Parental Involvement in Education: Overcoming Roadblocks - Essay Sample

Problem

A good number of parents are not actively concerned with their children's classroom activities. This is because sometimes parents experience lots of roadblocks to getting involved with their kids' educational matters (Van Roekel, 2008). There are numerous reasons put forth by the parents as to why they aren't involved. Such reasons include; having a busy schedule, having few or no opportunities to share ideas to the school, feeling unwelcomed at the school and that schools did not want their input, lack of easy access to their children's teachers. Whereas the teachers on other hand, aired their complaints as to why the parents aren't involved with their children's curricular activities which included; that some parents have limited educational backgrounds hence could not help their children, some parents challenged the teachers' authority and questioned their decisions (Van Roekel, 2008). Having a comprehensive curriculum will see that such issues are eliminated and that parental involvement is realized fully.

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Population of Impact

This inadequacy of comprehensive curricula affects both teachers and the schooling children, as well as the parents since they are the main investors of education in their children. All the stakeholders need to come up with more comprehensive curricula which will ensure parental input is more involved in the whole learning process. This will ensure that parental involvement with their children's classroom curricular is more practically (Jeynes, 2005).

Importance to Specialization

Parental involvement with their children's educational matters has emerged as one of the most discussed in educational cycles. Social researchers and scientists have carried out numerous studies and concluded that parental involvement has a more advantageous impact on their children's total well-being (Jeynes, 2005). Research shows that curriculum instructions are imparted well in children when parents are involved, for instance, active parents' involvement in curriculum instruction results in the greater realization of teachers' skills, easier assessment of teachers' by the school head and enhanced parental understands of the school's mode of work (Hara & Burke 2011). Furthermore, parents are one of the best things the children ever have, parents, know what is best for their children and are in a better position to influence their behaviors. Teachers are true educators and have gone to school and are doing an okay job with what they have to offer, but parents also need to play a better part in the process. This will be effective if only there exist a comprehensive curricular which brings together teachers, parents and community's efforts hence enabling them to join hands in a mutual and friendly manner towards realizing the same learning and developmental goals of the children's (Waters et al., 2014).

Types of Data

Data used in this study is mostly narrative data gathered from existing literature, current studies, and websites with archival datasets. As a result of staying updated with the current educational trends, many researchers are conducting researches that are aimed at solving contemporary challenges facing educational matters. These researches have proved beyond doubt that the educational world is changing and therefore, educational learning methods need to change too, so as to adapt to the current trends (Waters et al., 2014).

Problem Statement

The problem of the research entails the need to get parents more involved in matters of their children's education. The 21st-century world has experienced that parents and guardians are getting more concerned about other cooperate activities while living their role in their children's education and curricula involvement at stake.

Additional Information

In the past parental involvement was characterized by volunteers, especially mothers, well-wishers, or sponsors providing assistance mainly in the form of fundraising or motivational talks. But today parental involvement is viewed with a wide spectrum of involvement from just the parents to family members and the whole community at large. However, it's the teachers and parents who are centrally bound to the children's success, and therefore, there must be ways to unite them in order to realize the full potential of the children. Parents and teachers need to share the responsibility of helping their children meet their educational goals (Jeynes, 2005). Teachers should involve parents in educational events or meetings, and parents, on the other hand, parents volunteer their fully support both at home and school. This means that teachers are also duty-bound to opening the classrooms to parents by inviting them to the classroom to get current exposure to teaching methods and curriculum. Teachers also can go an extra mile in building a long time relationship with the parents. This can be easily achieved through a comprehensive curriculum which pins all these issues into one program.

Researchers conducted timely and again have overwhelmingly pointed out that active forms of parental engagement actually yield greater achievements benefits than the passive forms (Cotton, 2001). Parents should be made understand that despite how busy, occupied or ignorant they may be, they also need to get involved in matters of their children's' educational, curriculum and co-curricular development fully and also to set home conditions that support both learning and talents fully at each stage of the children's' development phases. On the other hand schools and school administrators or educational stakeholders should set the pace in formulating such a curricula which it will make compulsory for parents to be involved in their children's educational development while putting into considerations the parent's and family's background, cultures, religious affiliations, and family goals hence include them in the educational activities, school's mission and visions should be corresponding with family's mission and vision too.

Conclusion

Therefore, this paper draws on the significance of creating awareness on the importance of parents' involvement with their children's curriculum instruction in the classroom. Parents, families, and communities at large can and must play a part and be actively engaged. Also, new laws and policies should be recommended amidst the formulation of a new curriculum which should be inclusive of all types. This curriculum should provide room even for the parents who have challenges such as; tight schedules, limited education, and do fourth. All these will contribute to the main goal of enhancing parental engagement in their children's educational matters. At the same time, promising and remarkable parent's involvement behaviors with their children's learning and developmental goals should be rewarded and expanded.

References

Bernhardt, V. L. (2014). School Portfolio, The: A Comprehensive Framework for School Improvement. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315853031

Cotton, K. (2001). School Improvement Research Series. School-wide and Classroom Discipline.

Goodall, J., & Montgomery, C. (2014). Parental involvement to parental engagement: a continuum. Educational Review, 66(4), 399-410. doi:10.1076/sesi.12.4.409.3445

Hara, S. R., & Burke, D. J. (2011). Parent involvement: The key to improved student achievement. The School Community Journal. doi:10.18297/etd/1717

Jeynes, W. H. (2005). The effects of parental involvement on the academic achievement of African American youth. The Journal of Negro Education, 260-274. doi:10.1177/0042085905274540

Van Roekel, N. P. D. (2008). Parent, family, community involvement in education. Policy Brief. Washington, DC: National Education Association. doi:10.1007/1-4020-3201-3_15

Waters, L. H., Menchaca, M. P., & Borup, J. (2014, January). Parental involvement in K-12 online and blended learning. In Handbook of research on K-12 online and blended learning (pp. 303-323). ETC Press. doi:10.1007/1-4020-3201-3_15