Search

This study explored how two types of parental involvement, collaboration and conflict, related to teachers’ commitment to their school. As political skills involve understanding others at work and using that knowledge to influence in ways that serve personal or organizational objectives, we proposed that these skills act as a resilience factor for teachers in challenging interactions with parents. The research involved a questionnaire administered to 296 teachers. The results support the hypothesis of a connection between parental involvement and teachers’ commitment. Moreover, teachers with strong political skills experienced less impact on their commitment when facing problematic relationships with parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to understand how fathers perceived schooling of their children with intellectual disabilities and how this impacted upon their involvement. The paper reports specifically on the views of fathers, teachers and mothers of children with intellectual disabilities regarding how fathers understood schooling and how the understanding affected father involvement at a special school. The findings are a part of a larger case study conducted at one special school for children with intellectual disabilities in Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to recruit nine teachers, eight fathers, and six mothers of children with intellectual disabilities from the special school. Individual interviews, focus group discussions and a document review were the data collection methods. Data were transcribed and analysed thematically. Fathers' understanding of schooling was expressed in the two themes emerging: the ambivalence of the purpose of the school and a focus on functional skills. Fathers want their children with disabilities to be educated, which means gaining knowledge and skills that would lead to becoming self-reliant, but they do not always agree with schooling which is the way that society has chosen to educate children. While fathers may not be involved in schooling they often are involved and concerned about education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Findings: The transition to kindergarten can be challenging for children and families. Research shows that some transition activities implemented by elementary schools can have small positive associations with children's outcomes. Examining the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2011 dataset (N= 13813), we explored whether children and families had access to different combinations of transition activities and whether those combinations were associated with child and family outcomes. Using latent class analysis, we found four distinct groups based on teacher and parent reports. Two groups had opportunities for engaging in many transition activities, while the other two groups had fewer transition activities offered – particularly face-to-face experiences. Children from low-income households were more likely to experience fewer types of transition activities, and children from higher-income households were more likely to experience a more comprehensive set of transition activities. Group membership predicted children's initial adjustment to kindergarten, parent involvement in school, and parent satisfaction with the elementary school. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that more work is needed to develop policies and practices that ensure children and families with low incomes have transition supports available to them. This research also highlights the importance of considering how transition supports benefit parents, not just children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parents have a significant role in supporting children who have been exposed to traumatic events. Little is known about parental experiences and needs in the wake of traumatic exposure, which could help in designing tailored early interventions. Objective: This qualitative study explored experiences, perceived needs, and factors impacting those needs being met, in parents of adolescents aged 11–16 years who had been exposed in the past 3 months to a potentially traumatic event, in the city of Montpellier, France. Method: We purposively sampled 34 parents of 25 adolescents aged 11–16 years meeting the inclusion criteria and used semi-structured in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was applied using a multistage recursive coding process. Results: Parents lacked trauma-informed explanations to make sense of their child’s reduced functioning. They experienced stigma attached to the victim label and were reluctant to seek help. School avoidance and lack of collaboration with schools were major obstacles experienced by parents. Parents trying to navigate conflicting needs fell into two distinct categories. Those who experienced distressing levels of shame and guilt tended to avoid discussing the traumatic event with their child, pressuring them to resume life as it was before, despite this perpetuating conflictual interactions. Others adapted by revisiting their beliefs that life should go on as it was before and by trying to come up with new functional routines, which improved their relationship with their child and helped them to restore a sense of agency and hope, but at the cost of questioning their parental role. Conclusions: Key domains of parental experiences could provide potential early intervention targets, such as psychoeducation on traumatic stress, representations about recovery and the victim status, parent–child communication, and involvement of schools and primary caregivers. Further research is needed to validate the impact of these domains in early posttraumatic interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of natural hazards on education systems are an understudied subject. This paper conducts a systematic review of the literature on multiple hazards and school education to explore hazard-induced disruptions in school education and the determinants of its vulnerability and resilience. The PRISMA framework is adopted to examine how indicators of vulnerability are clustered into various components for school vulnerability assessment. As the involvement of school children is vitally important in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and management at the local, regional, and global levels for resilience development in school education, the study also reviews school children's participation in initiatives from various international organizations. The review results show that participation by children in DRR is generally weak due to the authoritarian tendency of society and lack of trust in the ability of children. It is observed that damaged infrastructure causes school closures for prolonged