Introduction to
Parental/Family/Community
Involvement
Concepts, Meaning, Theories, and Models
It Takes An Entire Village To Raise A Child
Learning Outcomes
Concepts/Meaning/Models of
Parental/Family/Community Involvement
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1.
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3.
Students are able to:
Explain the meaning of
parental/family/community
involvement/collaboration/partnership beyond
public relations
Explore ways to expand the overlapping spheres
of influence
Synthesize different models of involvement
Defining Parent/Family Involvement
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Terms used: Partnership; parent participation; parent
power; School, family and community partnership
Parent involvement includes any activities that are
provided and encouraged by the school and that empower
parents in working on behalf of their children’s learning
and development (Moles, 1992)
School, family and community partnerships mean how
children learn and develop in these three mail contexts:
school, family, and community (Epstein, 1996)
School-family-community partnerships
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The role of parents in education of their children cannot be
underestimated. By becoming involved in their local
school community, parents can provide the essential
leadership which will lead to improvements in educational
opportunities for their children
How do you define parent/family involvement?
In partnerships, educators, families, and communities
members work together to share information, guide
students, solve problems, and celebrate success (Epstein,
2001)
It takes an entire village to raise a child: African Proverb
Overlapping Spheres of Influence
(Epstein, 1995)
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Overlapping spheres of school, family, and
community directly affect student learning and
development.
Family-like schools and School-like families
Family-like schools have an accepting, caring
atmosphere, and welcome families.
School-like families emphasize the importance of
school, homework and learning activities
Parental Involvement Principles
(Epstein, 2005)
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Multilevel leadership
Professional development that helps both educators and the parents
know and support practices and goals of educator-parent partnership
Parent involvement as an important component
As an essential component of school improvement, linked to the
curriculum, instruction, assessments, and other aspects of school
management
Shared responsibility by both families and educators for children’s
education
Epstein’s six types of involvement
All families must be included
Needs increased research and programs to engage all parents
Benefits of Parent/Family Involvement
(Henderson & Berla)
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1.
2.
3.
The most accurate predictor of students’
achievement in school is not income/social
status but the extent to which students’ family is
able to:
Create a home environment that encourage
learning
Express high (realistic) expectations for their
children’s achievement and future careers
Become involved in their children’s education at
school and in the community
Old Paradigm to New Paradigm
From Public Relations To Partnership
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Old Paradigm:
Teachers:
We are the professionals and we know best. Let us do our job.
You do your job and we will do ours.
The concept of public relations:
Parents advising kids to work hard and listen to their teachers
Parents will participate and help out when needed
New Paradigm:
To do our job as professionals, we need your active support and
involvement.
We sink or swim together
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Parenting and Parent Education
Old Paradigm
Parenting is parents’ job
New Paradigm
Parenting is parents’ job, and parents often need the school support to do the
job
School Family Communication
Older Paradigm: Occasional communication.
Limited variety of methods.
One-way communication: school to home.
Culturally and linguistically homogeneous.
Newer Paradigm: Frequent communication.
Wider variety of methods.
Two-way communication.
Culturally and linguistically sensitive.
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Parent involvement in schools
Old paradigm
Parents attend functions and events
Parents volunteer
New paradigm
Same, plus structured learning events for families
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Parent involvement in homework
Old paradigm
Parent monitors, if able, helps
New Paradigm
Same, plus parent participates
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The concept of partnership:
The goal is to create active working relationships in which
schools, families and communities see one another as
natural allies
They initiate strategies for collaboration
In order to have a partnership or collaborative
relationship, families and professionals must value
the contribution that each of them brings to the
table. Families must be seen as bringing intimate
knowledge and understanding of their child and
their family, their strengths, and needs.
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Summary of Research Findings
This paper reviews the research evidence relevant to
understanding the relationship between parental involvement
and children’s performance in school. Indicators of parental
involvement with school (e.g., attendance at school events,
parent/teacher conferences, PTO) have mixed associations with
children’s school performance. In contrast, measures of parental
involvement at home (e.g., talking to children about schoolrelated matters, high educational expectations, warm and
consistent discipline) show consistent associations with
children’s school success. But even this evidence – based on
correlations – may not represent causal relationships, and so
some critics maintain that what parents do has little effect on
children’s school performance.
