Parental Engagement - Key Step to Improving Student Performance and School Reputation - Research Proposal Example

Parental Engagement: The Key Step to Improving Student Performance and School Reputation University’s Name: Submitted by Name: Tutor: Date: Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 3 1.1Background 3 1.2Project Research Problem 3 2.0Focus for the Study 4 2.1Purpose of the Research Project 4 2.2Research Questions 4 2.3Significance of the Project 5 3.0Project Related Literature 5 3.1MBA Discipline Area of this Project 5 3.2Review of Some Literatures 6 4.0Planned Research Methodology 7 4.1Method 7 4.2Data Collections 7 5.0Ethical Considerations 8 5.1Demonstrate Awareness 8 5.2Addressing Ethical Issues 9 6.1Schedule for Completion 9 Reference List 10 Appendix 11 Questions in the Questionnaire 11 1.0 Introduction 1.1Background The research will be based at Baulkham Hills High School (BHHS), which is one of the academically selective high schools found in Sydney, Australia. The school was found in 1971 and it is based in Baulkham Hills. BHHS has student population of about 1200 and it enrolls students between grade 7 and 12. In addition, the school also offers special education for students with autism and those with intellectual disability. BHHS is one of the top performing high schools in Australia and it is also one of the most popular schools in terms of high school applications. It is the preferred school for this project because of its high population, good performance, and diversity, as it offers special education. 1.2Project Research Problem In the modern society, parents are responding to the economic pressures, which always lead to time constraints (Graham-Clay, 2005). Many parents are either employed in formal organizations or self-employed and they spend a lot of time to make the ends meets and to provide for the needs of the family. Therefore, many parents have no time to engage in learning activities of their children and they rarely participate in the school activities despite the fact that they have important role to play in enhancing the performance of their children in schools. At the same time, many schools lack proper strategies that they can use to ensure that encourage parents to engage in schooling and learning activities (Van Roekel, 2008). Therefore, time constraints and lack of proper strategies by many schools have led to reduced parental engagement in learning and schooling activities. 2.0Focus for the Study 2.1Purpose of the Research Project The primary purpose of the project is to evaluate the strategies that BHHS is using to enhance parental engagement to boost the performance of students. To come up with effective strategies, it is important to understand the impacts of parental engagement and the barrier that hinders parental engagement in schooling and learning activities. It is equally important to understand proper ways of overcoming the barriers. Therefore, the project will focus on the strategies of enhancing parental engagement by looking the impact and barriers to parental engagement and ways of overcoming the barriers to enhance students’ performance at Bathurst West Public School. The key areas of investigation of the project will include: The strategies used by BHHS to enhance parental engagement in learning and schooling activities. The impact of parental engagement in the learning activities of their children in the school. Barriers to parental engagement in schooling and learning activities in BHHS. Ways of overcoming barriers to parental engagement in the schooling and learning activities used by BHHS. 2.2Research Questions i. What are the strategies used by BHHS to encourage parental engagement in learning and schooling activities? ii. How does parental engagement helps in boosts the reputation of BHHS? iii. Which impacts do parental engagement has in the in the performance of their children? iv. What are the barriers to parental engagement in schooling and learning activities in BHHS? v. How does BHHS overcome barriers to parental engagement in schooling and learning activities? 2.3Significance of the Project School leaders and the government for a long time have stressed the importance of parental engagement in their children’s education to boost performance in both public and private schools. Therefore, the need to engage parents in schooling and learning activities is a concern that cuts across all school stakeholders. Many education studies correlate parental engagement with better academic performance, better school attendance, and positive behavior of learners. However, many schools have found it difficult to promote parental engagement, as parents have limited time due to economic pressures and other barriers like illiteracy of parents. Therefore, the study is important as it intends to explore strategies that schools can use to promote parental engagement. It also aims at unearthing the barriers to parental engagement and ways of reducing the barriers. 3.0Project Related Literature 3.1MBA Discipline Area of this Project The project will focus on the strategies used by BHHS to encourage parental participation in schooling and learning activities by considering the impacts and barriers of parental engagement and ways of eliminating barriers hindering parental engagement. Parental engagement in schooling and learning activities to boost students’ performance falls under education management disciple, which falls under my area of specialization. Education management basically means to a comprehensive way of dealing with learning institutions practices that touches on human elements like teachers, learners, parents, and the non-teaching staff in the institution. Therefore, the project is in line with my area of specialization as it focuses on human element, parents, in a learning institution. 