The Role of Parental Background in a Childs Life - Research Paper Example

THE IMPACT OF PARENTS BACKGROUND ON CHILDREN’S FUTURE EDUCATIONAL CHOICES – A UWS CASE STUDY By Location Acknowledgement I have used a lot of effort to complete this research paper. However, my research would not be complete and possible without the kind support I received from my tutor and friends. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and thanks to them all. I would also like to thank the students of UWS who participated in the case studyfor their time and participation since without their kind respond I would be able to achieve the needed data for my research. Disclaimer This report has been produced as part of the assessment regime in 101552: Applied Social Research for the B. [degree] program of the University of Western Sydney. The author [s] believe [s] they [he/she] have [has] completed the study to the best of their ability and have produced a quality product with reliable information and recommendations. It should be noted however that this is student work, that its intended purpose is as a learning exercise and any reliance on the content of this document is at the risk of the user. The author [s] and the University accept no liability for use of the information beyond its use in assessing student performance on the assigned task. Table of contents SECTION A: Aims, Significance, Background and Literature review 19 SECTION B: Methodology, Research Plan, Ethical Procedures 23 Methodology 23 Research Plan 24 Ethical Procedures 26 Abstract Parental involvement in their children’s learning has direct positive effects on their achievements and success in school. Researchers on this topic have also presented a general agreement on the positive effects of parental involvement on children’s learning. Studentsachieve better ranks, theypursue higher levels of education, and their perception towards their studies becomes more positive if the community, the family, and school are all working together. A sample of twenty (20) students pursuing different degrees at University of Western Sydney were interviewed to outline the effects of parental socioeconomic and educational background on the educational outcomes of a child. The sample was taken from hundred students from different courses (N=100 and n=20). The students were asked a similar question to come up with similar and effective data. The interviews were conducted at different dates to ensure that there is enough time to interview the students as well as collecting the accurate information. The collected data portrays that the choice of a child’s future education is not only affected by the parents’ educational background but also by the parents’ economic background. Despite the parents’ ability to educate their children, the family’s economic status highly determines the choice a certain student has to make in his future education. 1. Introduction Most researches indicate that parental involvement in their children’s learning has direct positive effects on their achievements and success in school. Researchers on this topic have also presented a general agreement on the positive effects of parental involvement on children’s learning. Studentsachieve better ranks, theypursue higher levels of education, and their perception towards their studies becomes more positive if the community, the family, and school are all working together (Henderson &Mapp 2002, p. 21). According to the department of Education in the United States (2004), parental involvement in children’s learning refers to parents’ participation in regular, meaningful, and two-way communication towards their children’s school activities and academic learning. Parental involvement includes parents ensuring that they play a vital role towards the support of their children’s learning and also showing active involvement in their children’s school activities and learning (Eccles & Harold 2003, p. 45). In addition, parents must show full partnership towards their children’s learning and school activities and ensure that they participate in an appropriate manner in advisory and decision-making committees of schools to contribute positively towards their children’s learning and education. This leads us to the question, “Are children’s future educational choices directly related to parental educational background?” The aim of this research is to explore the effect of parents’ background on their children’s future educational background. In this research, I attempt to determine how parental background in the University of Western Sydney in Australia impacts the academicchoices of students. In literature, it is frequently claimed that parental background influences academic choices and achievement (Henderson &Mapp 2002, p. 45). The goal of the research is to see how this relationship is at the University of Western Sydney, a Sydney university with diverse students and backgrounds from different socioeconomic statuses. 