tenets of interviewing parents on how communication level with school teachers can be enhanced and find out the causes of their inactivity in participation, the qualitative research method is the right choice. My research strategy will be segregated into three phases, first is the introductory phase, which will be followed by the second phase, the main event, after which validation, the third phase will take off. In the first phase the concept of effective school communication with given objectives of the research will be marked for piloting. The distinct aspect of qualitative research is that it helps in explaining the topic and understanding the issues in natural settings on the basis of the experiences, beliefs, and thinking of all participants (Sociology, 2003). The interview of participating parents in the first stage will help in briefing the parents the purpose of the interview in the informal way. The second phase will touch all the research questions deeply, to elicit participants’ opinions on each one of all the five research questions. As the research design of my methodology is observer-participant, the data description will state the behavior, reaction, and practices of the parents. Parents’ answers will be analyzed to get relevant inputs (Sociology, 2003). My role of observing the parents will be very significant here, to correctly state their views and experiences. I need to be friendly enough with the participating parents to create the perfect setting where they express their anguish or appreciation of the school administration without any inhibitions. Further, my qualitative phenomenological research will help in discussing the singular critical question, as experienced by various participants. The phenomenological methodology research strategy will assist me in understanding the parents’ perspectives, as observed from their angle. There are other methodological roots, as symbolic inter-action and ethnography, employed in qualitative field research but phenomenological approach in the effective school communication seems relatively better in eliciting the individual responses of parents during the interview (Sociology, 2003). Research Design & Rationale There are five leading research designs which are experimental design, cross-sectional design, longitudinal design, case study design, and comparative design, as stated by Bryman and Bell (2011). The comparative design is the most preferable method for this research to derive authentic outcomes related to the most effective way of communication with parents, which is the purpose of this research. The comparative research design by conducting research through the open-ended questionnaire, circulated to the parents of two schools and comparing the output in the specific Arizona region can be relatively conducive option of the research plan, equally effective in saving time and costs as well as deriving pertinent outcomes. The research design is based on the rationale that various modes of communication work as the catalysts in prompting parents to participate actively in the academic growth of their children through the mediums of school communication, stressing on the need to examine the theory that motivation plays or does not play a role in a student’s academic achievement. The outcome of the study will be to draw a connection between motivation and parental involvement, and find out the repercussions of such involvement. The research design of this thesis is based on two theories, the Motivational System Theory and Parental Involvement Theory. Gist of these theories is that parental motivation occurring from effective school communication helps students in improving their performance. The interconnectedness of the theories leads to motivation of the children to perform better, first by parental involvement achieved through motivation resulting in increased student performance. The Motivation System Theory (MST) propounded by Ford (1992) is based on the formula as given herein: Achievement = (Motivation x Skill) (Responsive Environment)/Biological Structure The research questions, therefore, are framed accordingly to include: 1. What communication networks currently exist between school and community and how effective are they in eliciting parental involvement? 2. How does regular and timely communication on the part of the schools connect with parental participation? 3. What forms of school communication elicit the greatest parental involvement? 4. Which forms of communication with the school do parents feel most comfortable? 5. To what degree does a cycle of verbal and written communication between school and community effect parental involvement in the Parent Center? The central concept of the study is the critical role played by the two-way connection between the school and the parents, resulting in the increased involvement in the academic performance of the children. This qualitative phenomenological research is focused to analyze and evaluate the communication systems used at two different schools in one particular School District, related to the leading question of how parents perceive communication methods started by the schools. The research tradition can be traced as far back as in 1989 when a handbook was written by the Arizona State Department, Phoenix on parent teacher communication, dwelling on the need of parental participation for effective school communication. The rationale behind the state-sponsored efforts was to search ways to include the critical stakeholders i.e., parents in the child performance initiative through various means such as notes, telephone contacts, letters, and meetings. The booklet offered recommendations to the teachers on how to motivate parents to become involved in the education process of their children administered by schools. The booklet deals with various means of communication such as oral and written communication, parent-teacher conferences and the end-result of these efforts (Arizona State Dept. of Education, Phoenix, 1989). My role in the research design will be of the observer-participant. As the parents are the critical stakeholders, the observer-participant research method is suited, as it is a qualitative research method based on semi-structured interviews of the selected data set of parents of two K-8 school students. Remaining just an observer and not participating won’t help in divulging critical information. The first round of the interview will comprise the unstructured interview, which after a break of some weeks would be followed by semi-structured interviews. Field notes would also be taken. Other information tools may include school newsletters, calendars, and notes between parents and teachers (Halsey, 2005). The observer-participant method of research is used by maintaining the social distance between the respondents and the interviewer. It is a kind of subjective sociology that helps in comprehending the participant’s point-of-view