Parental Involvement in Education
Parental involvement and specifically father’s involvements has been considered as a very important factor in the academic achievements of children since more than three decades (e.g. Lamb, 2004; Palkovitz, 2002; Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000). Little attention has been paid on the involvement of fathers in early childhood education of their children because mothers have been given more importance by early childhood educators. Thus, the purpose of this research paper is to provide information about the role of parents in general and role of fathers in particular in education of their children. This paper will find out the role of father in early literacy and academic attainments.
What are the benefits of parents’ involvement in the education of their children? Henderson (1987) performed a research in search of the answer to this question. His findings were quite interesting and worth knowing. He found out that the first school of a child is its own home and parents are the first teachers. When parents give special attention to the formal education of their children then a significant progress in the academic achievement of student is seen. When parents try to educate their child, they should confirm that their education is comprehensive and long-lasting. Their planning should be well enough to ensure the effectiveness. The benefits of the parental involvement in the education of their children can be seen through out the studies of their children at all the levels. Parents should be involved in the education of their children not only at their homes but in their schools too. Parents should be encouraged to come forward to the school at all the levels to see improvement in their children’s education. It is also found that if a family is low-income and number of family members is high then children can gain only when their parents are involved by their schools and when the parents are not well-educated to help them. There should be inter-connection between the school and home as without this inter-connection the progress is not significant.
Schools should give importance to parents. Parents should have the feeling that they are encouraged and welcomed in the educational activities of their children (Fletcher & Daly 2002). The key to achievement is the development of attitudes that can be promoted when parents are seen to have great interest in the education of their children. These attitudes are dependent on the interaction ability of the family rather than the income or social class of the family. Parents do not take interest in the education of their children if they are not considered as important or powerful. Negative attitudes are developed in the parents and then in their children too. As a result, academic achievement is inhibited (Henderson, 1981). It is also found through studies that parents from all backgrounds want to be involved in the education of their children and it is the responsibility of the schools to find out such parents and to ensure that the parents are positively involved and showing productive experience (Warner, 1997) (also see Shannon et al 2002; Nelson, Clampet-Lundquist, & Edin, K 2002).
It is found from the research that children show significant improvement in their education if their fathers become involved earlier with the socialization and learning of their children. Yarrow et al. (1984) performed a study in which they kept 6 to 12 month-old infants with their mothers and fathers in two different settings i.e. their home and in a laboratory. Infant persistence was found to have association with the sensory stimulation and attention of their parents and especially mothers among 6-month-old infants. When sensory motor activities were performed with infants of 12-month-old then it was found that only boys’ persistence is showing significant results with the parental stimulation. Clarke-Stewart (1978) performed a study in which she organized activities at home in different structured and semi-structured situations. She then observed the stimulation and responses of children of ages 15, 20 and 30 months with their mothers and fathers. She measured the intellectual abilities of children of age 15 to 30 months as they were previously measured by the Bayley Mental Scale at the age of 16 and 22 months and with the help of MCDI at the age of 30 months. It was found that fathers had a great role in the development of the intellectual skills of their children. It was found that the intellectual skills of those children were dependent on the involvement of their fathers in unstructured play. Intellectual skills enhanced when fathers rated their children positively, when fathers interacted with their children for longer duration and when fathers had shown great aspirations when their children did something independently.
Gadsden and Bowman (1999) reviewed the previously published researches about the involvement of fathers in the education and schooling of their children. He concluded that the involvement of fathers is related to the preparedness of children for school. He explained that when fathers participate in the literacy activities with their children they break the barrier that is often seen when parents cannot give attention towards studies of their children at their homes due to low literacy and no help. When fathers become involved with their children’s education, they teach their children about the achievement with literacy, value of schooling and power of knowledge (also see Karther, 2002).
Mothers’ education has been considered as the most important factor in the academic achievement of their children for several years. Gadsden, Brooks, & Jackson (1997) performed a research with the hypothesis that fathers with low-income when interact more with their children result in an increase in the early learning skills of their children. He performed the research with 50 African American fathers with low-income background. Those fathers were requested to participate in fatherhood programs. Then the fathers’ beliefs with respect to their ability and problems associated with literacy learning were examined for them and their children. It was found that most of the fathers felt challenged when they came to know that they are expected to be helpful in their children’s education. It was also found that fathers were unsure of the educational achievements of their children and their future prospects. The practices of fathers show contraindication, their perceptions were not clear about the way through which they can facilitate the literacy achievement of their children. The researchers selected African American fathers because they are a diverse group. They show diversity in their goals for their children and their literacy skills, experiences and preparation are also diverse. They also show great diversity in their family resources and relationships. It is clear from this study and other too that a child’s engagement with books and interest with schools increase when a father supports his child to learn. It is also found that parental education plays a very important role in the academic achievements of their children. As school-related activities require a high level of literacy, parents with low literacy, reading and writing skills found it very difficult to participate actively in those activities. But these parents do not lose hope and they try their level best to help their children and for that they strongly rely on programs thus ensuring that one day their children will be known among competent learners.
It is suggested from several researches that although some parents have low literacy level, they still play a very important role in the academic achievement of their children by involving actively in the school lives of their children.
Some researches such as done by Nord, Brimhall, and West (1997) show that usually mothers actively participate in the school based activities as compared to fathers who are less involved. Nord, Brimhall, and West (1997) found that fathers with high literacy skills are more involved in the school based activities of their children as compared to the fathers that possess low literacy skills who do not want to be much involved in the school based activities. It is also found that fathers that are residing with their children tend to participate actively in school based activities as compared to non-resident fathers. Nord, Brimhall, and West (1997) found that although non-resident fathers pay less attention to the academics of their children, their less participation is not useless too as it plays some role to some extent.
In order to prepare children for better academic achievements, early literacy development plays a very important role. Early literacy of children is considered as an area that holds promise to engage fathers. Little research has been done in the early literacy of children, studies by Ortiz, Stile, and Brown (1999) and others show the ways through which the fathers can be involved in the early literacy activities. Several studies such as Snow, Burns, and Griffin (1998); Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998); Dickinson and Tabors (2001); Wasik and Bond, (2001) have shown that there are different early literacy behaviors that are linked up with the involvement of a child with texts and achievements in reading.
There are several ways to involve fathers in the education of their children. They can participate in early childhood education programs.
They can get involved by selecting and reading books for their children. Fathers should be introduced by early childhood educators to facilities that are available to help them achieve more in their academics.
Parents should be encouraged to keep a record of the achievements of their children. This can be done in the form of a folder that contains the efforts of their children. Non-resident fathers can also participate in this activity by sharing the efforts whenever they are at home.
Fathers with low literacy skills can also participate by reciting rhymes, reading aloud and singing songs in their home language. Father can enhance the predicting skills of their children by asking them what he will do next while he is doing his household tasks. Fathers can also bring the interest of their children towards reading and writing by creating games such as problem solving.
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