2. Literature review Most studies conclude that parental background plays a vital towards the life of a child. According to Henderson and Mapp (2002), parental background defines the kind of life the child will have and will desire or not to desire have for himself/herself in the future and various aspects such as economic status, educational background, and the way they were brought up. According to Epstein (2009), there are six factors that determine the outcome of the child’s education. The first factor is parenting. Parenting factor towards a child’s growth aids in understanding the development that the child and the adolescent go through. Additionally, parenting aids in basing a helpful home atmosphere for children as students (Epstein 2009, p. 43). Secondly, communicating factor is about the finest design and the way an effective two-way communication is progressing; such as home school and school to home regarding the growth of children and the school programs (Kyui 2010, p. 54). The third factor is volunteering, which is about the recruitment and forming help and support from parents for activities and programs that take place in school of students (Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper 2002, p. 52). Fourthly, learning at home is about the ideas and information that should be provided to parents on how to assist their children with homeworks (Epstein 2009, p. 45).The other factor is decision-making, which involves parents’ participation in the children’s decision making (Epstein 2009, p. 45). The last factor is collaborating with community to participate in community programs that supports families, learners, and schools (Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper 2002, p. 55). Family’s socioeconomic status plays a vital role towards education outcomes of a child. Researchers have been conducted to show the link between socioeconomic status of a family and education outcome of a child (Card 2009, p. 23). Most studies conclude that good and poor socioeconomic status marks positive or negative effects towards a child’s education respectively.The last factor that is an influence on the academic choices that children make is the language that is spoken at home (Mocetti 2012, p. 34). There have been several researches which state that language spoken at home plays a significant role in the academic choices that children make (Pomerantz, Moorman, &Litwack 2007, p. 52). The language usually spoken at home is mostly the mother tongue in which the parents communicate with their children. At school, when a different language is spoken, most children try to convert what is being said in their mother tongue and then grasp the information. 3. Methodology The participants will be gathered by looking at the various factors that are discussed above in the literature review. The factors are socioeconomic status of the students (students with both high and low income family backgrounds will be taken), the language spoken at home, and the amount of help that these children get from their parents regarding this/her homework and other curricular activities. A sample of twenty (20) students pursuing different degrees at University of Western Sydney were interviewed to outline the effects of parental socioeconomic andeducational backgroundon the educational outcomes of a child. The sample was taken from a hundred students from different courses (N=100 and n=20). The students were asked a similar questionto come up with similar and effective data. The interviews were conducted at different dates to ensure that there is enough time to interview the students as well as collecting the accurate information.The students were asked to name their countries of birth and the background of their parents. They were also asked to name the courses they were undertaking as well as the educational backgrounds of their two parents. Another field of concentration was the occupation of the parents to determine the socioeconomic status of the families of the students. The students were also asked to describe the involvement of their parents in their school activities and learning. The language spoken by families was also another field of interest. The students were also requested to explain the impact of their parents towards their decision-making in educational choices. The aim was to determine whether the parents involve in their child’s decision making or the child makes educational decision making by his or herself. Lastly, the students were requested to explain their impact on the way of thinking, interest in pursuing their degree courses, and the parental interests in school. The data received from interviews was consolidated into an excel and then used forfurthur data analysis. The parental background and parents’ education was compared with students’ courses and and their involvement. This research method was used since it is the most appropriate to enable a researcher achieve the necessary data for this research (Peraita& Sanchez 2008, p. 5). 4. Results After analysing the collected data, the results portrayed that there is an influence of parents’ personal backgrounds and parents’ education towards the choice of child’s future education. 4.1 The influence of parents’ personal background The data collected revealed that parents have a massive influence on the choices of their children’s future education in a number of ways, but most significantly because parents are the first teachers of their children.Therefore, children emulate what they learn from their parents in their first years. The collected data reveal that the students whose parents have personal educated backgrounds help their children in school decision making. Such parents are concerned with the school results of their parents such as looking at the results of their children’s studies. Some of the students when asked said that “my parents are too involved” In other cases, the students pursue degrees that are almost similar to the ones their parents did when they were young. The data also show that, literacy of parents highly affects their children’s future education choices. The literacy of parents highly affects the choice of the students, but those with bachelor degrees help their children make a good choice in their future education. For instance, the data clearly reveal that the parents who do not have bachelor degrees are less involved in their childrenseducation, but those whose parents are well educated are too involved in their children’s education. Unfortunately, the less educated parents seem to show less concerntowards their children’s choice of education and such students make the choice of education by themselves. Such responded by answering that “I make my own decisions”. Lastly, the data also indicate that mother’s education has essential impacts towards the choice of a child’s education. 