Parents Involvement in Educational Reforms - Example

PARENTS INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATIONAL REFORMS For a successful process of education in schools to be achieved, parents, teachers, student’s leaders and the school are involved directly or indirectly. Though the direct effect is witnessed on the students, it takes other people’s involvements and efforts too, hence forming the basis of this paper to critically analyze the involvement of these participants in school reforms then, now and in future. Varied interpretations of parental involvement in school reforms is evident from different people Jeynes (2010:749), reflecting also the difference in the levels of involvement. Parental involvement can be said to be the level of awareness of the interaction between parenting skills and the student’s success in school, participation in school activities, and a continuous link with teachers in the quest to know their children’s abilities and weaknesses. Brannon (2008) observe that parental involvement lead to better performance and a positive attitude of learning towards children. According to PARENTAL AND FAMILY INVOLVEMENT IN EDUCATION BY DOUGLAS B. DOWNEY, an 18 year old child is equal to 13% development at school, depending on their early stages’ life. The quest by different researchers to know how the rest percentage can/is achieve on success in school resulted to identification of several roles of parents which are classified into two: the effects due to parental involvement and interaction in school; and parental involvement in the home. Izzo, Weissberg, Kasprow, and Fendrich2 argue that through THE parents-teachers interactions parents learn a lot, among them, what is expected of their children, the academicals abilities of their children, and to some cases, how the parents can influence their children’s abilities at home. On the other hand, parents that attend and participate in Parents-Teachers’ Association, PTA have an easier time to provide continuity of learning process when at school, home or any other place Parent’s value for education is another major influence to children, since children, especially at early stages, tend to study to please their parents. If the parent is consistently reminding the chilkd of how important education is, then, it is proved to have a lot of positive effects. However, parental involvement is not only beneficial to students but also to their teachers. A research by Grolnick and Slowiaczek of 300 11-14 years old showed that those parents that participated in school functions like PTA had closer involvement and interaction with their children and this affected the performance in academics. Lemmer, 2007) identified several ways through which parental involvement would lead to academic improvement: generating higher ambitions among the pupils hence encouraging had work; motivating schools to perform better by consistently improving the teaching learning practices; not forgetting their hand in the general development of the children. A decreased school dropping rate, improved behavior of the pupils, and CONTINUOUS positive attitude towards their studies, are just but some benefits associated with parental involvement. Bridgemohan (2002) acknowledges that different parental practices exist but there exist models like the Gordon’s 1977 Family Impact, the School Impact and the Community Impact models among others, and in each, the role of leaders is evident. Jansorn (2004) observes that there is no a common model, since the background and strengths of schools also vary, and the approaches taken by different schools dictate the stretch of home-school relationship. The articles explains that \ The education system provide a chance for parents to chip their hand in areas like infrastructure where they join and build schools or even roads leading to schools. According to Phillips & Schweisfurth, (2006) for one to understand, appreciate and evaluate the effects of a countries education system it’s necessary to consider its history and tradition, it’s socio-economic and political development. Educational Leadership;Oct89, Vol. 47 by Silvestri, Kenneth outlines that Public Policy and Public Schools Program in 1982 that were organized by the School watch, (coalition of New Jersey organizations), provided a chance for parents to play a role in school improvement. The article explains that improvement was witnessed in schools that had parent involvement in the mid-west Nations leading UAE to formulate several parental involvement programs. As far as reforming the educational system is concerned, the UAE has begun a journey of growth and modernization (ADEC, 2008), but in midst of many challenges that limit parental involvement, the major ones including: Language barrier. Vygotsky (1986) observes that language is vital for knowledge construction and cognitive development especially in children. UAE is a mono lingual nation, and the current educational reforms encourage other languages such as English and Japanese, like the introduction of the Japan Exchange and Teaching program by the Japanese government where native English teachers are employed so as to introduce a communication-focused approach to English learning (Nunan, 1988), resulting to serious language difference between school and home hence leading to poor parental involvement, especially in assisting the children with their homework, since most parents are not acquainted with the foreign languages. It becomes more complicated when this cultural difference plant negative attitudes where both school and home blaim each other for children’s poor results. To solve this challenge Abu Dhabi conducted a research seeking to identify the available difference between school and home, where parents of primary level were involved and where both English and Arabic were used during the interviews. Inadequate knowledge of the curriculum. After introduction of several educational reforms, including those of languages, a number of parents lost touch with the developments in curriculum (Hooge et.al, 2012), hence lacking the control of their children’s study for a moment. This miss much was corrected during the implementation of the recommendations of the research mentioned above, though not comprehensively, since some parents lacked enough knowledge of interacting with electronic communication like E-mail and text Messages that most schools adopted. Social differences The introduction of foreign languages in the curriculum slowly brought cultural influence associated to them. This vise slowed down the process of specialization like construction and development of girls/boys schools. Effects were also felt on occupations, for example, disrespect to male cooks especially by boy’s schools for cooking was perceived a woman’s duty. Parental involvement was hence disadvantaged, for example where mothers would hardly fit in programs in boys schools. Summary. Leaders, ranging from community heads, school principals, education officers and the government are responsible for formulating and implementing policies and programs that encourage parental involvement (Ibrahim & Al 2012), both at community, school, and national levels. As stated above, it is a school that opens a way for direct parental involvement through its reforms; and as explored by this research, reforms come with socio, economic and political effects on various areas that must be considered. Conclusion. Parental involvement in educational reforms is key to success in children and society at large, and for a smooth education process to be achieved; barriers between school and home should be reduced if not finished. More awareness on parental involvement in school reforms should be created to both the school principals and parents References Schwab, R. G. (2012). Indigenous early school leavers: Failure, risk and high-stakes testing. Ibrahim, A., & Al-Taneiji, S. (2012). Principal leadership style, school performance, and principal effectiveness in Dubai schools. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 2(1). Hooge, E., Burns, T., & Wilkoszewski, H. (2012). Looking beyond the numbers: Stakeholders and multiple school accountability. S Al-Taneiji, (2012). The Role of Leadership in Engaging Parents in United Arab Read More