Paper presented at SERA conference Dundee September 1996
Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships: Engendering Parental Involvement
Dorothy Caddell
Abstract
A stream of research has consistently documented the complex and powerful influence that home and community have on young children's educational achievement. Despite a growing acknowledgement that educational strategies to encourage parental involvement to support children's learning must take into account the social context within which they operate, continued use of the word "parent" can conceal the wide diversity and variety of parenting cultures that are encompassed. This paper explores the evolution of a specific home- school initiative, in order to raise questions about how individual schools respond to the diversity in children's home background and culture. It highlights the challenge of developing strategies which offer men and women equal opportunities to be actively involved in their children's early learning. Although salient points are raised about the extent to which the gender bias of parental involvement programmes can influence the involvement of fathers in supporting their children's learning this experience underlines the importance of not concentrating on gender issues to the detriment of other issues which emerged as determining the quality of parent- professional relationship.
This paper does not offer a blueprint for success but it does highlight the importance of analysing the current social context within which any home-school initiative operates and of providing a means to build on the interests, motivation and relationships that already exist.
Introduction
Over the last two decades a stream of research has consistently highlighted the complex and powerful influence that home and community have on young children's educational achievement and has given prominence to the need for parents and teachers to work together. It is now widely acknowledged that educational strategies must take into account the social context within which they operate. This and the increasing regulation of relationships between parents and schools through legal and contractual requirements has resulted in home-school relations being regarded as a key professional task. Despite a growing consensus that the relationships between home, school and community should be an integral part of school development plans and an increasing number of developments in education seeking to ensure continuity of experience from the context of home to school being implemented, a number of questions and concerns are being raised which require the character and intentions of parental involvement to be further examined and reshaped. This paper will, through a description of the evolution of a specific home- school inititiative, raise questions about how schools respond to the diversity in children's home background and culture and highlight the gendered nature of educational planning and implementation of pre-school initiatives to encourage and support parental participation in early learning.
Although an ever expanding body of literature in the field of home-school relations stresses the importance of the relationships between teachers and parents
Git is being increasingly recognised that the concept of "parental involvement" is often used as a convenient "umbrella term" to cover all types of contact between home and school (Sharrock 1970) and is one which has been defined and interpreted in a variety of different ways each with its own different philosophical and ideological base. In a political context, legislation since the 1980's focusing on parental rights and choice with respect to their children's schooling has encouraged debates about the boundaries between school and parents. Parents now have rights to information about curriculum and organisation of school settings and information about their child's programme of work and the progress they make.
In school effectiveness terms, recent international comparisons and extensive media coverage have raised increasing concern about falling standards in schools This has led to further scrutiny of the relationship between parents and professionals. With parental involvement now identified as one of the key variables of the 3 "Es" effectiveness, efficiency and excellence of educational establishments. (Gotts & Purnell 1987, Jowett & Baginsky 1991, Brighouse & Tomlinson (1991) and as an important factor for the effectiveness of any interventionist programme (Brofenbrenner 1974, Fraser 1996) schools are under increasing pressure to explore ways of effectively working with parents.
One of the most important factors that has served to emphasise the vital contribution that parents make has been the significant change in our understanding of young children as learners. Child pyschology studies, documenting the significance of a child's early years for future development have increasingly emphasised the wide diversity of experience, knowledge and understanding that children gain prior to coming to school. Viewing children as "active learners" whose learning is "embedded in the network of people and their purposes and interests that make up the community." (Hughes 1986) has resulted in a growing recognition of the importance of children's experiences beyond the school boundary and of the complex and powerful influence of the home and family on children's learning. The potential of all homes, even those in conditions of extreme poverty, as contexts for learning is increasingly highlighted.
Research studies (Hannon & James 1990 ) continue to emphasise the considerable influence of the knowledge and experience children gain or don't gain before coming to school on future attainment. The development of children's future understanding and knowledge depends on educators recognising and building on their existing experiences and it is now widely acknowledged that for maximum benefit the school must successfully build upon the child's existing knowledge and experience. In addition the increasing focus on baseline assessment at P1 and transfer of information in the transition between pre- school and school means that it is now essential that teachers listen to parents to gain better understanding of the knowledge and experience children have gained before coming to school. (Hannon et al 1991) Although current discussions focus on how to implement policies and strategies which enable schools to involve parents meaningfully in their role to support their children's learning there is evidence to suggest that educators continue to underestimate the prior knowledge and experience that children bring to school and that the home continues to be an underused resource( Epstein 1986).
P
Amidst growing evidence that the school's practices not just family characteristics make a difference to the extent to which parents do / do not become involved. schools (Dauber & Epstein 1993) schools now face the ongoing challenge of exploring how best to contact and involve parents and to build up relationships between parents and professionals to enhance educational achievement. "The practical challenge for teachers is this- how they can help parents to understand what they are doing in the classroom and support parents in their efforts to provide experiences at home." (Hughes,Wikely & Nash 1990)
Recognition that parents are a key source of information and an important educational resource has marked a significant change in perspective about the relationship between home and school and of the role of parents vis a vis teachers.