objectively. It is a naturalistic way of interacting interpretively with the participant (Sociology, 2003). There is no need to feel connected with the respondent personally or professionally. The semi-structure interviews with parents require no use of power with the participants, as they are responsible for their behavior. Because there is no personal or professional connection involved, the question of any bias does not arise, thus, putting a full-stop over the possibility of any ethical issue related to one’s environment, conflict of interest or power differentials, and the need to resolve these issues. Concerning the reliable and genuine sources on parental involvement and participation, the U.S. Department of Education published books will be intensively researched, such as ‘Reaching AH Families: Creating Family-Friendly Schools’ to develop suitable strategies. Other relevant books to be researched may include Strong Families, Strong Schools: Building Community Partnerships for Learning on connecting families to the learning process, and pamphlets like Team Up for Kids! How Schools Can Support Family Involvement in Education for developing strategies for schools on encouraging parental participation in not only the school building process but involving parents in decision making and technology usage to connect parents to the classroom (Dept. of Education, 1997). Data Collection Primary Research Method Before embarking on the primary research method of interviewing parents to know the level of communication in a selected school, research effort will be made in reading the specific content related to planning in advance for parental involvement. Such research will help in knowing the necessary elements of a parent involvement programs’ contribution in communication, parenting, learning, volunteering, decision-making, and community collaboration by parents. Research includes ways of encouraging the role of parents through arranged meetings, school tour for new students and their parents, and opening a resource centre for parents (Wherry, 2002). Strategy-wise, both long-term, spanning a complete year and short-term communication methods would be researched to encourage involvement of parents. Interview The data set of 30 parent participants each of two Arizona schools will be taken from K-8 classes. The approach would be to include equal number of students’ parents by sending them invitations on the recommendations of the concerned schools’ principals, describing the purpose of the interview. An attempt would be made to include parents belonging to various cultural roots such as Latino parents. Generally, it is taken for granted that Latino parents are not caring enough about the education of their children. Care will be taken to use a culturally related way of interviewing parents of various races (Gaetano, 2007). As all parents won’t be willing to be a part of the research process, invitations will be sent to almost double the number of needed participants to reach the decided number of participants. The rationale behind selecting 30 parents of participating two schools is to justify the extent of time required in interviewing them and later analyzing the gathered data. The sample size of 30 participants of two K-8 schools remains within the saturation point; it is neither too large nor too small a number to reach constructive outcomes. Regarding usage of data gathering instruments, I plan to use observation sheets, interview protocol, and audio-tape. Possibility exists for using the historical and legal documents, as data sources are highly dependable, being the book resources published by the U.S. Department of education in 1997 on parental involvement and creating family-friendly schools. These are the best data sources, as gathered by responsible government agencies. Relevance of the past data tools will be checked to conform to the new situations, particularly the cultural aspects. Validity of the content will be verified from the parents’ response to erase the non-relevant questions. Gaetano (2007) has used the instruments in somewhat same setting in connection with the role of minority community (Latino) parents and their involvement to answer the research question pertaining to how these parents took care of their children’s education. Likewise Gaetano (2007), I plan to request the selected schools’ principals to provide data of parents of K-8 students belonging to diverse cultural environments for wider scope and future strategy aspects. Opinion of parents will be sought on the practice of ‘Friday Letters’ relating to the research question on the kind of school communication eliciting the greatest parental involvement. Parents’ feedback on weekly updates of academic and social activity of their children will be sought, as a means of parental involvement (Newman & Bizzarri, 2012). Another aspect of research to enhance parental participation could be the contribution of online media in bringing parents directly in touch with the teachers by sending and receiving of critical messages about the academic performance of the students to their parents through System login (Blau & Hameiri, 2012). Data Interpretation The basic point of qualitative field study is to bring the researcher as near to the research participant as possible, which in the current context would be parents of K-8 class students of two schools. Stating the individual participants’ experiences requires the researcher to be keen listener and observer to explain their experiences in the concurrent setting. In quantitative research, there are clear-cut hypothesis but in qualitative research, there are only routine objectives about the research questions. There remains the possibility to alter the nature of the topic as data gathering furthers (Sociology, 2003). Sample My data providers are not going to be selected as per convenience, as it used to happen earlier when the desired participant profile was not available, as it happens in the case of ethnography. Participants will be rationally selected to form the sample. It will also reduce the possibility of bias in choosing the participants (Sociology, 2003). In stead of systematic non-probabilistic sampling, which is mostly employed in finding particular set of people who experience the same surrounding related to the issues questioned, my qualitative research will be based on Theoretical sampling, which is a type of non-probability sampling wherein the aim of developing a theory or statement leads the procedure of sampling and data-gathering. After gathering the sample-set of participants, gathered data is studied to derive the starting statement. It helps the researcher in further data selection for the main round of analysis. The new data proves the theory to lead the researcher to continue the process of data gathering (Sociology, 2003). As my research is based on Motivational Systems Theory (MST) and Parental Involvement Theory, the