3.2Review of Some Literatures Parental engagement is a complex thing, as it involves array of factors like behavior and attitudes of parents both in the school setting and at home. According to Agronick et al. (2009), it is important to understand factors that motivate parents to actively participate in schooling and learning activities of their children because it helps school management to come up with better strategies to encourage effective and beneficial parental engagement. Many studies have found that parental engagement in schooling and learning activities has positive impacts on student academic performance (Clerke, 2013). However, it is parental engagement in learning activities of their children that has a greater impact on the academic achievements of their children (Hara and Burke, 1998. Clerke (2013) also found that parental engagement boost school’s reputation in the surrounding community. Graham-Clay (2005) found that the main barrier that prevents parents from engaging in schooling and learning activities is lack of lack of enough time due to economic pressures, especially work commitment. Parental illiteracy, language barrier, and lack of self confidence are some of the barriers to parentage engagement in schooling and parental activities. According to Campbell, (2011), effective communication between schools and parents, empowering parents by giving voice, and integrating parental engagement in the formal school programs are strategies that encourage parental engagement in school activities. Fear, Fox and Sanders (2012) further found that Paying attention to the concerns of parents and having a visional parental engagement plans also encourage parental participation in schooling and learning activities of their children. 4.0Planned Research Methodology 4.1Method The project will use single case study in order to evaluate the parental engagement in schooling and learning activities at BHHS in Australia. The researcher will use only one school as a case study in addressing the objectives of the project, which makes it a single case study method. The researcher narrowed on the method because it helps in getting in depth information, it can help in understanding rare research phenomenon, and it can also be used to challenge the common theoretical assumptions (Baxter and Jack, 2008). The researcher will also rely on both primary and secondary data. The secondary data will be obtained by reviewing the exiting relevant literatures while the primary data will be obtained from participants who will be selected from the school. 4.2Data Collections Primary Data Questionnaires and interviews are the research instruments that will be used to collect primary data from the participants who will include parents and teachers from BHHS. Random sampling techniques will be used to select 15 participants who will fill the questionnaires. The selected parents will be informed that they will participate in the study and then they will be required to confirm their participation. The school principal and his or her deputy will also be involved in the study to give in depth information of parental engagement in the school. Two teachers, two parents, and school principal will be interviewed using the questions in the questionnaires to supplement the written responses that will be received from the questionnaires. The researcher will use thematic analysis method to analyze the qualitative data that will be obtained from questionnaires and interviews. Secondary Data Secondary data will be obtained by reviewing previous studies that have been done by other scholars or reputable research institutions on the topics related to parental engagement in school activities. Only relevant literatures that address the objective of this project will be used in the study to enhance the accuracy of the findings. The researcher will analyze secondary data by comparing the findings of various studies. 5.0Ethical Considerations 5.1Demonstrate Awareness The research will comply with all the ethical requirements when conducting the research. Some of the key ethical issues that should be taken care of when conducting the research include informed consent, confidentiality and privacy, truthfulness, and respecting intellectual property of other scholars. The researcher will adhere to all the ethical requirements to maintain high ethical standards. 5.2Addressing Ethical Issues The researcher will consent of the participants after giving all relevant information regarding the project. The researcher will maintain confidentiality and privacy of the participants by hiding their identification The researcher will seek permission from the school to involve it in the study The researcher will avoid plagiarism to respect intellectual property of other scholars. 6.1Schedule for Completion The researcher expects to complete the project in two months from the date of research proposal approval. However, the time will also depend on the adjusted that is required in the draft submitted to the supervisor. Completion Schedule Table Project Activity Time 1. Literature review One week 2. Data collection Two weeks 3. Data analysis One week 4. Writing draft One week 5. Submitting the draft One week 6. Writing final draft Two weeks Reference List Agronick, G., Clark, A., O'Donnell, L. and Stueve, A., 2009. Parent Involvement Strategies in Urban Middle and High Schools in the Northeast and Islands Region. Issues & Answers. REL 2009-No. 069. Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands. Baxter, P. and Jack, S., 2008. Qualitative case study methodology: Study design and implementation for novice researchers. The qualitative report, 13(4), pp.544-559. Campbell, C., 2011. How to involve hard-to-reach parents: encouraging meaningful parental Clerke, S., 2013. Partnering for school improvement: case studies of school-community partnerships in Australia. Fear, J., Fox, S. and Sanders, E., 2012. Parental engagement in learning and schooling: Lessons from research. Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau. Graham-Clay, S., 2005. Communicating with Parents: Strategies for Teachers. School Community Journal, 16(1), pp.117-129. Hara, S.R. and Burke, D.J., 1998. Parent involvement: The key to improved student achievement. School Community Journal, 8(2), pp.9-19. involvement with schools. Van Roekel, N.P.D., 2008. Parent, Family, Community Involvement in Education. Policy Brief. Washington, DC: National education Association. Appendix Questions in the Questionnaire 1. Do you believe that parental engagement in schooling and learning activities helps in improving the performance of learners? 2. Do you believe that parental engagement enhances reputation of the school and how? 3. What are the benefits of engaging parents in schooling and learning activities? 4. Are parents willing to engage in schooling and learning activities? 5. Why do you think some parents are not engaging in school activities? 6. Can you list some factors that prevent parents from engaging in learning activities of their children? 7. What do you thing should be done to encourage parents to participate in school activities? 8. Are there some things that school does that prevent parents from engaging in school activities? Read More