Managing
Parental Involvement
Learning
to work with parents can make profound difference to the quality of life by not
including parents in the classroom management plan. Froyen (1988: 202) said
why parents should be involved in classroom management; Educators
must understand the attitudes of parents’ and home condition, an Educators also
have to provide the demands of students in the school because parents have the
right to know the behaviour and performance of their children. Pretorius and
Lemmer (1998: 32) said the advantages of partnership between educators and parents
are Improvement in learners’ academic achievements, Inceased self-esteem,
Decrease in behavioural problems, Improved attitude towards school, Increased
commitment to schoolwork they are the advantages for learners. The advantages
for parents are Feeling more positive about their ability to help their
children, Greater understanding of educators and their problems. And advantages
for educators are Decreasing educators’ work loads, Educators’ understanding of
the learners increase, Educators feeling more positive about their work, More
resources available to the school It is clear that educators cannot afford not to include parents in their
classroom-management plans. So the question might be: How does one parents in an efective and sustained way in one’s
classroom-management plan?
Defining the term of ‘parents’, the right and duties of parents are School attendance of learners. Every parents must ensure that every learner attends
to school from the year in which the learner turns seven until reaches the age
of 15 or ninth grade, whichever comes first. Paying of school fees. A parent is liable for payment of the school
fees determined by the governing body in consultation with parents. Liability for property damage. The
parent of a learner at public school shall be liable for any damages of
properties in school. And it is the duty of parent to promote a culture of
respect for school property. The right to
information. Every parent shall have the right of access to information
held by the department, a public school or private school. The right to be part of the governance of a school. Parents have
the right to choose other parents to represent them on the school’s governing
structure.
Parent resistance to involvement in classroom management,
nowadays schools are under increasing pressure to develop strategies for
securing greater parent involvement. Parents have reported that they do not
become involved in the children’s teaching because of (in order of importance),
mentioned by (Bauer & Shea 2003: 65); a lack of time, feeling that they
have nothing to contribute, not knowing how to become involved, lack of
childcare, feeling intimidated, not being available during the time the school
arranges function, and not feeling welcome at the school. Besides that Froyen
(1988: 208) has mentioned the reasons why
parents sometimes resist becoming involved in their children schooling:
fear of divulging conflicts at home, panic over the child’s possible failure, guilt
about lack of parenting skills, etc.
Model for parent involvement, swap
based on (cited in Bauer
& Shea 2003: 67) describes four basic models of parent involvement; Model1,
‘Protective model’. The goal of this model is to reduce tension between parents
and educators, primarily by separating their functions, thereby protecting the
school from parent interference. Model2, ‘School-to-home-transition’. In this model
the school enlists the parents in supporting the objectives of the school.
Although parents are not equal partners, they are supposed to endorse the
school’s expectations. Model3, ‘curriculum enrichment’. The goal of this model
is to extend the school’s curriculum by incorporating the contributions of the
families. Relationship between parents and educators based on trust and
respect. Model4 ‘ The goal of this model is both parents and educators should
work together to accomplish success for all learners. This is a true
partnership based on authority shared among collegues (so-called
‘collegiality’).
Based on model4, Bauer and Shea (2003: 67)
said the developement of an integrated model for engaging parents. This model
consists of five steps or phases
Intake
and assessment 
Selection
of goals and objectives 
Planning
and implementation of activities
evaluation of activities
review
The activities through which parents could be involved in
tthe education of their children can be loosely grouped as follows: Information-giving activities, such as
newsletters through which parents receive information passively. Information-sharing activities, such as
educator-parent conferences, where information shared between parents and
educators. Collaborative support for
school programmes, which parents work together to implement specific goals.
Collaboration in the school community, when parents as volunteers or tutors. Parent education, in which increased the
knowledge and skills of parents. And the last is Parent Leaderahip, policy and advocacy efforts.