periods, leading to discontinuity of education. The review also highlights the lack of policies in implementing the Comprehensive School Safety Framework and the role of social networks in building resilience at schools. Future research should provide clear guidelines on children's participation in DRR and the linkage between disruptions of school education and critical structural damage due to disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools are recognized as a stakeholder in sport events; however, how their involvement can contribute to the leveraging processes remains unclear. This study explores the role of local schools in leveraging sport events for lifelong sport participation. The National Sports Festival of Japan was examined using a multiple case study approach. Six host cities were purposively selected, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with policy-makers and sport governing body representatives of these cities (N = 11). Nine categories related to schools' involvement in the event leveraging process were identified. These nine categories were further classified into four themes: (1) need for actions by or through schools, (2) presence of central actors, (3) intermediate outcomes for future promotional activities, and (4) supplemental conditions to amplify effects. Moreover, these themes and categories formed a framework illustrating a positive sustainable circular system that bolsters the event's impacts on sport participation in the host city. Our findings contribute to the literature on sport event leveraging and sport development by showing the key administrative role of schools in increasing sport participation through the leveraging of events. For event organizers, this study highlights the importance of developing a continuous partnership with schools to implement the long-term policy for sport event's impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parental involvement in education is critical to academic achievement. Mainstream forms of parental involvement often dismiss Latinx parents' subtle practices. We surveyed 252 Latinxs about their and their parents' parental communication styles, parenting styles, school involvement, and academic expectations. Correlations were weak to strong. Respondents reported higher mean scores than their parents across all practices except psychological support and authoritarian parenting. Most parenting variables were significantly associated with participants' academic outcomes. Acculturation moderated the relationship between respondents' parents' parental pressure and authoritarian parenting style and their own. Results suggest intergenerational transmission of parenting practices regardless of acculturation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's purpose is to examine the work-family conflict of employed parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those parents' engagement in the schooling of their children. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, 206 parents from the United Kingdom completed a questionnaire about their school engagement and their work-family strain. Response data were examined employing descriptive and correlation analyses, as well as hierarchical moderated regression. Findings reveal that the higher the parents' work-family conflict, the lower their school engagement. Moreover, the age of children with SEND moderates the relationship between employed parents' work-family conflict and engagement in their children's schooling. Specifically, for parents with younger children, the negative impact of work-family conflict on parental school engagement is not as prevalent as it is for those with older-aged children. Drawing on Hobfoll's conservation of resources theory, we explore parents' dilemma when they determine where to expend their limited reservoir of resources. Because children with SEND benefit in multiple ways when their parents are engaged in their schooling, we provide recommendations regarding how schools and organizations can operate to promote parental school engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of parents' coproduction in online schooling on satisfaction with educational services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using European cross country microdata from the 2020 Eurofound survey, we reveal that parents' involvement in home schooling is strongly correlated with their satisfaction with educational services. Our results contribute to the on-going debate regarding the importance of citizens' involvement in service delivery during the pandemic, and, in particular, on the related effects in terms of subjective satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a randomised evaluation of three privately managed middle schools in Uruguay aimed at providing education opportunities to adolescents from low income socioeconomic status. At 3-year follow-up, treatment students fare better in terms of academic promotion and school retention. Students in treatment schools present also better mental health, as represented by lower rates of internalising behaviours and social problems than students in the control group. Our findings suggest that a culture of high expectations, a caring and disciplined school climate, and parental involvement in school could account for some of the observed differences in academic trajectories and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on evaluating school spaces with children's participation, aiming to learn its impact on children's well-being and their involvement in school design. The study uses data from a visual and a post-occupancy evaluation (POE) questionnaire, conducted with randomly selected (N = 92) untrained children (age 10–14) and another group (N = 25) trained earlier in several participatory workshops. The first questionnaire asks both groups to evaluate international examples of innovative school buildings. The second is a POE of the involved children's school building. The primary objective is to examine the evaluation of both groups and their preferences about school spaces. The questionnaires showed that children focus on specific school spaces, whereas visuals encourage them to think holistically. Girls and younger children from both groups are more expressive, meanwhile all trained children exhibit positive social interaction. When evaluating their school, trained children's fairness is significantly higher than the untrained group. Insights collected help drive change in school management and design. The study suggests using both a visual questionnaire and POE with trained and untrained children as complementary tools to provide a comprehensive and reliable method to collect information about school design. Systematic involvement