School Reform Proposals: The Research Evidence by Douglas B.
Downey,The Ohio State University
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This comprehensive handbook provides school superintendents
and principals with indispensable information on community
relations, parent involvement and community collaboration. With
School, Family and Community, you will discover:
Programs used by other schools and school districts to
successfully confront the challenges facing them.
Collaborations that help sustain programs that individual schools
or districts couldn't support on their own.
Techniques that encourage support from parents and the
community.
Sample forms and worksheets are included.
Senario Sistem Pendidikan di
Malaysia
(Scenario of Educational System in
Malaysia)
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Hampir 10,000 buah sekolah (Almost 10,000 schools)
300,000 orang guru (300,000 teachers)
> lima juta pelajar (> five millions students)
Bilangan ahli keluarga dan ahli masyarakat yang terlibat?
(The number of family members and society involved)
Dalam bajet 2005, KPM menerima sebanyak RM 16.3
billion (18.3% Bajet Mengurus Persekutuan)
Petikan Perutusan Tahun Baru 2005
Menteri Pelajaran Malaysia
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Kementerian ini bukan sahaja memikul amanat untuk
melahirkan insan berilmu dan bersahsiah tinggi, malah
turut berperanan untuk merealisasikan matlamat
kenegaraan yang menentukan jatuh bangun bangsa dan
negara di masa hadapan
Facts and Myths
on Family Involvement
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The parents who attend parent conferences are not
necessarily the ones we need to see
These parents don’t really care about their children
Certain ethnic group don’t value education
Parents of children in secondary schools aren’t get
involved in the educational processes
So what should do about all these facts and myths?
Obstacles To Parent/Family Involvement
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Parents working long hours
Both parents working
Single parents
Transportation
Child-care issues
Cultural and language barriers
Parents find schools intimidating
Parents just too stressed (no energy to care)
…
The Importance of Family/community
Involvement in Children’s Education
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Important issues in education:
Curriculum, testing, accountability, standards …… vs. lip
service to parent involvement
So much progress has been made in other areas of school
reform, why not in parent and family involvement?
Teachers tell us that they need help reaching out to the
children and parents from very different cultures than their
own
Administrators need to provide mentoring and professional
development programs that enable teachers to connect
more effectively with students and parents of different and
often distant cultures.
School-community collaboration
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According to James Coleman (sociologist), there are three forms of
capitals:
Human
Financial
Social
Obstacle facing schools and communities is the erosion of trust
between people that has resulted from years of adversarial
relationships between schools, social services agencies, and families
(Gary Wehlage)
Social capital is not possessed in the way that knowledge or money is
possessed
Social capital adheres in the set of relationships among people and
those relationships are productive to the extent that they are based on a
common set of expectations, a set of common values, and a sense of
trust among people.
Implications for us?
