Suchergebnisse

Schools and families share responsibilities for the socialisation and education of the child. The involvement of parents in the life of schools and their participation in school activities and decision-making is a major vehicle for constructing shared goals and co-ordinated practices. It is a democratic accountability mechanism to be pursued as a value per se, and can be a strong predictor of the child's academic achievement. However, parent participation is an underexplored area in the public education systems of SEE countries. For the purpose of better understanding how and to what extent parents are involved and influential in school life, and to explore the ways in which variations in school-based activities seeking to engage parents reinforce or ameliorate social exclusion, a large-scale study was conducted in ten SEE countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. The analysis of legislative acts and other documentation revealed that educational bodies with parental participation are regularly found at the school level, such as school boards and parent councils, while representation is negligible above the school level. Schools in all SEE countries have school boards with decision-making power in which parents also participate, with varying shares, although their number never prevails. In Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia school parent councils with a consultative role also exist, comprised of class parent representatives. Romania also has a national federation of parent associations, Bosnia and Herzegovina cantonal associations of parent-school co-operation, Kosovo a parent committee established by the Minister, while Albania has several free parent associations. At the municipal level, no parental organisations or participatory bodies have been detected. The main part of the research consists of a comparative empirical analysis which explored the views of parents on parent-school collaboration and their participation in school life according to six broad dimensions (parent-teacher meetings, getting relevant information from school, assistance with learning at home, volunteering at school, participating in school decision-making, and mediating community-school relationships), along with parents' role attribution between the family and school, parental beliefs about school-parent partnerships, parents' motivation and sense of self-efficacy. The empirical research was inspired by Epstein's framework of parent involvement (Epstein, 1996), Sheridan & Kratochwill's conceptualisation of partnership versus the traditional approach to family-school relations (Sheridan and Kratochwill, 2007), Hoover-Dempsey's model of the parental involvement process (Hoover-Dempsey, 2007), scattered research evidence from the SEE countries indicating a prevalent traditional approach in school-family relationships (e.g. Polovina, 2007), a recent study on principals' views on parent participation showing limited efforts and effectiveness in meaningfully engaging parents on the school side (Pop, 2009) and a preliminary qualitative study including focus groups from all participating countries conducted with the aim to refine the research questions and create a valid instrument. A total of 11, 125 parents were surveyed with structured face-to face interviews, selected by stratified random sampling. The stratification was undertaken according to relevant geographical regions and by the location of the community served by the school (urban/rural). 30 schools were selected from each country and between 20 and 40 parents were randomly chosen from each school, proportional to the size of the school as well as five parents' representatives. In each country, a booster sample of parents was interviewed from two additional schools in communities which contained a high proportion of inhabitants who are Roma (except in Moldova, where other excluded communities were targeted). The main structure of the sample (including the main sample, parent representatives samples and Roma booster samples) was the following: Sample A (mainstream – regular parents sample): 9058 Sample E (Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 504 Sample B (parents' representatives sample): 1354 Parent representatives from Sample E school: 85 Sample E (non-Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 124 The questionnaire which was the basis for the interviews captured the following data: • socio-economic data on the child's family (wealth indicator, education level, education aspirations etc.) and basic information about the child (age, gender, school achievement etc.) ; • a report on participation in school life, which combined Epstein's dimensions of participation (whether the school invites parents to participate according to each dimension) with basic characteristics of the participation process (how parents feel about it, do they participate if invited, do they assess it as useful, are they motivated, do they feel competent etc.) ; • mediating variables – self-reports on the motivation of parents, their beliefs about school-parent partnerships and perceptions of school openness, and of the work of the parent representatives ; and • a self-assessment of parents' satisfaction with the child's well-being and progress at school, the communication with the school and with the influence the parent can exert. Parent representatives and parents from minority groups were surveyed with special additional sets of questions. The analysis of legislative acts and other documentation revealed that educational bodies with parental participation are regularly found at the school level, such as school boards and parent councils, while representation is negligible above the school level. Schools in all SEE countries have school boards with decision-making power in which parents also participate, with varying shares, although their number never prevails. In Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia school parent councils with a consultative role also exist, comprised of class parent representatives. Romania also has a national federation of parent associations, Bosnia and Herzegovina cantonal associations of parent-school co-operation, Kosovo a parent committee established by the Minister, while Albania has several free parent associations. At the municipal level, no parental organisations or participatory bodies have been detected. The main part of the research consists of a comparative empirical analysis which explored the views of parents on parent-school collaboration and their participation in school life according to six broad dimensions (parent-teacher meetings, getting relevant information from school, assistance with learning at home, volunteering at school, participating in school decision-making, and mediating community-school relationships), along with parents' role attribution between the family and school, parental beliefs about school-parent partnerships, parents' motivation and sense of self-efficacy. The empirical research was inspired by Epstein's framework of parent involvement (Epstein, 1996), Sheridan & Kratochwill's conceptualisation of partnership versus the traditional approach to family-school relations (Sheridan and Kratochwill, 2007), Hoover-Dempsey's model of the parental involvement process (Hoover-Dempsey, 2007), scattered research evidence from the SEE countries indicating a prevalent traditional approach in school-family relationships (e.g. Polovina, 2007), a recent study on principals' views on parent participation showing limited efforts and effectiveness in meaningfully engaging parents on the school side (Pop, 2009) and a preliminary qualitative study including focus groups from all participating countries conducted with the aim to refine the research questions and create a valid instrument. A total of 11, 125 parents were surveyed with structured face-to face interviews, selected by stratified random sampling. The stratification was undertaken according to relevant geographical regions and by the location of the community served by the school (urban/rural). 30 schools were selected from each country and between 20 and 40 parents were randomly chosen from each school, proportional to the size of the school as well as five parents' representatives. In each country, a booster sample of parents was interviewed from two additional schools in communities which contained a high proportion of inhabitants who are Roma (except in Moldova, where other excluded communities were targeted). The main structure of the sample (including the main sample, parent representatives samples and Roma booster samples) was the following: Sample A (mainstream – regular parents sample): 9058 Sample E (Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 504 Sample B (parents' representatives sample): 1354 Parent representatives from Sample E school: 85 Sample E (non-Roma parents from the excluded parents sample): 124 The questionnaire which was the basis for the interviews captured the following data: • socio-economic data on the child's family (wealth indicator, education level, education aspirations etc.) and basic information about the child (age, gender, school achievement etc.) ; • a report on participation in school life, which combined Epstein's dimensions of participation (whether the school invites parents to participate according to each dimension) with basic characteristics of the participation process (how parents feel about it, do they participate if invited, do they assess it as useful, are they motivated, do they feel competent etc.) ; • mediating variables – self-reports on the motivation of parents, their beliefs about school-parent partnerships and perceptions of school openness, and of the work of the parent representatives ; and • a self-assessment of parents' satisfaction with the child's well-being and progress at school, the communication with the school and with the influence the parent can exert. Parent representatives and parents from minority groups were surveyed with special additional sets of questions.