of children positively affects their well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How parents conceive of their role in their children's education and how researchers and practitioners conceptualize parental involvement are significant for understanding parental involvement in education and its impact on developmental outcomes. Parental involvement in education encompasses families' engagement at school, with teachers, at home, and with their children. Whereas schools are focused on what parents do in relation to schoolwork, parents experience their involvement as integrated into the rest of their parenting ideologies. This special issue considers a full breadth of parental involvement in education from homeschooling to involvement at school. Further, these articles focus on parents' understanding of their role through the lens of their ethnic, racial, and cultural background and how their role evolves across developmental stages—from elementary school to college. Finally, whereas most school-based conceptualizations of parental involvement in education are focused on academic outcomes, the field is challenged to consider a broader range of outcomes and emphasize nonlinear associations between parental involvement in education and developmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the importance of understanding immigrant Latino parental involvement in the United States' educational system. Misconceptions regarding Latino parental involvement will be presented as a way to help pre-service teachers and educators to understand factors that determine Latino parental involvement. This information can be used to create opportunities for this group of parents to engage in school activities in accordance with their reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented on the how to sustain school performance, given the crisis in recruitment and retention within the profession is now front and center. It outlines leadership should be extended to teachers, not in a formal role-based way but through the creation of lateral opportunities for collaborative engagement. An overview of the leadership that should be extended to teachers, through the creation of lateral opportunities in education system is presented.

Family-professional partnerships are an important predictor of student success for children with and without disabilities. However, little is known about the perspectives of fathers of children with complex disabilities regarding their partnerships with educational professionals. This study presents findings from semi-structured interviews with 15 fathers of children with complex disabilities regarding their partnerships with professionals. Fathers described both challenging and collaborative interactions with the educational professionals working with their children. In challenging interactions, fathers described educational professionals focused on the monetary costs of their child's educational needs, a struggle to find schools and programs that fit their child's needs, and educators who were inflexible and unwilling to implement individualized instructional strategies. More positive and collaborative father-professional partnerships were characterized by authentic relationships that responded to the expertise of parents, as well as educators who were flexible and strengths-based in their practice. Fathers offered guidance for how educators could strengthen partnerships with fathers. Findings from this study extend the very limited research on the school involvement experiences of fathers of children with complex disabilities by identifying specific characteristics of positive and negative family-professional interactions for these fathers and highlighting avenues for change in professional practice to strengthen fathers' school involvement experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In countries facing violence, education can play an important role in ensuring children's psychosocial adjustment. Little empirical research has examined the link between parental school involvement and psychosocial outcomes. This cross-sectional survey of 1,269 parents in the Department of Intibucá, Honduras, examined parental involvement and results from the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), finding few differences between boys and girls, though urban children scored higher than rural children, and mothers had higher involvement than fathers. Reading to children was linked to psychosocial adjustment more than helping with homework or visiting school; from among SDQ sub-scales, prosocial behavior was most associated with parental involvement. Parental involvement could be an effective point of intervention to foster psychosocial adjustment in Honduran students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Encouraging involvement in school-based extracurricular activities (ECA) may be important for preventing high school dropout. However, the potential of these activities remains underexploited, perhaps because studies linking ECA involvement and dropout are rare and based on decades-old data. Previous studies also ignore key parameters of student involvement. The present study expands and updates this limited literature by using recent data from a high-risk Canadian sample (N = 545) and by considering a range of involvement parameters. Results showed that consistent involvement in the past year was associated with lower odds of dropout (OR = 0.32; 95% CI = 0.17–0.61). However, adolescents who interrupted their involvement during this period (e.g., because of cancelations or exclusions) were as much at risk of dropout as those who were not involved at all. Findings notably imply that excluding students from ECA (e.g., because of No Pass/No Play policies) may heighten their dropout risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of the relationship between parents, teachers, and the school are continuously important because of teachers' changing social expectations. While formal education is traditionally viewed as the job of teachers, they cannot be expected to address all educational issues that are influenced by multifaceted social issues. We explore parents' and teachers' understanding and experiences of parental involvement, and the nature of parental involvement in rural schools. We used the phenomenological approach; semi-structured interviews were administered to comprehend teachers' and parents' experiences of parental involvement in school activities. Complex parental views of schooling shaped the manner of involvement in school activities, and the nature of partnerships that were imbalanced. Teachers' discourses of parental involvement were unsurprisingly influenced by associating classroom spaces with professional