Managing an integrated approach to parent involvement, there are two parts in this parts. Initial
Contact and Interview, Interviews
are the primary assessment technique in parent engagement. Five deterrents to
effective interviews according to Bauer and Shea (2007: 75) are Fatigue, particularly if the conference
take place after the day’s work, Strong
feelings, which can interfere with how participants perceive situations, The use of emotional loaded words or
phrases, Educators
talking to the extent that the parent’s participation is limited, The environment which, if distracting or
uncomfortable, limits the possibilities for a productive interview. This interviews is for obtaining
information and redirect to original purpose. It will allows the educator to
establish positive working relationship, review and discuss learner’s
situation, related service and adjustments, role of the parents, and introduce
the parents to engagement in their child’s education. Identifying needs, goals and objectives, use an Ecomap. Ecomap will provide us
information in brief period of time about the family’s social environment,
significant sources of stress and social support. For example:
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There
are several keys to conducting sensitive interviews based on Dennis and
Giangreco (cited in Bauer & Shea 2003:77) such as: Appreciating the uniqueness of each family, Being aware of the influence of your role as
a professional, Acknowledging
your own cultural biases, Seeking
new understanding and knowledge of cultures, Developing an awareness of cultural norms, Learning from parents
Collaboration and communication with parent, collaboration
and partnerships. Collaboration
will happen when power and authority brought together to achieve common goals.
Bruner (cited in Bauer & Shea 2003: 78) said many suggestion about
characteristic of effective collaboration such as: Involve all keys players, Use realistic strategies that reflect the
priorities of all involved, Establish
a shared vision, Allow
collaboration to agree to disagree during the process, but have a constructive
problem-solving strategy for moving forward, Only make promises that you can keep, Don’t let day-to-day operations and
disagreements interface with striving for better outcomes, Build ownership at all levels, Institutionalize success, and Publicize successes. Communicating effectively, the educator must be aware that
communication takes place on several level simultaneously through verbal
expression; through body language, and through emotional responses. Beside that
the educator have to aware that there are different forms of language –
descriptive, interferential, and evaluative (Bauer & Shea 2003:85). The educator have to able to relate an
objective information to parents about their child (descriptive language), to
communicate patterns that seem to emerge from observations (inferential
language) and to formulate conclusions (evaluative language). Action steps for using active listening
effectively, one
aspect of communication that is usually overlooked is listening. Listening may
provide us a feedback for the parent’s verification and clarification. Six
skill areas in active listening according to Brownell (cited in Bauer &
Shea 2003: 88) are: Hear
the message, Work
at understanding the message, Remember
the message, Interpret
the message, Evaluate
the message, and Respond
to the message. Some
of the barriers to effective communication with parents such as: Giving advice rather than
offering suggestions, Giving
false assurances, Asking
misdirected questions, Changing
the subject, Using
clichés, Minimizing
feelings, Jumping
to conclusions, and Interrupting.
Barries to collaboration and participation, Ballen and Moles (cited Bauer & Shea
2003: 93) said that four primary barriers to parent involvement: Time, various factors, such as single-parenting and
work pressure, contribute to a lack of time. Uncertainly, parent are often
uncertain about what to do and the importance of their becoming involved.
Cultural barriers, there may be difficulty with language or in communicating
with schools because life experiences and perspectives are so different. Lack
of supportive environment, scholls have not always tried to nurture families
and low-income parents in particular may need support if they are to become involved.
These parents may need personal attention, literature and classes on parenting
and perhaps even a resource centre. Successful
parent-engagement programs have the following common element: they have written policies that address
parental involvement; there
is administrative support, which includes having a resource center for parents
and having one individual responsible for managing the program, a partnership approach is followed,
involving joint planning, goal-setting and other strategies to help parents
develop a sense of ownership, two
way communication is employed, they
involve regular evaluation activities, both at key stages and at the end of the
school year.
How can
parents be involved in the school?, Squelch and Lemmer (cited
in UNISA 2006: 31) have suggested the following ways in which parents can be
involved in the school. Type
of involvement: Involvement
in school management with approving the school curriculum and developing a
school policy and budget., Involvement
in classroom or educational activities with monitoring their children’s
progress, discussing the curriculum, and supervising homework, Involvement in resourcing activities with
organizing social events, arranging talks and workshops for parents, and Involvement in home based activities
which all parents can help their children with schoolwork.
This
material concern on involving parents as a
valuable resource in the educator’s classroom management
plan. An integrated approach should be followed to ensure that the parents’ involvement
can be sustained for the duration of their children’s stay at the school.
Applying the information from this chapter should assist you in your attempt to
involve parents in your classroom management plan.
Reference
Ballen
and Moles.2003.Bauer & Shea. An
Educator’s Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
Bauer & Shea.2003.
An Educator’s Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
Brownell.2003.Bauer & Shea. An Educator’s Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
Bruner.2003.Bauer & Shea. An Educator’s Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
Dennis
and Giangreco .2003.Bauer & Shea. An Educator’s Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
Froyen.1988.An Educator’s Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
Pretorius and Lemmer.1998.
An Educator’s Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
Squelch
and Lemmer.2006.UNISA. An Educator’s
Guide to Effective Classroom Management.
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