Using Social Media to Improve a Parent-School Relationship

Abstract

Family and school are two important institutions in children's lives, playing a crucial role in their overall development. Effective integration of these two institutions can benefit not only students but also schools, teachers and parents. This paper has purposed the use of social networking tools, such as Facebook, to improve a parent-school relationship. In this paper, a data analysis of digital behaviours and habits of parent involved in school Facebook is presented. School demonstrate responsiveness to a parent by communicating openness to new information, suggestions, and other forms of feedback about the school activities, and maintain a welcoming, supportive stance toward parents. The paper highlights how an evolving, technology-mediated society via social media create a better relationship of home-school partnership and increase the parental involvement. These definitely have an impact on improvement of the school management in terms of idea generation, parent service, public relations, reputation management and parent-school communications.

Öğrenmeyi Öğrenme Üzerine Ev Temelli Aile Katılımı Çalışması

“…Sosyal ağ kullanımının etkili olmasının en önemli nedenlerinden birisi ise velilerin bu tür destekleme çalışmalarına zaman ve mekan sınırlaması olmadan katılabilmeleri olabilir. Alanyazındaki araştırmalar da aile katılımında Facebook, wikiler, Twitter, Whatsapp gibi sosyal ağ kullanılmasının onların bu sürece daha fazla katılmalarını, daha fazla iletişim kurmalarınıı ve okul -veli arasında bilgi paylaşımında bulunmasını sağladığını göstermektedir (Chairatchatakul, Jantaburom ve Kanarkard, 2012;Curtiss ve diğerleri, 2015;Olmstead, 2013).…”

The Investigation of Parents' Interactions and Their Children's Learning Levels at Parental Coaching Carried out over Social Network

“…Twitter can be used to post reminders about events, share news of the day and share photographs and information from school-wide activities and class trips [7]. The related literature [16,33,55,18] has demonstrated that the use of social networks in parental involvement mostly entailed the use of school Facebook page or Twitter account and information posted on these platforms. Hernandez-Cruz and Russel's [33] study revealed that the school's Facebook page or twitter account increase the parent involvement, parents know what is going on in the school and teachers provide parents useful information about student learning.…”

“…Hernandez-Cruz and Russel's [33] study revealed that the school's Facebook page or twitter account increase the parent involvement, parents know what is going on in the school and teachers provide parents useful information about student learning. Chairatchatakul, Jantaburom and Kanarkard [16] examined how school use Facebook to engage parents, foster relationship growth in parent-school and also to learn which school information the parents preferred in their study. The usage and application of the school Facebook Page in several features namely, presence of school information, questions, interesting links, events, places and photo and video albums.…”

“…They can also provide their feedbacks on school policy summarizes the demographic profile of parents including their age, gender, and language and place of use. This information helps school to understand who school parents is and who includes parents liking school Page, liked, commenting on or sharing a post from school Page, answered a Question asked on school Page, or tagged school Page in a photo or in a status update [16]. Hernandez-Cruz and Russel [33] conducted a study consisted of measuring current social media practices especially Facebook and Twitter, a survey distributed to school and district leadership, and a statistical analysis regarding community involvement and social media use.…”

Views on the Usage of Social Media Tools in School-Family Communication

“…In this case, it is not necessary to go to school in person for the family to participate in education. One of the best ways to ensure family participation in education is communication between the school and the parent (Chairatchatakul, Jantaburom, & Kanarkard, 2012). In other words, teacher-parent communication is part of parents' involvement in school activities (Hobjila, 2014).…”