As a result we are now in the era of the partnership trend which emphasises the role of the teachers as partner and co-operative worker. (Skilbeck cited in Fish 1995:186) It has been suggested however, that the current common usage of the term "partnership with parents" masks the complexity of clearly defining the concept and the difficulty of translating this into practice. (Bastiani in Munn 1993:113). The partnership discourse creates potential challenges for both parents and schools and Atkin et al (1988) have highlighted the important role of education authorities in effectively assessing local needs and in encouraging and supporting individual school developments towards effective home-school liasion.
Education Authorities are now being presented with the responsibility of developing policy and practice to enhance working relationships between teachers and parents and to support individual institutions as they put into practice strategies to create links between bome and school.
The Pilton initiative
The City of Edinburgh has a long tradition of involving parents in nursery education. Major research into the status of the family and debates about school effectiveness influence the policies and practice of Education Authorities. The growing recognition of the importance of parents and teachers working together for continuity of learning and experience has underpinned the many funded projects in the field of home-school relations that have been developed in the city over the last decade. (Mother Start:Raven1980, Craigmillar Children's Project: Whyte 1992).
The Pilton Home Link Project (1990 - 1995), an Early Intervention initiative, was set up to strengthen links between families and schools in a multi deprived area of Edinburgh. Jowett & Baginsky (1991) however caution that it is frequently assumed that parental involvement is a good thing per se without any real understanding about what this phrase encompasses or what principles underpin such an approach. The Pilton project's expressed aims of developing the concept of shared responsibility for children's learning and recognising and using the family's contribution reflect the current shift in emphasis from education being the sole responsibility of the school to the realisation that families play an important role in children's learning.
There is evidence to suggest however that although professionals now widely recognise the crucial role that parents play in young children's learning and development parents often find it difficult to see how what they do at home with their children has a positive influence on their children's learning. Many continue to believe their influence is minimal compared to that of the formal process of education. (Lynch & Pimlott 1976) The prime focus within the project initially was therefore to lay a foundation for better communication between home and school which encouraged channels of two way communication and to enhance parental confidence in their ability to play an active role in their children's learning in the early years,
The creation of a Homelink Teacher post in the Pilton Project specifically for implementing programmes and practices to contact and involve parents was seen to be central to building up relationships between parents and professionals. Although there continues to be some debate about the extent to which effective home-school communication and contact can be created and sustained by making one person responsible for partnership work evaluation of the effectiveness of the role of the homelink teacher in the early stages of this project indicates that having a teacher with the specific remit of "working with parents" was a valuable resource in making more effective contact with the wider community, in initially establishing a range of opportunities for parental involvement and in helping parents to feel more secure and confident about their involvement in both in school and out of school settings. (Caddell 1994)
The gender neutrality of the term "parent" in the reporting of Early Intervention strategies has been criticised as implying participation from both mother and father when it is clear that it is referring to predominantly maternal involvement. (Hughes et al 1991, David 1993 ) The reality within this context was that both mothers and fathers were becoming more actively involved and making choices about the nature of that involvement e.g. barbeques, outings, sports day. The term "parent" did therefore seem to reflect the reality of involvement with young children particularly at family events in the nursery. However, as the Project progressed it became clear that project initiatives to encourage more active involvement within the school setting, attracted mainly mothers. Men were not making use of the developing opportunities for involvement offered to the same extent as women. This raised the issue of why men, while bringing children to and from nursery on a regular basis were not as actively involved as mothers within the school setting.
Why should a focus on paternal involvement be a key issue?
The important role that fathers play in the education and development of their children has over the past two decades increasingly become a focus of interest and discussion on a number of different levels. Internationally, the European Commission, has
played a central role in making the participation that men have in the care and upbringing of their children a topic that is currently being researched more closely. The titles of conferences that have taken place in Europe e.g. "Father Figures - fathers in the families of the 1990s"(1994) "Men and their Children" (1996) Men as Carers (Italy 1993) and "Fathers in the families of tomorrow" (Denmark 1993) indicate this widening debate about fathers and the increasing interest in the role fathers assume within their families. In terms of the role that fathers play in supporting their young children's learning a growing body of research, which continues to highlight the complex and powerful influence of home and community, has led to the growing recognition that both parents have an impact on their young children development and learning. Study findings suggesting that fathers make positive contributions to all aspects of children's development e.g. self confidence, sex roles, acfhievement motivation are now challenging prevailing attitudes and expectations that it is normal for the care of young children to be predominantly the domain of the mother .
The changing priorities of the Pilton Project.
The issue of why men were less likely than women to take up opportunities for involvement despite them playing a significant role in bringing their children to the setting became even more apparent when the focus of the Project changed towards a literacy focus. This change in priority towards a specific focus on early literacy and the nature of parental involvement sought reflected the growing wider national concern about levels of literacy achievement. Recent evidence from external evaluations of Early Intervention Projects suggest parental involvement to be of positive value and that regular parental assistance is linked to children's motivation and future progress in literacy skills. (Fraser 1996, ) The central aims of the Pilton project therefore became more focused on developing opportunities for parents to become actively involved specifically in their children's early literacy development.
Although very little existing research focuses specifically on fathers' involvement in children's schooling ( Lareau 1993) reviews of early literacy research suggest that gender plays a role in boys' choice of reading material (Save the Children ). The growing interest in exploring factors which influenced and inhibited fathers involvement within this particular initiative can therefore be seen to be partly related to the wider significance of the influence of male involvement in children's early literacy development. There was however another important aspect that came to light as the project evolved which resulted in the extent of fathers' involvement becoming a necessary area of interest.