selection of participating parents, as the discussion progresses, will help in the referral participants. Data analysis will help in validating whether working on the below formula, students’ support system comprising the involvement of parents among other significant variables helps the students in achieving the desired performance level in academics. Achievement = (Motivation x Skill) (Responsive Environment)/Biological Structure Thus, the hypotheses of the Motivational Systems Theory and the Parental Involvement Theory will be examined and validated with the interpreted data. Workshops I plan to organize workshops with parents after making a number of visits to the school sites. Observation with parents would be entered into datasheets during the PTA sessions, creating a familiar environment for parent-leaders and other parents as well to get referral parents’ names. Recommendations of the principals of the selected schools will be adhered to also for conducting interview rounds in the school premises where a parents’ room is reserved for visiting parents. All the five research questions, as briefed above on school communication, will be asked to the parents such as the current mode of communication of the schools with parents, the regularity and time element of the communication, the most sought-after school communication, the most comfortable school communication to the parents, and the level of parents’ participation in the verbal and written communication. Such data gathering events will be recurrent; one event in a month till all the data is gathered. Any one event won’t be extended beyond two hours of time. Audio-recording of the data will be enabled for authenticity purpose. Time limitation for such an event is planned to encourage parents to participate in the following rounds, when they will be invited to. All data will be analyzed in break-ups of initial event, reviewing the parents’ views and ideas on the research questions, and by linking one research question to the other. Experiences of parents will be taken note of to build creative content for better parental involvement (Gaetano, 2007). In any case, the agenda could be revised keeping the concurrent needs of the hour. Ethical Issues I am not expecting any ethical issues as the research work will be organized taking the principals of concerned schools in confidence. Selection of parents for data collection will be made on the recommendations of the school principals. Research being qualitative in nature, hopefully, no big issues emerges. Besides, the nature of the interview setting with parents won’t be such creating any ethical risk, as not based on covert observations that can possibly create an ethical dilemma. Adherence to overt observation should be the right choice, as the research questions that need to be answered by the parents won’t deter the parents from speaking the truth, irrespective of the Hawthorne effect when people don’t show up with their natural feelings because they know that they are being observed and the answers are being recorded (Sociology, 2003). As my research design is based on one of the four leading methods of qualitative research, the observation-participant method, even then, the possibility of considering other methods remains there. The other methods also suit the nature of my research methodology, as additional data revealing means, which include Depth Interviews, Group Interviews, and Projective Techniques. It is because most probably our first meeting with participatory parents would be through the monthly parent-teacher meetings where parents come in large numbers. Group interviews can help in knowing the initial reactions of the participatory parents on our research questions. Depth interviews can also be a part of my research to conduct a case study on a critical participant’s experience. Summary The methodology chapter starts with the introduction of methodological approach, as inspired from the objectives of the research. It briefly restates the introduction section of the research proposal, stating the importance of effective school communication and the purpose of the research work. It outlines all the sections of the introduction, as covered in the proposal document. Introduction is followed by Research Theory and Research Strategy. This section throws light on the qualitative research, the kind of qualitative research, I plan to initiate. It describes the three phases of the research strategy, which include the initial introductory round of personal or group interviews, which will be followed by the main event of singular interviews with the selected parents, applying the observation-participant design of qualitative research. It dwells on the criticality of the observer-participant role assigned to the researcher for deriving maximum leverage by interviewing the parents through phenomenological aspect. The next section on Research Design and Rationale states the five kinds of research out of which the comparative design is selected on the basis of the kind of research and comparison between two K-8 classes of two different schools, as the basis of the sampling of participant teachers. Suitability of this research design is stated. Further, the relevance of the MST and PIT is linked to the research design, as it is a theory-based research design, stating how both the theories work in this qualitative research analysis. Next, it discusses how data will be gathered and interpreted and the possibility of ethical issues as well. References Blau, I., & Hameiri, M. (2012). Teacher-Families online interactions and gender differences in parental involvement through school data system: do mothers want to know more than fathers about their children? Computers & Education, 59 (2), 701-709. Retrieved from ERIC Database. Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2007). Business Research Methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dept. of Education, U.S.A. (1997). Achieving the goals: goal 8, parental involvement and participation. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?u=1&num=74&seq=89&view=plaintext&size=100&id=mdp.39015041733000 Gaetano, Y.D. (2007). The role of culture in engaging Latino parents’ involvement in school. Urban Education, 42 (2), 145-162. doi:10.1177/0042085906296536 Halsey, P. A. (2005). Parent involvement in junior high schools: a failure to communicate. American Secondary Education, 34(1), 57-69. Retrieved from Ebscohost Database. Newman, T. H., & Bizzarri, S. A. (2012). Friday letters: connecting students, teachers, and families through writing. Reading Teacher, 65 (4), 275-280. Retrieved from ERIC Database. Sociology. (2003). Ch. 14 Qualitative field research. Mother and Child Health: Research Methods. Retrieved from http://www.sociology.org.uk/mpoprint.pdf Wherry, J. H. (2002). Planning ahead for parent involvement. Principal (Reston, Va.), 81(5), 53-54. Retrieved from Ebscohost Database. Read More