Chapter 2

Review of Literature

This chapter will provide an overview at how parental involvement affects children in a

classroom. There have been many studies done regarding the effects of parent involvement

relating to school activities, parent expectations, and parenting style. There is an abundance of

literature that addresses the lack of participation from parents and what could be done to help.

Many of the findings are positive and they outweigh the possible negative effects. These are all

findings that may be supported in our studies.

Parental Involvement

As both parents and educators, we both agree that parental involvement in children’s

education is important. So what does parental involvement entail? It requires general

participation on the part of the parents towards their children’s education. Hartas (2008)

explains that parental involvement is not just the parents doing all of the work to get

involved, but rather it is “parents working together with a range of professionals” (p. 140).

The teachers and staff need to help to make parents feel welcomed and wanted in their

classrooms. Everyone who is involved needs to work together with the interest of the child in

mind. We as teachers see that some students’ achievements are hindered by not having

proper parental participation. Therefore, we will explore ways in which parents can be more

knowledgeable through communication with teachers and their children. Ramey and Ramey

justify that “Learning is a way of life-not just something that happens in a classroom” (1999,
p.50). Ramey and Ramey explain that children from the age of eight and under learn through

observation and imitation. Children who succeed in school have parents who are actively

engaged in reading, acquiring new skills, and taking on new challenges. “If children see

their parents eagerly and actively learning, then children are more likely to feel comfortable

in taking on new challenges themselves” (p.50). Ramey and Ramey suggest seven essentials

that have been proven to help your child everyday: “encourage, mentor, celebrate, rehearse,

protect, communicate, guide and limit” (p.18). These were based on studies with children in

the first five years of their lives.

How Can A Parent Get Involved

Some useful ideas for parents who would like to be more involved with their children’s

education are “to bring school subjects into home life, communicate with your child’s school,

and encourage extracurricular activities” (Ramey and Ramey, 1999, pp.52-55). Families

must enforce rules such as scheduled homework times and routine bed times for adequate

amounts of sleep. While doing this, parents are enforcing their authority while supporting

their children to get the necessary amount of sleep needed to learn. Families with good

workable routines also have children whose school performance is better. Ramey and Ramey

highlight that parent participation involves more than just cognitive development. It creates

development for children at all levels: physically, emotionally, socially, morally, and

culturally.

They continue by breaking these developments up into categories or domains: “Domain 1:

Physical Development (Meeting basic needs for survival, such as food, clothing and

housing.) Domain 2: Emotional Development and Well Being

Social Development (Developing positive interaction skills, and acquiring the ability to avoid

and/or resolve social conflict.) Domain 4: Cognitive Development (Fostering intelligence and

academic skills.) Domain 5: Moral and Spiritual Development (Helping family members

acquire beliefs and values about ethical behavior and a philosophy of life.) Domain 6:

Cultural and Aesthetic Development (Fostering an appreciation of cultural heritage, folklore,

and traditions. Developing a personal sense of beauty and art.)” (Ramey and Ramey, 1999.

p.98)

Epstein’s Six Types of Involvement

There have been many different researchers that have tried to show why parental

involvement is so important and what they think educators need to do to help parents become

more involved. One such researcher is Joyce Epstein from John

Hopkins University. She states that “the main reason to create such partnerships is to help all

youngsters succeed in school and in later life” (p.1). Epstein has created six different types of

involvement: “parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making,

and collaborating with community” (pp.1-2). Through

Epstein’s research she goes on to explain exactly how this type of involvement can be

achieved.

Parenting is a way to assist families in creating a home environment that enhances a

child’s learning. This can be accomplished through education for the parents, support

programs, and home visits during “transition points” for the child.
These transition points are for pre-school, elementary, middle, and high school. The support

programs will help families with their health, nutrition and any other service that may benefit

the whole family.

