Current issues on parental involvement in schools: a multicultural perspective

Family school interaction is probably one of the most intriguing subjects in the field of educational research. Whenever I visit a school for a research or for a teacher–family conference, I am always interested in the school’s climate for parents. At all times, I want to know what this climate adds to the effectiveness of the school and students’ improvement. That is why, last year, I participated in the school–family association of my daughter’s school to see what parental involvement means and how it works in real context and to look over that deep meaning of parental involvement. Also I shared my proposal with Shirley O’Neill, the editor, to publish this special issue to find out recent issues on parental involvement in different contexts.

We can easily claim that parental involvement is one of the most debated issues in education or as Rosenblatt and Peled (2002) indicated it is one of the most prominent issues in our schools. Researchers of different educational settings have recognized the importance of parental involvement or parental engagement to reveal whether parents have influences on their children’s schooling and more specifically to see if this partnership positively affects educational achievement and effectiveness of a school. Additionally those studies, using the terms engagement and involvement interchangeably, have been trying to grab and/or explain the meaning of the concept (Beveridge, 2005; Castro et al., 2015; Christenson & Reschly, 2010; Griffith, 2001; Harris, Andrew-Power, & Goodall, 2009; Hornby, 2011).

There are different definitions or conceptualizations of parental involvement in the literature. Castro et al. (2015), for example, consider parental involvement “as the active participation of parents in all aspects of their children’s social, emotional and academic development” (p. 34). They also clarify that,

parental involvement concerns a wide range of issues, such as parental expectations about their children’s academic future, control over homework, the extent to which they become involved in helping children to learn for school assignments or to do the homework, or the frequency with which parents are physically present at school. (p. 34)

Similarly, Kaplan Toren and Seginer (2015) conceptualized parental involvement “as a multidimensional construct, including parental educational aspirations, future plans for their children, educational decision-making, and support with school work, parental knowledge and parental participation in the school” (p. 812).

We could briefly infer that it is clear that parental involvement contribute to effectiveness of a school and to the students’ success. However, it may differ in every culture. That is why I assume that this special issue could be an outlet to get a deep understanding of parental involvement issues in different contexts.

The authors have contributed to the issue with their partial research conducted in their unique context or they have contributed to the issue with their conceptual papers. For example, Janet Goodall, examining the literature in the fields of parental engagement, communication and technology, aims to reveal the linked concepts of school–home communications, and parental engagement in children’s learning, both of which are vital for supporting learning, particularly at times of transition.

Paula Kwan and Yi-Lee Wong seek to link parental involvement to both SES and parental behavioural dispositions, namely their expectations in their children, self-efficacy in helping their children, and understanding of their children’s school life, simultaneously, based on a data-set comprising 921 parents of Hong Kong primary school leavers. In a middle eastern context, Khalid Arar, Yasir Awad^, SaedaDaod and Ruth Abramovitz deal with teachers’ perceptions of principals’ leadership style as it affects parental involvement (PI) in the special context of the Arab education system in Israel.

Lars G. Björk and Tricia Browne-Ferrigno focus on understanding the nature and scope of parent–school involvement in Nordic countries with a discussion of findings from recent nationwide studies of educational reform policies in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark to provide insight into the impact of globalization on changes in national political ideology, educational reform policies, and efforts to enhance parent–school involvement.

In their phenomenological study, Süleyman Nihat Şad, Ahmet Sami Konca, Niyazi Özer and Feride Acar, researchers from Turkey, aim to explore parental e-nvolvement (or electronic parental involvement), defined as parental efforts to plan, engage in, support, monitor and/or assess the learning experiences of their children either at home or at school predominantly using technological devices and media.

Christina Hajisoteriou and Panayiotis Angelides provide a number of important insights into immigrant parents’ school involvement in Cyprus and they examine the perspectives of all actors involved in the school–family partnership – namely head-teachers, teachers, immigrant and native parents, and immigrant and native children – through a multiple perspectives approach. Michelle Brinn’s study outlines a case study set within a British international school in Thailand, wherein attempts were made to co-construct an understanding between practitioner and parent about each child’s learning.

I hope this issue could contribute to the development of parental involvement in schools.

Kadir Beycioglu
Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
[email protected]