United States
National Educational goals
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The 8th goal states that ‘every school will provide
partnerships that will increase parental
involvement and participation in promoting social,
emotional, and economic growth of children
No Child Left Behind Act (2001)
School districts are required to have written parent
involvement policies and plans including plan that
implements effective parent involvement activities
whereby families, educators and communities
come together to improve teaching and learning
(Sheldon, 2005, U.S. Department of Education,
2004)
Fokus Pengurusan Pendidikan
Saranan Bekas KPPM
Dato’ Dr. Abdul Shukor
 Fokus ke-10
 Pembinaan hubungan luar dan masyarakat:
 Memperkukuhkan sistem dan majlis
permuafakatan di semua peringkat
 Memperbaiki sistem hubungan awam
(public relations)
 Jalinan dengan PIBG dan masyarakat
 Program ‘outreach’
Tuntutan di Bawah
Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan 2001 - 2010
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Pendidikan prasekolah dan rendah
Strategi pelaksanaan
Peningkatan kerjasama sekolah dengan masyarakat
Pendidikan menengah
KPM akan mengambil langkah untuk meningkatkan
penglibatan komuniti dalam kemajuan sekolah menengah
dengan memperluas keanggotaan jawatankuasa PIBG
kepada komuniti dan memperluas skop aktiviti PIBG
dalam pelaksanaan aktiviti kurikulum dan kokurikulum
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Pembiayaan pendidikan
Strategi pelaksanaan
KPM akan menggalakkan sektor swasta dan orang
perseorangan untuk memberikan sumbangan secara terus
kepada institusi pendidikan
ICT dalam pendidikan
Strategi dan pelaksanaan
KPM akan mempertingkat kerjasama dua hala antara
institusi pendidikan di KPM dengan masyarakat setempat
dan pihak swasta untuk pembangunan ICT dalam
pendidikan
Teori Hubungan Sekolah dan Keluarga
Separate influence
 Sequenced-responsibilities
 Overlapping influence
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Online resources for parent/family
involvement ERIC Digest
To engage parents in technology practices
 Parents guide to Internet
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/internet/
index.html
The children’s partnership: Children and
internet
http://www.chidrenspartnership.org/bbar/cte
ch.html
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To promote meaningful school-parent exchanges
The reading village
http://teams.lacoe.edu/village/welcome.html
The National Parent Information Network
http://npin.org/
To raise awareness regarding the components of
effective programs and family involvemetn
research
Family involvement in children’s education:
Successful local approaches
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/FamInvolve/
Parent involvement: literature review and database
of promising practices
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/pidata/pi0over.htm
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To encourage contributions to and
collaborative efforts within the community
Partnership for family involvement in
education
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/ieo/digest
s/>
http://pfie.ed.gov/
Hoover-Demsey & Sandler Model
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What can you learn from this model?
In your opinion, which is the most important factor
influencing parents’ choice on their involvement in their
child’s education?
Can you think of other factor/s that will act as mediating
variable/s for parent involvement in schools?
Hoover-Demsey & Sandler Model
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Parents’ choice of involvement forms
influenced by:
Parents’ skills and knowledge
Demand on time and energy (family and
employment)
Invitations and demands for involvement
from child/school/teacher
⇓
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How parent involvement influences child
outcome
Modelling
Reinforcing
Instructions
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Mediating variables
Developmentally appropriate strategies by
parents
Fit between parents’ involvement actions
and school expectations
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Student outcomes
Skills and knowledge
Efficacy of doing well in school
Swap, Susan McAllister
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The protective model
Parents delegate to the school the responsibility for
education their children, parents hold staff accountable for
the results, and educators accept this responsibility
The goal is to reduce the possible conflict that can result
between schools and families
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The school-to-home transmission model
School and home share common
expectations and values
The school should identify the values and
practices that contribute to success, and
parents should provide these conditions at
home
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The curriculum enrichment model
Parents and educators work together to
enrich the curriculum and to take advantage
of parents’ expertise
Parents are encouraged to take a child to an
aquarium or museum if related topics are
covered in the curriculum
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The partnership model
Parents and educators work together to
accomplish the common mission of helping
all children in the school to achieve success.
It requires collaboration among parents,
community members and educators. It
emphasizes two-way communication,
parents’ strength and joint problem-solving
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Protective and school-to-home models are common
practice and curriculum enrichment and partnership
models are coming into wider use
(Henderson and Berla, 1995)
Epstein’s model
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Type 1: Parenting
Help all families establish home environments to
support children as students
Parents as providers of the child’s basic needs
Parents should form the foundation for their
children’s education
Parents provide and maintain positive home
environment that is conducive to learning and the
development of physical, intellectual, social and
emotional skills and values
It consists of a combination of information for
parents and from parents about their children and
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Type 2: Communicating
Design effective forms of school-to-home
communications about school programs and
children’s progress
Children often play an important role in the
success of this as couriers in taking messages from
school to home and bringing them back to school
from home.