qualifications and curriculum pressure, resulting in the exclusion of parents from classroom activities. The dominant nature of parental involvement that teachers mentioned was that parents' participation was limited to helping outside the classroom to ensure the upkeep of the schools. The findings also revealed that parents' dominant experiences relate to viewing schools as inaccessible spaces without invitation or permission, as they view themselves as outsiders, and questioned the nature of communication channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive interactions and relationships between parents and teachers have the potential to deepen parents' involvement in children's learning. However, not much is known about the scope of the interactions between parents and teachers in rural public primary schools in Africa. Specifically, little is known about the spaces in which parents and teachers relate and inter-act; who participates in these interactions; and the types of relationships which underpin or emerge from such interactions. This article explores the natural (i.e., not interventionist or programme-driven) interactions and relationships between parents and teachers in North Central Nigeria. The findings draw from a two-phased ethnographic study of parental involvement in two rural schools and communities with parents of upper level primary children and the teachers and head teachers of the children. The main methods were partly structured interviews and participant observations while thematic analysis was used to identify themes around which narratives were represented. The findings revealed affective, economic, and official relationships between parents, teachers, and head teachers within and outside schools, though to a limited extent in one of the school-communities where there was significant instability of school leadership. Importantly, these relationships were embedded within the religious, social, and cultural ways of life in both communities. The study underscores the criticality of school heads for parent-teacher relationships, and for realising the promises of parental involvement in schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explore the parent involvement perceptions of teachers and parents of middle school students. The study is grounded in Epstein et al.'s theory of overlapping spheres of influence and six typologies of parent involvement. Qualitative data were collected through short-response surveys at three different middle school sites to determine both teacher and parent perceptions of parent involvement. Findings show that parents and teachers have similar opinions regarding some typologies of parent involvement and differing opinions with others. Parent and teacher perceptions of parent involvement align when asked about communication, volunteering, and parenting. Parent and teacher perceptions of parent involvement are different when asked about their opinions regarding the learning at home, decision-making, and collaboration with community typologies. Recommendations for practice are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing acceptance and normalisation of same-sex attraction in the West, scholars from a range of fields have documented a 'post-gay' shift, or a decline in the significance of sexual identity labels among youth. Despite this shift, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) youth continue to experience discrimination and harassment, particularly in schools. In this context, this article examines the role of student gay-straight alliances (GSA) or 'diversity groups' in Australian schools. Most research on GSAs focuses on student experiences in the North American context. In contrast, this article provides a unique exploration of teachers and staff involvement in school GSAs in Tasmania, Australia. Drawing on qualitative interviews with teachers and staff, this article examines staff perceptions and involvement in GSAs and the impact this may have on GSA function and success. Through thematic analysis, we identify three common situations: active GSAs, inactive GSAs, and singular event-based initiatives. We argue that neoliberal and homonormative understandings of LGBTIQ-inclusion permeate staff approaches to facilitating GSAs and impact on the potential for these groups to undertake the critical political work needed to bring about change in school contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although newly passed federal regulations mandate the provision of family-based aftercare supports for adolescents served in therapeutic residential care, very little research has been conducted to determine best practice. This efficacy and replication study compares the outcomes of youths and caregivers randomly assigned to On the Way Home (OTWH; n = 98) or traditional aftercare supports (n = 89) following discharge from therapeutic residential care (TRC). Findings were mixed. At posttest (12-months) no significant differences were found between groups on indicators of placement stability and school involvement, however, significant differences were found between groups on several indicators of caregiver empowerment and self-efficacy, with caregivers in OTWH reporting greater levels of self-efficacy and empowerment across the domains of family and community. At follow-up (21-months), moderate to large differences were found between groups on indicators of placement stability and school involvement, with odds ratios indicating youths in OTWH were 2 and 3 times more likely to be engaged in school and living in the community, respectively. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of teacher education, the disconnect between university-based coursework and practical field experiences has long been a concern. To make teacher preparation coursework more meaningful, some programs partner with P-12 schools to offer site-based courses. Although situated learning for novices in practice-based professions makes sense, more research is needed to determine if, how, and why site-based courses in particular may be beneficial for teacher candidates' (TCs) learning. In this study, we used surveys and interviews with TCs, who had taken the same site-based literacy methods course, to identify which aspects of the course they found most facilitative of connections between the course content and the field. Our findings suggest working with children in classrooms, course instructors' involvement at the school, and opportunities to discuss and reflect upon their experiences immediately after they had been in the field were the primary features of a site-based course TCs found valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abuse of alcohol is one of the risk-taking behaviours that is prominent