Barriers to engaging with schools which parents experience and

All of the parents interviewed, except Cora since her sons entered post-primary school, are motivated and involved in supervising and supporting their children’s learning in the home. Their adolescent children have control over information regarding schoolwork and homework, which they transmit to their parents. Parents lack the scaffolding, and

guidelines, required to challenge their children which schools could provide. A ‘Working Together’ literacy and numeracy activity booklet sent to parents from Beech College is relevant and appropriate to the learning needs of students, and also allows evaluative feedback to the school.

The adolescent stage of development is not perceived by parents as a barrier to their involvement in their child’s education. The fact that parents are unfamiliar with coursework, and are depending on their children to filter information regarding

embarrass their adolescent children by being proactive in seeking information from schools.

The parents interviewed did not express any fear or hatred of schools. Cora was the only parent who expressed a feeling of inequality. While parents agreed that they did not understand coursework, they expressed a willingness to engage with schools in overcoming this problem. Given the opportunity Cora has been willing to gain a qualification in english and expresses a wish to attend mathematic classes in Hazel College, and also participate in literacy and numeracy initiatives. The majority of parents interviewed indicated that they had attended post-primary school and had completed a Junior Certificate. The fact that the parents had not completed a leaving certificate may be seen as a lost opportunity or void in their lives which, given the right circumstances, they would like to remedy. Curriculum content and teaching methodologies have changed since parents attended schools. Parents are hearing about a new Project Mathematics syllabus, but there is no evidence to suggest that schools are liaising with parents

regarding the new approach to the teaching of mathematics which makes the studying of mathematics more relevant to everyday living.

Despite the fact that parents of adolescents from disadvantaged communities are perceived by schools as either not interested or not capable of supporting their child’s learning, all parents, except Cora are proactive in helping their children with learning in the home. Parental involvement within schools was more prevalent while children were in primary school. Greta sets strict targets for her son in relation to writing and learning the Irish language. Cora is disillusioned by her sons’ lack of interest in home learning and seems unaware of how to intervene. Other parents encourage reading, set boundaries, have a homework routine and seek help from other family members, and from schools when a learning difficulty is diagnosed. Until it was pointed out to them parents were not aware of how household activities could be used as a means to develop literacy and numeracy skills.

Hoover-Dempsey, Walker and Sandler (2005) see parent role construction as sets of expectations, or beliefs for behaviour, leading to patterns of ideas that guide choice of behaviours within specific contexts, and the interpretation of others’ behaviour within those contexts. Roles also reflect a parent’s understanding of their responsibilities within a context and range of behaviours which are appropriate in the context. Roles are socially constructed, contributors to role construction are subject to change, and individuals’ role construction are also subject to change. Rather than adopting a passive role, seeing the school as mainly responsible for education, parents in this study are actively involved in their child’s learning in the home, and are also supportive of schools. Parents’ active role construction is partnership-focused, seeing both the school and parents as responsible for children’s education. Cora could be seen as a adopting both an active role in the past and a passive role now as her sons attend post-primary school, and she receives few if any invitations to be involved. Hoover-Dempsey, Walker and Sandler (2005) point out that role construction and self-efficacy are linked and where a weak self-efficacy, and a passive role construction exists, parents will not be involved in their child’s education. As role constructions are subject to change by others who are influential in parental

involvement such as schools, teachers, and the child, Dauber and Epstein (1993) say that a positive school climate and consistent invitations to be involved in learning in the home will influence parents’ decisions. Hoover-Dempsey, Walker and Sandler (2005) identify specific steps to increase parent role construction. Schools need to offer specific

information, develop strong listening skills, be adaptable and flexible and be consistent and interactive in their communications with parents. Specific steps can also be taken to increase self-efficacy by providing parents with specific suggestions, and giving parents feedback on the positive influence of their involvement, such as informing parents of post initiative test results. Schools should develop interactive homework assignments in addition to school-based involvement opportunities. Parents want an active role in their child’s education but this study reveals that neither parents, nor schools, seem to be sure how to move towards a partnership model which Swap (1993) sees as a whole school approach towards involving extended family members, and community resources, to enrich the school’s curriculum. Hoover-Dempsey et al. (2005) see the need to empower teachers, and their sense of efficacy for involving parents. Many teachers hold positive

attitudes about involving families in students’ education, but few receive training in how to develop collaborative family-responsive involvement practices. Hoover-Dempsey et al. (2005) propose the creation of dynamic, systematic, and consistent school practices in order to improve home-school relationships.

Parents have ambitions for their children which in some cases are regarded as unrealistic by schools. Schools should liaise with parents in working towards and embracing those ambitions and not just ask parents to simply encourage children to reach their potential. Parents attend their children’s graduation ceremonies in large numbers to mark important milestones. The level of achievement gained by students, along the academic path leading to this stage, would be greatly enhanced if home-school partnership relations were geared more specifically to student learning. Lareau (2000) argues that parents from

disadvantaged areas with less cultural capital share middle-class aspirations for their children, but lack confidence and the knowledge of how to help their children. Rather than adopting a deficit approach schools must look at initiatives aimed at engaging parents, and recognise that families’ social and cultural capital can contribute to

curriculum enrichment (Moll et al., 1992). Schools need to encourage parents by sending home instructions, or by providing opportunities where parents can see demonstrations in school. Schools could demonstrate to parents how to develop links between mathematics and the real world, as proposed by Maguire (2003), to build confidence in mathematics among members of the community. In an examination of the relationship between parent role construction, sense of efficacy, resources, and perceptions of teachers’ invitations with parental involvement activities at home and school, Anderson and Minke (2007) found that specific invitations from teachers had the largest effect on the three types of parental involvement. Parents’ sense of efficacy and level of resources were less

influential than anticipated. Anderson and Minke (2007) noted the implications for school practices, teachers and policy development.

5.6 Other aspects of parental involvement influencing student achievement Other aspects of parental involvement, which emerged from interviews and focus group discussions with outside participants, were the role of computer technology in promoting student learning, and the need for collaboration between schools and parents, and the wider community, in promoting opportunities for learning.