An exploration of parents’ engagement with their
children’s learning: Executive Summary
An exploration of parents’ engagement with their children’s
learning involving technologies and the impact of this in their
family learning experiences
Executive Summary
Sumi Hollingworth, Kim Allen, Kuyok Abol Kuyok, Ayo Mansaray and Anthea Rose.
Institute for Policy Studies in Education (IPSE)
London Metropolitan University
with
Anne Page,
Family and Parenting Institute (FPI)
September 2009
© Becta 2009
http://www.becta.org.uk
Executive Summary
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Becta | An exploration of parents’ engagement with their children’s learning: Executive Summary
Executive summary
This research starts with parents’ views and experiences as a way of understanding
parental engagement in their children’s learning and the role of technology within
this. Throughout this report, we provide an analysis of parents’ experiences of their
relationships with their children’s school, their children’s learning and with
technology. We hope that this enriches the voice of the parents who took part in this
project. We also provide insights into what schools and local authorities are doing to
support parental engagement to provide a context for parent’s experiences.
The research
This research:
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examines parents’ views and experiences of schools’ and local authorities’
technology practices to support parental engagement in their children’s
education
explores the impact of this on learning in the family
makes recommendations on how schools might better communicate and
engage with parents and how they might contribute to learning in the
family using technologies.
What we did
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We carried out research with 80 parents of children in Key Stage 2
(primary aged 8-11 years) and Key Stage 3 (secondary aged 11-14
years). Ten focus groups took place in five local authorities across
England.
Parents included a diverse spread in terms of their gender, levels of
engagement, income, ethnicity, language, marital status and age.
Interviews were also conducted with school staff and relevant local
authority representatives.
The discussions with parents were contrasted with a number of interviews
with relevant staff in schools and with relevant representatives from local
authorities.
Key Findings
Technology and communication with schools
In order for parents to better engage with their child’s formal learning, good
communication with their child’s school is important. We looked at the key ways in
which schools and parents communicate with each other, with a particular focus on
September 2009
© Becta 2009
http://www.becta.org.uk
Executive Summary
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Becta | An exploration of parents’ engagement with their children’s learning: Executive Summary
technologies used and the ways in which they are used. We also discussed the
barriers involved in home-school communication.
We developed the concept of ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ communication to analyse the
differences in types of communication experienced by the parents in our research.
The concepts of thick and thin are related to four key factors as shown in this
diagram. Using these factors helped us to develop an understanding of the success
of certain parents’ experiences and the barriers to others.
In terms of communication with schools, the research found that:
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the technology used by schools is facilitating predominantly administrative
and organisational communication. There appears to be limited thick
communication about children’s learning. As such, the emphasis is on
communicating rather than engaging parents in their children’s learning.
parents feel that technologically-mediated communication is not always
accessible or used appropriately by schools. For example, email and text
messages are often one-way communication from the school with no
(successful) facility for parents to reply or to contact each other. Some
parents spoke of online forums and voting systems, which allow for
parental agency, but these were not common.
the purpose of the communication is a key factor for schools to consider.
Schools need to make sure that there is the potential for reciprocity.
Whatever medium they choose to use, schools need to show that they
value parents’ knowledge. There is no one-size fits all approach. Parents’
different needs mean that technology-mediated communications are not
viewed uniformly but, rather, different forms of communication suit
September 2009
© Becta 2009
http://www.becta.org.uk
Executive Summary
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Becta | An exploration of parents’ engagement with their children’s learning: Executive Summary
different parents. Some parents prefer paper-based communication some
prefer email for example, regardless of access.
Engaging parents
The research also found that:
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complex, synchronous, two-way, reciprocal, communication with parents,
specifically about their child, has the most potential for parental
engagement with their children’s learning. This type of communication
comes in the form of meetings with parents via parent evenings, session,
forums or workshops. However, other pressures impact on parents’ ability
to participate.
good use of learning platforms has the potential to mirror this kind of thick
communication between schools and parents. However, few parents have
had any extensive experience of these yet.
parents want more information from schools on what their children are
learning and how they are being taught. They would also appreciate
guidance on how they can support their children’s learning. Technology
can play a role in mediating this.
lack of home access to computers and the internet has restricted some
parents’ opportunities for communication with the school and creates
obstacles for their children’s formal learning. The roll-out of learning
platforms and online reporting need to take this into account.
Learning in families and technology
In terms of family learning, the research found that:
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technology has a ubiquitous and large presence in the home. It is used for
a variety of purposes by children.
there is a disconnection between the learning that happens in and for
school and other learning that might take place in the family. Also parents’
‘funds’ of knowledge are not extensively being tapped into by schools.
the generational aspects of the digital divide impact on the harnessing of
technology for learning in the home. Some parents report a lack of
technological competence in relation to their children and as such, they
often play a supervisory role rather than participating in their children’s use
of technology.
a mistrust of technology due to this generational gap has also meant that
parents can be ambivalent about the educational value of some
technology use. This is particularly the case if the use of technology is not
immediately identifiable as school-related. Parents are most likely to
September 2009
© Becta 2009
http://www.becta.org.uk
Executive Summary
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Becta | An exploration of parents’ engagement with their children’s learning: Executive Summary
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attribute non-school related technologies with ‘value’ if they replicate some
aspects of formal, high-status, scholastic learning.
parents tend to look at technology primarily through a lens of ‘risk’ and
‘damage’. This concern with the ‘harmful’ aspects of technology (in
relation to e-safety, impact on traditional learning and impact on social and
physical health) means that parents may take up strategies to manage or
ration their children’s technology use in the home.
the supervisory role enacted by parents creates distance between them
and their children’s learning. It also produces or exacerbates tensions
within parents’ own relationship to learning, thereby reducing the
possibilities for learning within the family in its fullest sense.
parents are reluctant to intervene too much with their children’s formal
learning. Many fear ‘doing something wrong’, or teaching children in the
wrong way. The importance placed on pupil attainment and independent
learning, means that parental intervention may be seen as too risky or
‘high stakes’, particularly among parents of secondary school pupils.
parents attitudes to and behaviour around their children’s use of
technology is influenced by social class. Parents with low access to ICT,
lower levels of educational qualification and lower incomes often have
time pressure around technology use.
parents are more hesitant both in their own ability in using technology and
in managing their children’s use of it. Consequently, they are much more
ambivalent as to the ‘benefits’ of technology use – thus taking a ‘merely
necessary’ stance towards their children’s (and their own) technology use.
parents with home access, higher income and educational levels, and
especially those parents who engage with technology in their professional
lives, are more likely to express greater confidence not just in using
technology, but also in ‘managing’ their child’s use of it. Thus, they more
readily permit their children’s meaningful use of ICT.
Please see the main report for recommendations on policy and practice.
September 2009
© Becta 2009
http://www.becta.org.uk
Executive Summary
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