Besides conventional practices, schools can use
email, voice mail and school’s website to relate
messages to parents
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Type 3: Volunteering
Recruit and organize parents’ help and support
Parents as volunteers at the school
It ranges from low to high levels of participation
70% parents never help teachers in the classroom,
and only 4% of the parents (2 or 3 parents per
classroom) were highly active at school (Epstein,
2001)
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Type 4: Learning at home
Provide information and ideas to families about
how to help students at home with homework and
other curriculum-related activities, decisions and
planning
Type 5: Decision making/Advocacy
Include parents in school decisions, developing
parent leaders and representatives
Parents involved in school governance
Teachers and administrators will need to provide
the necessary background information and training
for parents to effectively carry out their
responsibilities and make sound decisions
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Type 6: Collaborating with community
Identify and integrate resources and services
from the community to strengthen school
programs, family practices, and student
learning and development
Parents working in collaboration with the
entire community
Learning at home
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Students show impressive results when:
Parents read to them
Support them in completing homework
Engage them in turning
everydayexperiences into learning
experience
Tutor them
New understanding of
parent involvement
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There are different forms and levels of involvement
It is a collaborative effort involving families, schools,
community and religious groups and employers
Parent involvement means family involvement:
involvement of every adult in the family
Begin with the assumption that majority of parents care
about their children and want to be involved
Avoid using jargon in communication
Hard-to-reach parents need special initiatives
Obstacles to Family Involvement
not enough time (especially during the day)
 feel they have nothing to contribute
 don’t understand the planning process or the
service system
 don’t know how to become involved in a
meaningful way
 lack of child care
 feel intimidated
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not available during the time school functions are
scheduled
language and cultural differences
lack of transportation
don’t feel welcome at the school
(National PTA, 1992, survey to 27,000 local and
unit presidents and 3,000 council leaders asking
them what barriers they faced when they tried to
get parents involved.)
Prinsip untuk pakatan/kolaborasi
(Principles for Collaboration)
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Program bersifat komprehensif (Programs should be
comprehensive)
Peka kepada keperluan ibu bapa/keluarga (Sensitive to
family needs)
Inisiatif perlu datang dari pihak sekolah (Initiatives come
from schools)
Pakatan perlu jujur tanpa agenda tersembunyi (Partnership
should be sincere without any hidden agenda)
Latihan kepada para pendidik (Training given to educators)
Batasan penglibatan perlu dinyatakan dengan jelas
(Limitations to involvement should be made known to
those who are involved)
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Kolaborasi perlu bersifat interagensi (Promote
inter-agency collaboration)
Strategi yang diamalkan perlu mengambil kira
perubahan demografik (Consider demographic
changes in planning strategies)
Komunikasi perlu pelbagai (Have varried
communication patterns)
Amalkan pengupayaan (Promote empowerment)
Tips for partnership
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Relationships are key to successful partnerships
Successful partnership are built on trust and
mutual respect
Programs must be strengths-based
Family involvement is a process
Comprehensive approaches must be most effective
Multiple-year strategies
Continue through high school
Cultural competency and sensitivity to differing
perspectives is essential
Foundations for Meaningful
Parent/Family Involvement
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Positive school climate
Principals should be leaders in creating an environment in
which teachers and staff demonstrate to parents a sense of
full /sincere partnership
Attitudes encouraged: friendliness, approachability,
openness, empathy, compassion, patience, and respect for
others
Regular communication
Schools need to use a range of communication techniques
that enable schools and families to share information
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Diversity
Families differ in their structures, economic status, racial
and ethnic backgrounds, and education backgrounds
Training for educators and parents
Administrators need to provide emotional and social
support, seek and secure funds to adequate training for
teachers, staff and parents
Provide comprehensive parent/family involvement
programs
Acknowledge parents’ needs and interests and allow
parents to build their strengths and resources
Conclusions from Henderson and Berla
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Efforts to improve children outcomes are much
more effective if the efforts encompass the
students’ families
Children of parents who are involved both at home
and at school stay in school longer
Children learn best when their parents play four
key roles:
Teachers
Supporters
Advocates
Decision making
When parents are involved in schools, their
children go to better schools
 A comprehensive, well-planned familyschool partnership fosters high student
achievement
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