among adolescents in secondary schools despite global awareness on misuse and adverse effects of psychoactive substances in human body. The study investigates age, home-based involvement, school-based involvement and home–school communication as predictors of alcohol use among secondary school students. In a school-based cross-sectional approach, a convenience sample of 323 (50.8% males & 49.2% females) secondary school students currently taking alcohol aged 10 to 22 years (M = 14.19, SD = 2.29) completed self-report questionnaires. Bivariate correlations analysis was done as a preliminary statistics, while multiple regression was computed to analyse the data and provides answers to the research question. Results of four-model hierarchical multiple regression showed that all predictor variables jointly contributed to alcohol use with home–school communication recording highest score. Independently, age, home-based involvement, school-based involvement and home–school communication predicted alcohol use. It is concluded that intervention through either home-based involvement or school-based involvement alone may not have much impact in reducing levels of alcohol use in secondary school student population. Combined efforts of both parents/guardians and school teachers are passionately recommended for effective alcohol-use/risk reduction intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transferring to another school or leaving the educational system altogether has considerable consequences not only for the student who makes the decision to leave, but also for the students who stay behind. This paper aims to investigate the effects of secondary schools' mobility and dropout rates on the levels of school engagement in the persistent student population, drawing on peer effect research in engagement and dropout literature. Multilevel analysis was carried out on data collected in 2015 from 1577 non-mobile students in 25 Ghentian (Belgium) schools, who participated in the International Study of City Youth-project (ISCY). The findings suggest that schools get caught up in a vicious circle, in which higher in-mobility rates bring about lower levels of behavioral engagement in non-mobile students, making those students in turn more vulnerable for negative educational decisions like dropping out or changing schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home-school dissonance (HSD), or differing values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations between home and school may contribute to variation in parental involvement (Arunkumar, Midgley, & Urdan, 1999). This study utilized data from parent and teacher interviews to examine perspectives on parental involvement and HSD in middle school. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Teachers described a spectrum of HSD ranging from low parental involvement (high-HSD) to high involvement (low-HSD). Although all parents reported involvement in school, some parents described negative experiences related to race and a fear of retaliation from school officials. Schools may benefit by improving policies and practices that decrease HSD, and thus increase parental involvement in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (a.k.a., Add Health), this study examines the impact of school climate and share of vulnerable groups of students on self-perceived discrimination and violence involvement in high school. Violence involvement is operationalized as victimization and perpetration of physical violence. Five categories of vulnerability status are analyzed: the emotionally disabled, learning disabled, physically disabled, obese and LGB. Results suggest that relatively higher odds of violence involvement for individuals who were members of vulnerable groups as adolescents are fully explained by school climate and an extensive set of individual-level controls. While the share of vulnerable groups in school is not consistently correlated with violence involvement, school climate is found to be highly predictive of self-perceived discrimination and violence involvement. Consequently, we believe that improving school climate is the most effective strategy for reducing violence involvement of vulnerable youth in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the association between teacher-student and student-student relationships on societal involvement in Dutch primary and secondary schools. In addition, it studied differences in the effects of teacher-student relationships and student-student relationships among students from various parental backgrounds on societal involvement, indicating the possibilities of schools to reduce social inequalities between students. In two studies, multilevel Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses on the Cohort Onderzoek Onderwijs Loopbanen5–18 data were used for students age 12 and age 15 to investigate the relative and lasting association between teacher-student and student-student relationships from primary to secondary school on societal involvement. In analysis A, 9,334 students from 1,036 classes were included in the analyses. In analysis B, 934 students from 667 classes were included. The results showed that teacher-student relationships are positively associated with societal involvement in both primary and secondary school. The association between teacher-student relationships and societal involvement in primary school were also important in secondary school. Moreover, positive teacher-student relationships were more beneficial for societal involvement for students with parents from lower educated backgrounds, indicating that schools can compensate for inequalities between students. Student-student relationships were found to be unrelated to societal involvement in both primary and secondary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates mothers' expectations of and experiences with parental involvement during the transition to primary school. The participants were 20 mothers of children attending 10 kindergartens in Hong Kong. Individual interviews were conducted 3 months before and 3 months after their children entered their primary schools. As they had expected, after the transition to primary school, mothers needed to increase their involvement in homework supervision, while the time for play decreased. For parent-child reading, although mothers expected to be able to spend the same quantity of time reading with their child, they reported they had less time to do so because of the large number of formal learning tasks. The same mismatched expectation occurred in terms of social emotional guidance: mothers thought they would be able to guide children's social and interpersonal relationships but reported they had no time to do so because