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PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES IN SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Parental involvement in education has been defined as parents' interactions and participation with schools and their children to promote academic success (Hill et al., 2004). Such interactions extend beyond the engagement with schools, to home life expectations and values for education that are communicated directly and indirectly to children. These conceptualizations focus on individual students, their families and the schools.

Parental involvement is a combination of commitment and active participation on the part of parents in schools and students matters, especially those related to their involvement in schools. Parental involvement in the school, like many other forms of community partnerships such as the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), helps to improve students' success. Limited or lack of parental involvement has been considered part of the shortcomings of the children's education for at least 40 years (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011). Various aspects of parental involvement such as participation, partnerships and a variety form of interactions have differential effects on students' academic outcomes (Domina, 2005; Fan, 2001; Fan & Chen, 2001; Jeynes, 2005, cited in Fan & Williams 2010).

Parent involvement is one factor that has been consistently related to a child's increased academic performance (Hara & Burke, 1998; Hill & Craft, 2003; Marcon, 1999; Stevenson & Baker, 1987). While this relation between parent involvement and a child's academic performance is well established, studies have yet to examine how parent involvement increases a child's academic performance McLoyd (2005) Lareau, Annette. 1999) argue that since education influences parents' knowledge, beliefs, values, and goals about child rearing, it thus significantly influences their (parents’) behaviours that are directly related to their children's school performance. Thus, students whose parents have higher levels of education may have an enhanced regard for learning, more positive ability beliefs, a stronger work orientation, and they may use more effective learning strategies than children of parents with lower levels of education.

Conger et al, (2002), opine that attainment of higher levels of education by parents may be access to resources, such as income, time, energy, and community contacts, that allow for greater parental involvement in a child's education. Thus, the influence of parents' level of education on student outcomes might be positive. From the perspective of these scholars, parental involvement is beneficial to students. Such involvements benefit students as well as teachers, the school, parents themselves, the community and other children within the families. Everything possible should therefore be done by the school system to encourage parents to get involved in school affairs.

Parental education is an important index of socioeconomic status, and as noted, it predicts children’s educational and behavioral outcomes. However, McLoyd ( 2005) has pointed out the value of distinguishing among various indices of family socioeconomic status, including parental education, persistent versus transitory poverty, income, and parental occupational status, because studies have found that income level and poverty might be stronger predictors of children’s cognitive outcomes compared to other social economic status indices (Duncan et al., 1994; Stipek, 1998).

In fact, research suggests that parental education is indeed an important and significant unique predictor of child achievement. For example, in an analysis of data from several large-scale developmental studies, (Duncan and Brooks-Gunn, 1997) concluded that maternal education was linked significantly to children’s intellectual outcomes even after controlling for a variety of other social economic status indicators such as household income. Davis-Kean, (2005)found direct effects of parental education, but not income, on European American children’s standardized achievement scores; both parental education and income exerted indirect effects on parents’ achievement-fostering behaviors, and subsequently children’s achievement, through their effects on parents’ educational expectations.

Some literature suggests that parents and community involvement in school activities that are linked to student learning have a greater effect on academic achievement than more general forms of involvement (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). More importantly, parents’ involvement activities may have a greater effect on academic achievement when the form of involvement revolves around specific academic needs. For example, Sheldon and Epstein (2005) found that activities that engage families and children in discussing mathematics at home can contribute to higher academic performance in mathematics when compared to other types of involvement. Harrison and Hara (2010) also concluded in a research done in North Carolina that family and community involvement can have a powerful and positive impact on pupil outcomes.

When parents talk to their children about school as well as when they ask their children how about what they do in schools, all signal parents’ supervision of their children’s school lives and parents view of the importance of their children’s success in school (Borgonovi & Montt, 2012). It is beneficial for students’ performance when parents highlight the value of school and talk with their children about what they have learnt at school. Furthermore, parents’ discussions of non-school related matters such as political or social issues, books, films or television programmes with their children has been shown to have a positive effect on children’s motivation and academic skills (Borgonovi & Montt, 2012). Therefore, this study focuses on Parental involvement on students’ academic activities in selected secondary schools.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The lack of concern by parents in the running and management of schools is worrisome (Mokete (1997) and Maphorisa (1987). As a result their impact on nurturing students towards academic achievement is minimal. This study attempts to find out the extent to which the parents’ involvement affects their children’s general academic success in secondary schools in Nigeria. Parent involvement is one factor that has been consistently related to a child's increased academic performance (Hara & Burke, 1998; Hill & Craft, 2003; Marcon, 1999; Stevenson &Baker, 1987). While this relation between parents’ involvement and a child's academic performance is well established, studies have yet to examine how parent involvement increases a child's academic performance. Moreover, few studies have examined parental involvement as a primary socializing agent, as direct predictor(s) of learners’ senses of self-efficacy, engagement and intrinsic motivation. These problems make it glaring that there is a need to carry out a study on Parental involvement on students’ academic activities in selected secondary schools.

