Abstract
Pre-school years present crucial opportunities for children’s growth, development and learning. Parents’ involvement in their children’s early education is thus important since they are the first educators of their children. Most importantly, parents’ involvement in the children’s education enhances their academic outcomes. The purpose of this study therefore was to explore the determinants of parents’ involvement in their pre-school children’s education as influenced by: their socio-economic status, level of education, teachers’ perception on parents’ involvement and the strategies used by schools to promote parents’ involvement in their children’s pre-school education. The study was guided by Epstein’s Model of parents’ involvement which describes six types of parents’ involvement including: parenting, communication, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. The study employed the descriptive research design and specifically used the survey method. The sample size constituted 6 (30%) schools from 18 pre-schools, a similar number of head teachers, 9 (11%) teachers out of 79 of them, and 110 (10%) parents out of 1104. Data were collected using a questionnaire for parents while interview schedule was used to capture information from pre-school teachers and head teachers. Data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Findings indicated that parents always participated in activities that required them to support their children financially. However, they moderately participated in other activities relating to education due to daily business engagements which paused a challenge to them thus limiting their capacity to involve themselves fully in their children’s education. The study thus concluded that parents’ were involved more in activities that required financial contribution to the expense of other necessities. It was therefore recommended that local leaders should increase parents’ awareness on the importance of getting involved in early childhood education and this could be done by encouraging parents to attend “Akagoroba k’Ababyeyi” literally “The evening for parents”.
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
- Introduction
This chapter discusses the background to the study, statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, objectives of the study as well as research questions. The assumptions of the study, limitations and delimitations, significance of the study, theoretical framework and conceptual framework as well as operational definitions of key terms are also discussed.
Background to the Study
The first six years of life are most important for the development of human kind during which time children experience exceptionally fast growth and development in all aspects with brain growth being the most rapid (Bernndt, 2003). The pre-school years further present crucial opportunities for the development of parents’ involvement (PI) in their children’s early education. Active involvement of parents’ in their children’s learning has been shown to improve their academic outcomes (Arnold, Zeljo, Doctoroff and Ortiz, 2008; Powell, Son, File and San-Juan, 2010).
A great deal of research in the United States and other Western countries supports the notion that parents’ involvement generally has a positive effect on children’s achievement. Parents who are more involved with their children’s
education become knowledgeable about school goals and procedures (Hill and Taylor, 2004). In Japan, teachers make demands on parents to involve themselves at home and school in activities such as monitoring homework and attending school functions among others (Holloway, 2000). The educational systems however face the challenging task of compensating children from less disadvantaged backgrounds, for the deficit in economical, social and cultural capital they experience at home. Thus in most pre-schools, teachers have a negative attitude towards parents’ involvement in instructional activities.
Beyond the variations in assessments of parents’ involvement, there are some consistent developmental trends in the normative levels of parents’ involvement in education. In general, parents tend to be more involved in their children’s education when the children are younger, especially in elementary school, as compared to middle and high school. In addition to changes across developmental stages, demographic factors shape the type, amount, and influence of parents’ involvement. The most notable are socio-economic and ethnic/cultural factors (Epstein, Sanders, Simon, Salinas and Voorhis, 2002).
According to Schulz (2005) motivation for parents’ involvement is based on parents’ perceived role in their children’s academic lives, a role which is culturally derived. Further, families’ experiences with and perceptions of their ethnic minority status vis-à-vis the school culture and population influence their engagement with their children’s schooling. Rogers (2004) affirms that
socio-economic and ethnic differences indeed do influence parents’ involvement and hence their children’s achievement.
In Africa and specifically in Ghana, a research study by Chowa, Ansong & Osei-Akoto (2012) showed that Ghanean parents often have engaged in their children’s learning in one form or another. In addition, parents’ involvement in the school environment appears to be high in school meetings, attendance, and discussing expectations with their children while others never assist their children directly with homework.
In another study in Africa and especially in Kenya, Gargiulo & Graves (1991) revealed that successful parent-teacher partnerships require a sustained mutual collaboration, support and participation of teachers and parents at home and at school in activities that can directly affect the success of children’s learning. In addition, a research conducted in Uasin Gishu District, Kenya showed that parents and teachers differed among themselves in their reports of teachers’ level of involvement reportedly ranging from low in volunteering to often in communication and learning at home (Koech, 2009). Where there was communication, Ondieki (2012) found out that it was in form of phone calls, short visits to the school or written notes to and from the teachers.
Ndegwa, Mengich,and Abidha (2007) in a study also conducted in Kenya, state that parents who did not involve themselves in their children’s education gave
several reasons for not doing so. For example they said children were not given homework by the teachers, some of the parents were not literate or the educated ones were too busy and compensated by taking their children for tuition. Furthermore a study in Kenya by Ondieki (2012) revealed that children whose parents participated in their pre-school activities performed better than those whose parents did so less frequently or rarely.
Similarly, Ndani (2008), in another study in Kenya showed that there was a significant difference in the level of participation in pre-school activities among communities in the various pre-school sponsorships. She noted that in private schools, the most common mode of participation was communication, as most of the private schools required parents to make comments and sign in their children’s homework books daily, parents suggesting places for field trips, accompanying children in trips and end of term discussion on children’s performance comprised the other activities. Furthermore, in public schools in addition to attending meetings parents were sometimes involved in deciding on matters related to providing learning materials, fees to be paid, construction of facilities and their maintenance. However all the above studies are not in Rwandan local context.