4.2 The influence of parents’ economic status The collected data portrays that the parents ’educational background, but also by the parents’ economic background does not only affect the choice of a child’s future education. Despite the parents’ ability to educate their children, the family’s economic status highly determines the choice a certain student has to make in his future education. For the students whose parents have better jobs are pursuing better degrees, which involve enormous fee payment compared to those whose parents have low paying jobs or unemployed. However, the data reveals that the parents who are employed are not too involved with their children’s learning, but those unemployed are too involved in their children’s learning. Both parents’ educational and socioeconomic background hasimpacted towards the choice of their children’s future education. For instance, the data asserts that the parents who are employed encourage their children to study hard in order to have a better future. On the other, the students whose parents are unemployed receive no or less encouragement from their parents and thus they make the learning decisions of their own.Other factors that affect the choice of a child’s future education include, language spoken, place of birth, and the background of the two parents. This is clearly depicted in the collected data. Students seem to make the choice of their education depending on the marketable courses in their home background. According to the collected data, family’s socioeconomic status plays a vital role towards education outcomes of a child. The educationalbackground of the parents also has both negative and positive impact towards a child’s future education decision-making. Figure 1: Homeschool parents highest education level Figure 2: impacts of Income on Childs education 5. Discussion The results of this research have successfully answered the research question “Are children’s future educational choices directly related to parental educational background?” Parents’ personal background has a massive influence on the choices of their children’s future education in a number of ways, but most significantly because parents are the first teachers of their children (Peraita& Sanchez 2008, p. 67). This is because children emulate what they learn from their parents in their first years. For instance, if the parents are well educated, the children will also aspire to gain much education as their parents (Acemoglu&Pischke 2001, p. 67). This is because children in most cases emulate the life aspects of their parents. As most researchers indicate, the influence the teachers offer to students is actually a replica of what the students bring to the classroom (Van de Werfhorst& Andersen 2005, p. 76). The brains of children are like sponges and thus they absorb everything they emulate from their parents, thus determining the future choice of their education.Parents are the ones who are supposed to shape the educational future of their children and therefore, despite being educated, they should be highly involved in the learning of their children in order to ensure good outcomes. It is also essential to acknowledge that, the choice of the children’s future education is in most cases, dependent on educationthat parents pursued (Van de Werfhorst& Hofstede 2007, p. 78). One of the reasons why the education level of parents affect the choice of a child’s future education is that for those parents who went beyond high school education are always involved in the learning of their children. Socioeconomic status is another factor that highly affects the choice of a child’s future education (Epstein 2009, p. 56). This is highly depicted in the data collected during the research.Parents who have low incomes always spend much time working in order to get their lower salaries. This allows them less time to spend helping their children in their learning as well as involving in their learning process. In addition, lower incomes negatively affectthe choice of a child’s future education. The place of birth also affects the choice of a child’s future education (Van de Werfhorst& Andersen 2005, p. 57). This is because the choice of the course to pursue depends on the marketable courses in the place of birth. Therefore, parents must show full partnership towards their children’s learning and school activities and ensure that they participate in an appropriate manner in advisory and decision-making committees of schools to contribute positively towards their children’s learning and education (Haveman& Wolfe 2005, p. 63). 