Communicating is established when the families and teachers work together to

discuss what is going on in the classroom with both activities and developments. Some

different ways in which you can achieve communication is through parentteacher

conferences, newsletters, phone calls, memos, and other communications. Parent-teacher

conferences should be held at least once a year. You may need to do more than one if needed.

There are also many families that do not speak English and these families may need a

translator to help them as needed (Constantino 2003).

Volunteering is the third type of involvement Epstein (2008) discusses. Volunteering

is a way for the families to take their own time to help and support in any way they can.

Some ways in which families can volunteer are in the school, classroom, parent room, family

center, and also by creating postcard surveys. The families may come into the classroom or

school and help the teacher, school staff, or students with anything in which they can help. In

the parent room, or family center, families may be able to set up meetings or resources for

other families to use. The postcard surveys are a way in which you can recognize all

“available talents, times, and locations of volunteers” (p.2).

The fourth type of involvement is learning at home. Learning at home is a way in

which educators can give families the information they need to help their children with

schoolwork, other school activities, decisions, and other social, emotional, and cognitive

development. This can be done by providing families with information on required skills for

the grades to follow or subjects that they are taking. Teachers also need to inform parents of
what is expected from their children. School policies should be given to parents and also

need to be examined, also schools need to show parents ways in which they can keep track of

and talk about school at home. It is also important to make sure the families are involved in

setting goals for their children. Goals such as what they would like to accomplish this year as

well as future goals.

The fifth type of involvement is decision making. This is where the families are

included in the decisions made in school. Through decision making the teacher would ask

someone to be a representative and a parent leader in their class. PTO and PTA are both part

of the decision making process. Constantino (2003) states that the national PTA standards for

parent and family involvement include “an emphasis on regular two-way and meaningful

communication between home and school, promoting and supporting parenting skills; and

parents playing an integral role in assisting student learning” (p.20). There are other groups

such as “parent organizations, advisory councils, or committees” that families can join. These

groups’ help the school and classrooms fight for the improvements and changes needed.

Collaborating with community is the last type of involvement that Epstein (2008)

discusses. It is with collaboration that families and educators discover the resources in their

community. These resources or services are used to help build stronger programs in the

school, family practices, and children’s learning. Many of these services are for families to

better understand what is available to them for their health and other needs. There may be

groups to help with adjusting to a culture, services that show what there is to do as a family,

social groups, or any other program that may be of assistance. Some schools may have

summer programs and there may be resources out there to better explain these services and

how to utilize them.

For a modern stylistic approach, the use of technology can play a significant role in

parent involvement. Villano (2008) discusses how there are schools using a tool called

“TeleParent” today. This tool is a way in which the school can send a text message to the

parent notifying them about their child’s attendance, behavior, and development. In this

article there is a mother who states that when she gets home and tries talking to her daughter

about her school day her daughter’s answers are very limited and without much detail.

Teleparent is a way for her, as a single mother, to make sure that her daughter is doing alright

in school. This tool will notify the parents to let them know if their child is on time, if they

participated in class, completed their assignments or any behavior problems that may have

occurred. The school staff has stated that a parent contact process which used to take a long

time to do now can take just a few minutes. All teachers have to do is to click on a few names

like emailing and off it goes in just minutes. There are even new tools that are used that are

designed for different language messaging. This is good because students come from families

who speak English as a second language. This tool can help many working, busy families

who do not have as much time as they would like to be with their children. Having a school

web page is useful for parents to see newsletters, important events, and even present grades.

Constantino (2003) reported that high school students admitted that the system had helped

them improve their levels of achievement, but readily admitted that they did not like the fact

that their parents had this type of access at any time. Students also reported that the system

was the stimulus for the educational dialogue between them and their families. However, not

all schools have this option, nor do all parents have access to a computer or cell phone.

Negative Views to Parental Involvement

views on the subject. Single parents that work full time, with possibly multiple children,

would not have much time to spend on each child’s education. Schneider & Coleman (1993)

state that nearly half of all American children under 18 will be raised in single parent homes.

