Reframing Parental Involvement in Education: Unboxing the Stiffness of the Indonesian 2013 Curriculum for Character Building

Abstract

An increasingly multidisciplinary research on parental involvement in education has been captured quite well in the body of literature discussing factors affecting students' learning outcomes. Parental involvement in education is believed to benefit both students' academic and non-academic learning outcomes. Parental involvement in improving their children education has assisted children in enhancing their competence across school's levels. The current paper is intended to frame parental involvement in education, to identify their expectations in their involvement in education, as well as to reframe their involvement in the context 2013 Curriculum (hereafter K-13) in Indonesia. Approximately thirty schools in Kota Metro, Lampung, Indonesia were identified in terms of parental involvements in those schools. The subject of the research comprised of parents, school committee, as well as headmasters that were explored to share their ideas on the parental involvement and expectations at school activities. The finding suggest that parental involvement at schools had been previously restricted to passive involvement, while expecting to be active one, and has to be reframed to a more active involvement in enhancing students cognitive and affective outcomes. Further forms of parental involvement in education in intervening students' learning outcomes were proposed.