6. Conclusion In conclusion, parental background and education highly affects the children’s choices of education in future. As portrayed in the findings of this case study, parental involvement in their children’s education can have positive impacts towards the choice of their future education (Stocké 2007, p. 34). The data collected revealed that parents have a massive influence on the choices of their children’s future education in a number of ways, but most significantly because parents are the first teachers of their children. This case srudy also reveals that, lower incomes negatively affectthe choice of a child’s future education. The place of birth also affects the choice of a child’s future education. In order to ensure that the children success in their education and make good decisions towards their future education, parents should show them paramount importance and interest towards education (Van de Werfhorst& Andersen 2005, p. 54). This is because the essential ingredient towards child’s success in education in parental involvement and child-parents positive relationship.Socioeconomic status is another factor that parents should put in mind since it highly affects the choice of the children’s future education. Therefore, parents must show full partnership towards their children’s learning and school activities and ensure that they participate in an appropriate manner in advisory and decision-making committees of schools to contribute positively towards their children’s learning and education (Epstein 2009, p. 62). References Acemoglu, D, &Pischke, JS 2001, Changes in the wage structure, family income, and childrens education.European Economic Review, 45(4), 21-90. Card, D 2009,The causal effect of education on earnings,Handbook of labor economics, 3, 18-63. Department of Education 2004, Parental involvement: Title I, part A. Non-regulatory guidance, No Child Left Behind, USA Dustmann, C 2004, Parental background, secondary school track choice, and wages,Oxford Economic Papers, 56(2), 20-67. Eccles, J, & Harold, R 2003, Parent-school involvement during the early adolescent years,The Teachers College Record, 94(3), 68-87. Epstein, JL 2009, In School, family, and community partnerships:Your handbook for action (3rd ed.), USA: Corwin Press Haveman, R, & Wolfe, B 2005, A Review of Methods and Findings,Journal of economic literature, 33(4), 29-1878. Henderson, AT, and Mapp, KL 2002,A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, National Center for Family and Community. Hossler, D, Schmit, J, & Vesper, N 2002,Going to college: How social, economic, and educational factors influence the decisions students make, JHU Press Kyui, N 2010,Influence of Family Background on Tertiary Education Choices (Levels and Quality): Evidence from Tuition Policy Changes, University Paris-I Pantheon{Sorbonne. Centre dEconomie de la Sorbonne Mocetti, S 2012, Educational choices and the selection process: before and after compulsory schooling,Education Economics, 20(2), 20-209. Peraita, C, & Sanchez, M 2008, The effect of family background on childrens level of schooling attainment in Spain,Applied Economics, 30(10), 13-96. Stocké, V 2007, Explaining educational decision and effects of families’ social class position: An empirical test of the Breen–Goldthorpe model of educational attainment. European Sociological Review, 23(4), 50-59. Van de Werfhorst, HG, & Andersen, R 2005, Social background, credential inflation and educational strategies, ActaSociologica, 48(4), 321-340 Van de Werfhorst, HG, & Hofstede, S 2007, Cultural capital or relative risk aversion?Two mechanisms for educational inequality compared1,The British journal of sociology, 58(3), 23-415. Appendices Assessment 1 The impact of parent’s background on children’s future educational choices – A UWS Case Study Research Project Proposal This is a solid proposal that you can build upon. You have picked an interesting topic and found some useful literature on which to base your study areas strengthen for the next assignment include making sure you reference to support your statetement and developing and clarifying your research design. SECTION A: Aims, Significance, Background and Literature review Aims and Significance The research proposal is targeted at knowing how the involvement of parents influences the choices that children make in their educational aspect at the University of Western Sydney. The main focus would be on the background of parents, such as seeing their economic aspects, their educational background, their upbringing, and so on. The research is significant because it will in analysing for the Universities how students at University of Western Sydney choose their educational fields. The basis of this study is to help in determining the factors that affect the academic choices that students make at the University of Western Sydney in Australia. This research will help the Educational Institutions in carrying out further researches related to this topic.The objective of this study is to discuss the influence that background of parents have on the future educational choices made by children. Background Research has long documented that parental participation in their children’s learning has a direct positive effect on their child’s success and achievements in school (Van de Werfhorst, & Andersen, 2005). Studies on the topic have also shown a general agreement on the effects of families being involved in their children’s education. Studentsachieve better ranks, theypursue higher levels of education, and their perception towards their studies becomes more positive if the community, the family and school are all working together (Henderson and Mapp, 2002). According to the Department of Education in the United States (2004), “parental involvement is the participation of parents inregular, two-way and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities. This includes ensuring that parents play a crucial role in supporting their child’s learning as well as being actively involved in their children’s education at school. Furthermore, parents need to be full partners in their children’s education and are involved, in a