ABSTRACT

Parental involvement in pre-school education still remains a question when it comes to promoting pre-school children‟s education amidst the diverse family backgrounds in the current generation. Parents have shown mild and inconsistent involvement in their children‟s educational activities leading to poor academic achievement. Sikalame zone which is the location of this study has been facing challenges of low community and parental involvement which has contributed to the neglect of early childhood development centers. The study therefore aimed at finding out the extent of parental involvement in pre-school activities and identifying factors that influence parental involvement in pre-school activities. The study was guided by Joyce Epstein theory of parental involvement. Descriptive research design was adopted for this study. The study had a target population of 42 preschool teachers and 450 parents with preschool children in Sikalame zone. All the teachers of the selected pre-schools were involved in the study. A simple random sampling was carried out to select 90 parents who were included in the sample, resulting to a total sample size of 126 respondents. Questionnaires for both teachers and parents were used to collect data. Validity was tested using content validity while reliability was tested using pearson product moment correlation coefficiency which was 0.782 for teacher questionnaire and 0.788 for parent questionnaire. Collected data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The analyzed data were presented using bar-graphs, tables and pie charts. Findings revealed that majority of parents did not get involved in their children academic activities and rarely assisted their children with homework implying that parents were not fully engaged in their children‟s education. The chi-square test results showed that the level of involvement in the children‟s education had significant association with parent‟s gender, level of education and socioeconomic status. The test did not find significant relationship between parents‟ marital status and involvement in preschool activities. The study concluded that there was low parental involvement in Sikalame zone. The study recommended that there is need for the preschool administrators to provide some form of training to parents, so that their involvement will have a meaningful impact on the children‟s development. In addition, the study recommended a large scale survey on determinants of parental involvement in preschool activities to generate more generalizable statistics.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

  Introduction

This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, general and specific objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, limitation and delimitation, study assumptions, theoretical and conceptual framework and finally, operational definition of terms.

  Background to the Study

The quality of preschool education a child receives lays a foundation for later learning. A child who has access to good quality preschool education is likely to excel in school activities. There is ample evidence that parental involvement in their children‟s preschool activities has a positive impact in their educational achievement (Lehr, Kluczniok, & Rossabach, 2016). Parental involvement in pre-school children‟s education refers to the parental roles, obligations and responsibilities towards ensuring success of their children‟s academic excellence at school (Howard, 1997). Sheppard (2009) states that parents should engage in both curricular and co-curricular activities at school, this includes committing their time, energy, provision of resources and assisting in homework (Nord, Lennon, Liu, & Chandler, 2000). Studies conducted in Norway indicated that parents‟ involvement in homework had significant influence on children‟s academic achievement (Mark, Cresswell & Ainley, 2006; Epstein, 2001). This is also supported by a study done in Latin America (Desarrollo, 2007).

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In the developed countries such as the USA, evidence of parental involvement in education exists both at home and within the school (Education Department, 2004). However, a major concern has been inconsistency of parents‟ involvement which results to low children‟s educational achievement (Cripps & Zyromski, 2009). Apparently, there‟s still a great variation between parental involvement especially in multi-cultural families as evident in a research focusing on families of Chinese and Europeans (Huntsinger & Jose, 2009). The current study, therefore, sought to establish the parents‟ characteristics influencing involvement in preschool education in Sikalame zone.

In some African countries like South Africa, Uganda and Burundi, policies that support parental involvement in education have been put in place (Dubbeldan, 2000) but majority of parents still display a mild involvement in children‟s education (Siraj-Blatchford, Sylva, Muttock, Gilden, and Bell, 2002). Osei-Akoto, Chowa, and Ansong, (2012) in their study in Ghana found that majority of the parents hardly assisted children with schoolwork. This variance could be as a result of barriers brought by family background characteristic such as marital status, gender of the child or parental socioeconomic and education level (Elam, Rose and Gullup, 1994; Nyarko, 2011; Georgiou, 2007). This study majorly intended to explore the influence of family background on parental involvement in the curriculum activities of preschool children in Sikalame zone.

In Kenya, successive governments through various Acts of parliament, for example, the Basic Education Act (2013) have recognized the need to involve parents in children‟s education and also sensitizing them on the value of pre-school activities (Ndani, 2008). A study conducted by Koech (2010) investigated the role of parents in enhancing preschool

children‟s education in Uasin Gishu district, and found that parental involvement in education was low. This is supported a study conducted in Kiambu County by Ndani (2008) who found that although parents are entrusted with providing all the support for pre-school education, low parental involvement has been a hindrance and the very few parents that are involved have registered very minimal contributions to pre-school activities.

Another study conducted in Meru County (Kimathi, 2014) reported low parental involvement in modeling, cognitive and behavioral dimensions that could support grade three children reading ability at home. This study focused on parental involvement in grade three children reading at home while the current study concerned itself with parental involvement in preschool children‟s educational activities. In addition, very few parents especially in the marginalized regions and rural areas of Kenya like Siaya County get involved in their children‟s educational activities (Oketch & Rollerstorn, 2007). In the light of this reported poor parental involvement it was, therefore, necessary to investigate parents‟ characteristics influencing their involvement in pre-school activities in rural areas like Sikalame Zone of Siaya County.

  Statement of the Problem

Although educationists had identified parental involvement in children‟s education activities as a strong pillar of their success (Epstein, 2001; Mark, Cresswell & Ainley, 2006; Desarrollo, 2007), studies conducted across the globe (Siraj-Blatchford et al, 2002; Osei-Akoto, Chowa, & Ansong, 2012; Ndani, 2008; Koech, 2010; Kimathi, 2014) reported that parents‟ involvement in preschool activities was low. However, these

studies did not establish what parent characteristic determined their involvement in the preschool education activities of their children hence the need for the current study.

In addition, despite research (Koech, 2010; Ndani, 2008) establishing that parents‟ level of education and gender influenced teacher-parent partnership, it was not known whether these factors could affect parents‟ involvement in preschool educational activities. Furthermore, a study carried out by Kimathi (2014) recorded that there was low parental involvement in activities related to reading and noted that parents‟ level of education and socioeconomic aspects hinder parental involvement in grade three children reading at home. This study involved grade three parents‟ involvement in reading while the current study targeted preschool parents‟ involvement in preschool education activities.

Similarly, a study conducted in the neighboring county of Kisumu (Ang‟ienda, 2013) revealed that although parental involvement in the learning process significantly correlated with improved pupil performance, parents‟ involvement was low. Therefore, if poor parental involvement was persistent in Kisumu County and by extension the entire Nyanza region of which Siaya is one of the counties, then pupils in preprimary and primary schools may register sub-standard performance in national examinations in the future. Hence, the current study was necessary to establish parent characteristics that influence their involvement in Sikalame zone, Siaya County as the basis of informing stakeholders on how to effectively solicit for parental involvement in preschool children‟s education activities.

        The Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to establish the parent characteristics influencing their involvement in preschool children‟s education activities in Sikalame education Zone of Siaya County.

        Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study were to:

1. Find out the extent of parental involvement in the preschool education activities in Sikalame zone.
   1. Establish influence of parent‟s gender on parental involvement in preschool children‟s education activities in Sikalame zone.
   1. Establish the relationship between parent‟s marital status and parental involvement in preschool children‟s education activities in Sikalame zone.
   1. Find out relationship between parents‟ level of education and parental involvement in preschool children‟s education activities in Sikalame zone.
   1. Establish influence of parents‟ social economic status on parental involvement in preschool children‟s education activities in Sikalame zone.