they were occupied with academic tasks. In terms of school involvement, mothers were strongly dissatisfied with the unexpected decrease in parent-school communication. Findings suggested the need to provide information about the expected load of home learning tasks to parents, offer resources to support parents' social and emotional coaching, and ensure the availability of effective parent-teacher communication channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to determine if high school democratic climates influence Black youth participation in sociopolitical groups using critical race theory as a lens. It was hypothesized that Black youth would be less likely to participate in sociopolitical groups due to perceived lack of support. It was also hypothesized that Black and White youth participation in sociopolitical groups is more comparable when the climate at their school is perceived to be more democratic. The hypotheses were only partially supported in that Black youth were more likely than White youth to participate in sociopolitical groups when the high school democratic climate was low. However, Black and White youth participation was found to be comparable when the high school democratic climate was high. This study adds to the literature by showing that high school democratic climates interact with race in a way that motivates sociopolitical group involvement among youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents and discusses the findings of a multi-case study that was conducted in four remote rural early childhood development (ECD) schools located in the Chiredzi district, in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. The article explored how school heads enhanced resources mobilisation in remote rural ECD schools through school-community partnerships in order to improve teaching and learning conditions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the school heads, deputy heads and teachers in charge. Document reviews and observations were also used to augment data from interviews. Invitational leadership was used as an analytic tool for the study. The findings suggest that the school heads succeeded to some degree in bringing parents and various stakeholders to the ECD schools to deal with the challenges facing them. Various strategies were used including tapping into local knowledge to ensure that parents who could afford to pay fees managed to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online platforms enable free-form, spontaneous, unbridled political expression, blurring the public and private, the written and spoken, and the norms of formal and casual speech. Consequently, they pose new opportunities and challenges to civic interactions, necessitating a reconfiguration of the norms informing civic exchanges. In this paper, we introduce a relational account of civility attuned to emerging modes of civic interactions online, one which goes beyond prescribing specific modes of speech and conduct. We suggest three characteristics of civility in digital contexts: commitment to ongoing and just dialogue, seeking a diverse audience with a shared goal, and horizontal accountability. We then make the case for schools’ vital role in cultivating digital civility. Rather than introducing new curricular content, we argue for reframing existing school engagement with online communication to support the development of digital civility, in light of the shifting forms of participation that typify youth civic engagement today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the North-West University (NWU) as a case study, this article argues for and demonstrates the value of empirically assessing the impact of universities on their communities. A cross-sectional survey design (n = 984) was used to investigate the NWUs impact on three different communities, as well as to empirically assess the needs of these communities. Results suggest that community-based projects and services, work-integrated learning activities, and, to a lesser extent, the quantity and quality of a university's graduate students, as well as initiatives such as science and engineering weeks, open days, sports weeks, and botanical gardens likely represent the most powerful and viable avenues for universities to achieve impact in their communities, especially when such endeavours are specifically tailored to community needs. The findings also suggest that universities’ outputs do not necessarily equate with or guarantee impact, and that impact is optimised when outreach activities are based on the actual needs of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes Critical Service-Learning (CSL), the authors' distinctive approach to service learning, which places social justice as central to the interactions between students and community members. Topics covered include a description of two class projects on criminal justice and teacher education under the approach, the involvement of the members of the relevant communities in guiding, designing, and co-teaching the classs and the outcomes the approach seeks for students.

Numerous positive child outcomes are associated with parental involvement in their child's school, but the longitudinal impact of parenting stress and parent-child engagement on parental school involvement remains less understood. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 528), this study examined the impact of single mothers’ parenting stress at child age three and parental engagement at child age five on parental home-based school involvement at child age nine. Analyses were based on structural equation modeling that tested direct and indirect effects. Higher levels of single mothers’ parenting stress lowered parental engagement at age five, and higher levels of parental engagement at child age five increased home-based school involvement at child age nine. Tests of indirect effects confirmed that parental engagement mediated the relation between parenting stress and home-based school involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author posits that if teachers can tap into family funds of knowledge, they can be better prepared to foster parental and family engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family-School Partnerships (FSP) are important for students’ academic achievements and social-emotional development. Therefore, pre-service teachers need to learn how to establish this. However, in teacher education programmes this topic is insufficiently addressed partially attributed to already overloaded programmes. This study reports on a small-scale curriculum change, aiming to foster pre-service teachers’ awareness of the importance of FSP, to broaden their concepts and support them in identifying learning