suitable matter, in decision making and on advisory committees to contribute in the education of their child”. In addition to parental involvement, a family’s socio-economic status appears to have an effect on the students’ academic success (Deforges and Abouchaar, 2003; Malecki and Demaray, 2006; Ho Sui-Chu and Willms, 1996).Thoughnumerous studieshas been done on socio-economic status, there still existsan ongoing argument about how to define and measure the concept. However, despite such an argument, the most agreed upon definition is that of Featherman’s and Duncan’s (Sirin, 2005). Their definition incorporates parental education, parental income, and parental occupation. These three natures of the socio-economic status defines a parent’s background in the context of this research. This research explores the effect of parents’ background on their children’s future educational background. In this research, I attempt to determine how parental background in the University of Western Sydney in Australia impacts the academicchoices of students. In literature, it is frequently claimed that parental background influences academic choices and achievement. The goal of the research is to see how this relationship is at the University of Western Sydney, a Sydney university with diverse students and backgrounds from different scio-economic statuses. Literature Review Parental background plays a key role in a child’s life. It basically defines the kind of life the child will have and will desire or not to desire have for himself/herself in future. A parental background defines many aspects of parents, such as their economic status, the way they were brought up, and their educational background, among many others. Let’s see the parental background influence on children and their choice through the Epstein framework. The Epstein framework consists of six significant factors which were developed by Epstein and her colleagues at John Hopkins University in Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships. Various findings have been gathered in order to make this framework (Epstein, 2009). The main six factors are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community. The factor parenting is about aiding families in understanding the development that the child and the adolescent go through. It further aids in basing a helpful home atmosphere for children as students (Kyui, 2010). The communicating factor is about the finest design and the way an effective two-way communication is progressed; such as home to school and school to home regarding the growth of children and the school programs. The third factor which is volunteering is about the recruitment and forming help and support from parents for activities and programs that take place in school of students (Hossler, Schmit, & Vesper, 2002). Learning at home factor is regarding the ideas and information that can be offered to parents on how they can help their children in the best possible with homework and curricular linked choices and activities. The second last factor decision-making is about comprising parents in their children’s school decisions making and to emerging parent representatives and leaders.Collaborating with the community relates to recognizing and participating communities’ services and assets to support and supportfamilies, students, and schools (Dustmann, 2004). The six factors help in making parents aware of their role in the educational choices that students make. These six factors would help parents in having further positive attitude regarding the staff and the school. This would help the parents to understand the people that their children interact with on a daily basis and what kind of teachings is being taught to children. Socio-economic status of family plays a significant role in theupbringing in addition to the educational choices that children have when they are in school. Many researches have taken place regarding the link between the academic choices of children and the socio-economic status of a family; the result shown is equally positive and negative (Buchmann, &DiPrete, 2006). Children who come from families with high income tend to do better at their academic level and seem to achieve high ranks in their studies. Whilst, children who come from low socio-economic status families face more issues as they start to age. These children are not able to keep their focus on studies and tend to drop out of school at an extremely early stage (Davis-Kean, 2005). The chances of these children seeking college education are also significantly less. In such cases, it becomes important that parents are guiding their children in every way regarding the academic choices that the latter takes. Another factor that is an influence in the academic choices that children make is the language that is spoken at home. There have been several researches which state that language spoken at home plays a significant role in the academic choices that children make (Pomerantz, Moorman, &Litwack, 2007). The language usually spoken at home is mostly the mother tongue in which the parents communicate with their children. At school, when a different language is spoken, most children try to convert what is being said in to their mother tongue and then grasp the information. Academic researchers say that this is a cause of concern, as not every word that is translated into mother tongue would have the same meaning (Gang, & Zimmermann, 2000). It becomes important that parents try to communicate with their children in the same language that the latter is taught in. This would not only help children in understanding the language