Anderson (2002) showed how that there are many children growing up without fathers.

“About half of American children will spend part of their childhood in a single-parent family,

and most of these children will be living without their father” (p.348). DeBell (2008) showed

that the children who did not grow up with fathers actually did worse academically, had bad

health, lower well being, worse educational experiences, and also had less parental

involvement in school. One very large weakness is that of immigrant children in the United

States. Turney and Kao (2009) state that immigrant families are going to be less involved in

their children’s education compared to that of “native-born parents”. There can be such a

huge barrier for immigrant parents, which makes it very difficult for them to become

involved. Another weakness would be administration or teachers enforcing rules for parents,

such as coming to school unannounced. Constantino (2003) writes that many schools have

guidelines about family communication. Some of these guidelines list rules such as not being

able to visit the school during the day, or you may not call the teacher during the day because

teachers are busy teaching, etc. Some parents may find this very unsettling, and of course

unwelcoming. However, there are some underlying reasons for these guidelines such as

problems with separated parents etc. A way of solving this problem even if schools have or

do not have these guidelines is to create a policy for family involvement and make sure it is

part of the schools’ mission statement. Another negative aspect of involvement is that some

parents may feel threatened at school (such as inner city-higher violence school districts).
Lastly, Families may have crisis that can also effect their involvement such as substance

abuse, physical/emotional abuse, financial difficulties, or mental health issues

(Ramey and Ramey, 1999).

History of Parental Involvement

Parental involvement in education has been present since the early Egyptians,

Sumerians, Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans; parents were actively involved in the selection of

teachers and education (Berger, 1987). Berger also states that families provided children’s

first informal education through modeling, teaching, praise and discipline. An important

figure in parent involvement was Johann Heinrick Pestalozzi

(1747-1827). He is known as the first modern theorist, and hailed as the “Father of Parent

Education.” Pestalozzi quotes “As the mother is the first to nourish her child’s body, so

should she, by God’s order, be the first to nourish his mind” (p.34). Modern parent education

movements began in the 1880’s. Leading women founded associations such as the National

Congress of Mothers (PTA), the Child Study Association, and the American Association of

University Women. These were not established into parent education programs until the

1920’s. At that time in history,

twenty-six parent education organizations were formed (Berger, 1987).

Wolfendale (1983) presents some of the projects/studies that were set up in the wake

of the EPA (Educational Priority Areas) in London. Wolfendale refers to a study at the

Froebel Institute. In this was a study that took place within a nursery in South London in

1973-1978, twenty experimental and twenty controlled children were selected for

observation. Parental participation was categorized into four types.

were traditionally viewed and dealt with as “clients” (Wolfendale, 1983,

p.15). Just roughly in the last 20 years have parents been viewed as “partners”, mainly in part

from the effect of the Education Act of 1980 and 1981. Wolfendale proceeds to explain that

parents with

client characteristics were dependent on experts’ opinions, passive, perceived as

inadequate, deficient, and in need of redirection. However,

“partners’” characteristics involved being active and central in decisionmaking,

perceived as having equal strengths, equal expertise, and shared responsibility. (p15)

Wolfendale points out that her book was prepared during a time when parents and their

place in children’s development and education had been the object of scrutiny and a

focus for politicians and child services. She discusses that parents’ rights to be closely

involved in educational and child care services was a debated issue politically and

ideologically in Britain and other countries

(Wolfendale, 1983).

Where Can Parental Involvement Occur

Schneider & Coleman (1993) explains “parent involvement in a child’s education is also

affected by the opportunities made available by the school” (p.2). Parental teaching does,

without question, make a difference in what young children know and what their skills are

(Ramey and Ramey, 1999). There are many places for parent/child learning that can take

place other than in a school setting. Places such as the library, parks, zoos, history and art

museums, botanical gardens, playgrounds, science centers, planetariums, and observatories.

such as the grocery store, shopping malls, restaurants, parent workplaces, government

offices, post offices, banks, etc.