goals for the future. An assignment to interview novice-teachers about FSP was followed by a class on this topic. Afterwards, pre-service teachers reported in written reflections that they had become aware of the importance of FSP, emphasising that FSP is more than just communication. However, their focus for further professionalisation remained on improving their communication skills. Though this small-scale curriculum change seems to be a small step forward to a better preparation on FSP, further improvements are necessary to promote a comprehensive view of FSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation between home and school benefits pupils’ wellbeing in many ways. Hence, it is of utmost importance that teachers are able to cooperate with families in early childhood education as well as in primary and secondary education. In order to work effectively with the diversity of families, teachers need to develop their skills and knowledge while in teacher education programmes. Earlier research has suggested that teacher education programmes do not address this issue adequately. In this article, programme managers in Finnish teacher education programmes are asked to reflect on how cooperation is covered in their programmes. Based on the data, collected through an online survey, home-school cooperation can be considered an integral part of teacher training: most of the programmes surveyed offered modules that concentrated either solely on the issue or as part of other modules. Cooperation was also discussed from various perspectives during the modules. Respondents considered their graduates to be either competent or somewhat competent to cooperate with families. According to programme managers, modules should be developed in relation to strengthening the theoretical basis of cooperation, and especially in enabling pre-service teachers to practise their skills in cooperation while they are having their practical training at schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of positive, active relationships between families, schools, and the community (not only in the academic outcomes of the children, but also in the family’s and school’s wellbeing) have, up to now, had plenty of supportive evidence. Nevertheless, experience shows that there are many difficulties involved in making participation a reality. Education regulation acknowledges the importance of family participation at school, but neither implementation methods nor the concept of participation are clearly defined. Spanish initial teacher education curriculum programmes include, only in a marginal form, competences and skills that would prepare teachers to become involved in a collaborative relationship with families and the community. This article addresses the training of professionals in education from the perspective of the competences, skills, and knowledge demanded to engage in collaborative work with families and the community. It was conducted through a comparative analysis of the curriculum programmes of Spanish Universities, with a special focus on curriculum content and competences, and on the formal organisation of the initial training of pre-service teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the Swiss contribution to the European project ‘Collaboration on Improving Students’ Preparation for Family-School Partnerships’. It presents results from a study investigating how Swiss Schools of Teacher Education prepare primary school students for cooperation with the parents of four- to thirteen-year-old pupils. Nine Schools of Teacher Education in the German-speaking part of Switzerland were surveyed. The study conducted questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews and document analysis on this topic. This article focuses on the results for primary school teacher education. The findings show that Swiss primary school teacher education programmes accord importance to family-school cooperation. All Schools of Teacher Education cover the topic of family-school cooperation either by conducting special courses on this subject or by connecting the subject with other courses. However, the content and extent of the coverage of and linkages to family-school cooperation in the courses largely depends on the individual educator. Moreover, preparing for family-school cooperation is an important issue during in-field training. The results of this study differ from those in other countries and contradict common prejudices in public perception on the issue in Switzerland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The few studies conducted in Europe to date suggest that little attention is paid to pre-service teacher preparation for family-school partnerships (FSP) and that many teachers feel unprepared for such work. In England there has been little research in this area but a government review of best practice in parental involvement with schools concluded that ‘(t)eachers often lack the confidence and knowledge to work with parents …’. Given the apparent discrepancy between the need for teachers to be more knowledgeable about FSP and the lack of opportunity within initial teacher education (ITE) programmes to address the issues, we carried out a national survey of ITE providers in England in order to ascertain what provision is currently on offer. Our findings indicate that while there is overall recognition of the value of preparing trainee teachers to become confident and knowledgeable about home-school partnerships, ITE providers feel constrained by the lack of time available to them to explore this area in greater detail. The article concludes by discussing some of the challenges of both planning and delivering effective FSP provision within the ITE curriculum and how this might relate to future professional learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With family involvement in early childhood education threatened by time constraints, the authors offer a dynamic solution for building relationships and fostering communication through take-home play bags. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study used a large sample of mostly non-resident fathers (74%) to determine whether father–school involvement (e.g. attending parent–teacher conferences) predicted better academic and social emotional skills after controlling for the influence of mother–school involvement, the quality of children’s home learning environment, and demographics. A total of 3570 children participated in the study (47% European American, 35% African-American, and 18% Hispanic). Although mothers in this study engaged in more frequent involvement in their children’s schools, father–school involvement was positively associated with children’s reading, math, and teacher-rated approaches to learning scores in elementary school. Furthermore, father–school involvement predicted better reading and math scores after controlling for the influence of mother–school involvement, the quality of children’s home learning environment, and demographics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article on barriers to parental involvement in education that was published inEducational Reviewin 2011 has been surprisingly widely read and cited. The article was prompted by concern over the apparent gap between the rhetoric and reality of parental involvement evident in preceding years. It presented a model which discussed four types of barriers to the establishment of effective parental involvement in education: individual parent and family barriers; child factors; parent–teacher factors; and societal factors. In order to provide an update on the 2011 article, and on the current situation regarding parental involvement, a small-scale study was conducted with 11 primary schools in the UK. Findings indicated that, while the above factors were still important, the pressures on parents due to declining support for families from external agencies and services has meant that schools are developing broader roles in supporting parents. This suggests that a more optimistic pattern of parental involvement in education may be emerging. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current research aimed to explore the extent to which school professionals and local authority staff perceived that there was a role for educational psychologists in the processes involved in implementing, monitoring and offering support to young people for whom a managed move was being arranged. The study was conducted in one English local authority where 11 school staff and five local authority staff were interviewed using a thematic analysis methodology. The emerging themes were: lack of role clarity; variability between schools; reactiveness in relation to crisis; capacity; and possibilities for further involvement including transition, preventative work and accurate assessment of needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this essay, I explore my experiences as a practitioner researcher collaborating with my students on a participatory action research project aimed at institutional change. I take up two areas: blurring the boundaries of professionalism in working toward authentic collaborations with students, and secondly, incorporating perspectives of ‘healing justice’ into school-based youth participatory action research (YPAR). I first provide a framework by delineating the emancipatory aims of YPAR and how these may be at odds with much of the research teachers/practitioners currently conduct in their school sites. While ultimately acknowledging the risks in taking up emancipatory change efforts as insiders, I make the case that there are also clear benefits to the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Charter schools are a relatively new phenomenon in American education. Since the first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1991, they have expanded to 42 states and represent 6.2% of all public schools in the country.1This growth has been attributed to a number of factors, chief among them evidence that charter schools can improve performance (Lamdin and Mintrom, 1997). While there is a substantial evidence for relative performance benefits of charter schooling (e.g. CREDO, 2015) far less research been conducted on the efficiency of charter schools relative to traditional public schools. What research there is has produced both positive (e.g. Wolf et. al., 2014) and negative results (e.g. Carpenter and Noller, 2010). What can account for the disparity in these findings? In this paper, I make the case that differences in charter efficiency may be accounted for by differences in their level of autonomy from the school district. I base this argument on economic theories that the devolution of power to the lowest level possible tends to produce gains in efficiency (Johnson, 1991; Duncombe and Yinger, 1997). Those that are “on the ground” are thought to be more effective at monitoring expenditures, and allocations of resources have to pass through less ‘red tape (Hess 2006).’ In addition, more autonomous charter schools better fit the original purpose of charter schools in devolving power from centralized authorities (Budde, 1996). In order to test this theory, I take advantage of a unique situation that exists in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in which three types of charter schools with varying levels of autonomy operate simultaneously. Using school type as a proxy for autonomy, I find that more independent charter schools are more efficient than traditional public schools and charter schools with less autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since at least the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, standardized test scores have served as the primary measures of public school effectiveness. Yet, such scores fail to measure the ultimate goal of education: maximizing happiness. This exploratory analysis assesses nation level associations between test scores and happiness, controlling for a strong correlate of both, per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Controlling for GDP, the association between test scores and happiness is greatly decreased, offering reason to question the sole use of test scores as measures of school success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes choice strategies among a group of Somali Swedes at a Muslim-profiled compulsory school. In the Swedish debate these schools are alleged to be divisive, with values incompatible with the goals of Swedish schools. The study explores whether there are other reasons behind school choice than the school’s faith profile, concluding that for the group in question, it is also important to find a school in accordance with high educational ambitions and respect for rather than discrimination toward their faith, culture, and skin color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many most well-known charter schools in the United States use a “No Excuses” approach. We conduct the first meta-analysis of the achievement impacts of No Excuses charter schools, focusing on experimental, lottery-based studies. We estimate that No Excuses charter schools increase student math and literacy achievement by 0.25 and 0.17, respectively, for approximately each year of attendance. These are large and meaningful gains. Moreover, these effects are substantially larger than those of attending other kinds of charter schools. We discuss policy implications and offer necessary caveats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]