better, but would also help children in grasping information quickly at schools. SECTION B: Methodology, Research Plan, Ethical Procedures Methodology Methodology of the research gives a comprehensive detail about the data collection, data analysis, and implementation of methodology along with nature of study and variables. This research is based on qualitative research approach of the parental background influence on the academic choices that children make. The data collection is gathering on information regarding the research study. The most common type of data collection tools are questionnaires, case studies, surveys, and interviews. In this research study, the data collection tool is in the form of interviews. The information provided by the interviewees would be analysed for further research. The purpose of using qualitative research is because it helps in understanding the underlying reasons and motivations. It will also help in insights into the setting of an issue, initiate ideas and hypotheses for quantitative research that would take place later. Thoughts and opinion that would be discovered would be of my own. In this research, interviews will take place with the students from University of Western Sydney in Australia. The participants will consist of both male and female students. The participants will be gathered by looking at the various factors that are discussed above in the literature review. The factors are socio-economic status of the students (students with both high and low income family backgrounds will be taken),the language spoken at home, and the amount of help that these children get from their parents regarding this/her homework and other curricular activities. Research Plan The research plan of the study will take place in the form of interviews. Participants, both male and female, will be selected on certain basis. The certain basis are the socio-economic aspects, the language spoken at home, and the amount of effort that parents actually put in their children’s curricular activities. Each factor plays a significant role in the academic choices that children make during their school and university time. It can be said easily that students who are able to gain positive rank in their studies in schools are being given a good atmosphere at home as well. They are able to able perform in a positive way as their parents are putting in a good amount of effort in their studies. The socio-economic aspects will be taken into consideration while taking the interview because from that factor, it would be then judged that how a student is performing in his/her school or university. Participants will be asked about their parents’ career background after which, they will be asked about their performance. The performance that they have in their curricular activities will show us if the income does have an effect on them or not. The language spoken at home is another question that would be asked from the interviewees. At time, the language that is spoken at home has a major impact on students when they are in universities. Asking the question about language spoken at home would help in reflecting if it is having any effect on the performance of the student. The student’s performance would have some or the other effect from the languages that are spoken at home, either in negative or in positive way. Time Scale This research study is conducted in fourteen weeks’ time. During this period, I have gathered all the background information to reach at a concrete conclusion of the research study. The schedule of the research is as follows: Figure 1: Project plan Ethical Procedures The research study will also follow ethical procedures in order to have a proper research. The ethical procedures are that all the information that would be gathered would not reveal the name of the participants. Each interviewee giving answers would be taken as anonymous. This would be done so that no individual is judged on the basis of their parent’s career level among their peers, when the results are shared openly. The benefit of doing this is that each individual would participate freely and would answer each question honestly. The participants would not have the fear that if they say something which they are not supposed to and their identity is revealed, then they would be judged on it. Therefore, in order to keep the identity anonymous, name of every participant would be hidden. The risk of having such an ethical procedure is that participants might lie about their answers. Thinking that their names would not be revealed, they would give fake answers. The consent process will take place so that each participant gives their consent in written regarding their participation in the research. At times, participants tend to say that they were forced to take the interview. To prevent this, consent process is significantly important. Confidentiality is another area that should be discussed with the participants before they are brought into the interview. They should be informed clearly that confidentiality will be maintained in all cases when the interview is taken. The answers they have provided will not be leaked out in any way that would cause them a difficulty in anyway. List of interviewees 1. Chelsea Seddon 2. Lauren Calvert 3. ArrianceHizo 4. Julian Sciarrone 5. Simon Bajada 6. Dylam Marsh 7. Stanley 8. Hussein Buzzi 9. Natalie Hanlon 10. Rhys Gallimore 11. LLensardTambanemoto 12. SouriyaAranes 13. Christopher Armstrong 14. Isabella Croft 15. Annabelle Simpson 16. SadiaAzizi 17. Saena Hong 18. ChambourSinsh 19. Nicole El-fawal 20. 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