Enhancing parental involvement in student learning

Abstract

There is much international evidence that parental involvement in children's learning can positively influence achievement. New Zealand policy expects schools to nurture such involvement, particularly in relation to Máori and Pasifika learners. Despite policy imperatives and valuable professional development projects, such involvement has proved challenging to embed within many English-medium school settings. We examined policy, theoretical, and research literature to identify key supports and barriers to establishing strong parental involvement in children's learning, with a particular focus on the context of mathematics. A review of literature shows that parental involvement can be nurtured by school-wide commitment, learning-focused parent-teacher partnerships, effective communication, purposeful home-based learning, and shared home and school decision making. However, establishing sustained parental involvement in learning is challenging, with time constraints, language and cultural differences, and varied expectations posing barriers. Further guidance, support, and New Zealand-based research are needed to ensure such involvement can be maximised, including investigation into the effects of such involvement on achievement, affect, and well-being, particularly in relation to Máori and Pasifika students in English-medium settings.

Mathematics home-school partnerships in diverse contexts

“…Reviews of these programmes found that despite thorough planning, parents indicated they needed more time and explicit explanations to fully understand assessment, curriculum levels, and teaching aims (Fisher and Neill 2006;Trinick 2015). These findings demonstrate that communicating information about mathematics learning is likely to be much more complex than many teachers and schools realize, especially in the context of reform in mathematics (Averill et al 2016;Remillard and Jackson 2006).…”

“…As the key stakeholder in these events, arguably parents should lead such decisions. Averill et al (2016) discuss the inconsistencies and lack of direction in policies that expect the involvement of families; here, we see this played out in the challenge to manage the concurrent Ministry directives of involving students in the reporting process (e.g., MOE 2007MOE , 2018c and being responsive to the needs and desires of families (e.g., MOE 2019).…”

“…There is a reciprocal relationship between these two models, and both may be considered when designing, implementing, or evaluating a home-school partnership programme. Epstein's frameworks have previously been used in mathematics education research, for example, to scaffold literature reviews (Averill et al 2016) and to measure the implementation and effectiveness of partnership activities in mathematics (Sheldon et al 2010).…”

“…Communicating is a vital type of involvement as it underpins all the interactions that parents, teachers, and students have within a home-school partnership. Breakdown in communication may occur from unequal power relationships and differences of language (Averill et al 2016). Hunter et al (2016) documented this occurring within New Zealand, describing how Pacific parents gave the impression they understood what was said to them by the school in order to avoid embarrassment.…”

“…Tension is evident firstly between the contrasting mathematical pedagogies that parents use and those that teachers are directed to teach in their classrooms (see also Wadham et al 2019) This tension is commonly reported in studies internationally (de Abreu and Cline 2005;Li 2006;Mistretta 2013;Takeuchi 2018). Furthermore, the tension indicates that communication from school to parents about significant curriculum changes within the past decade has been insufficient or ineffective (Averill et al 2016;Remillard and Jackson 2006). Embedded in this tension are deficit views of parents held by teachers, which are likely to have impacted the way in which they attempt to address the issue.…”