1.3 General Objective

The general objective of this study was to assess parental involvement on their children’s (students’) academic activities in some selected public secondary schools in Nigeria, with a focus on Zamfara State public secondary schools as case studies.

1.4 Specific Objectives

This study was guided by the following research objectives:

i)      Determine the extent to which the parents are involved in academic activities in Zamfara State public secondary schools.

ii)    Determine the relationship between parental involvement and their children’s (students’) academic performance in some selected public secondary schools in Zamfara State.

iii)  Identify challenges that parents encounter when they get involved in some selected public secondary schools’ academic activities in Zamfara State.

iv)   Explore parents’ opinions on opportunities that some selected public secondary schools can harness in order to enhance their children’s academic performance in some selected public secondary schools’ activities in Zamfara State.

1.5 Research Questions

The following were the research questions for the study:

i)      To what extent are the parents involved in academic activities in some selected public secondary schools in Zamfara State?

ii)    What is the relationship between parental involvement and their students’ academic performance in some selected public secondary schools in Zamfara State?

iii)  What are the challenges that are encountered by parents, students, management, community members, etc. when involved in community

secondary schools matter in Zamfara State?

iv)   What are parents ’opinions on opportunities that some selected public secondary schools can harness from their communities (especially from parents) to enhance their children’s academic performances in some selected public secondary schools in Zamfara State?

1.6 Significance of the Study

The researcher believed that data and recommendations which were obtained from this study were significant to some selected public secondary schools’ students, parents, heads of schools, school boards, decision makers and researchers because these groups constitute major education stakeholders who have stake in the education sector. The result of the study has potential to offer education stakeholders such the information they need to prepare strategies of ensuring better academic performance/achievements at some selected public secondary schools. The study also motivated scholars and researchers to carry out more research on parents’ involvement in students’ academic performance in order to establish acceptable and effective ways of parental participation in community secondary school academic performance/achievements.  The findings from this study further guided education policy makers and education planners on how to assign specific roles to parents of students who are enrolled in some selected public secondary schools. Further, the study added different dimensions to the schools, government and society on some selected public secondary schools’ performance when students’ parents are involved in decision making for matters pertaining to academic activities in some selected public secondary schools.

1.7 Scope and Limitations 

1.7.1 Scope 

The study was conducted in some selected public secondary schools in Zamfara State. Study participants were the heads of schools, school management teams, students, parents, Regional Education Officer, State Education Officer and Ward Education Coordinators. Participating schools in the state were only 15 selected from 36 some selected public secondary schools in the state. This selection enabled the researcher to assess the parental involvement on students’ academic performance since the included education stakeholders provided the necessary information for the study as they were key participants with extensive experience in community secondary school practices.  

1.7.2 Limitations 

The study had a number of limitations. First, it was not possible to assess all variables that affect academic performance in a single academic based study like this one.  This study considered only six variables adapted from Epstein’s framework of six types of parental involvement in education for their children. The variables include parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making and collaborating with the community (Epstein, 1995). The variables guide educators to develop comprehensive parental- school partnerships. The study was also limited to questionnaires and interviews for school facilitators, administrators and parents to assess parental involvement in some selected public secondary schools in Zamfara State. 

1.8 Definition of terms.

For the purpose of this study the following definitions of terms will be applied:

Academic activities: include physically attending classes where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the facilitator and students, submitting academic assignment, taking examinations, attending study groups, discussions and practices and extracurricular activities.

Academic performance:  This refers to the ability of students to study and remember facts, being able to study effectively and see how facts fit together and form larger patterns of knowledge, and being able to think for oneself in relation to facts and being able to communicate knowledge verbally and in writing.

Partnership: is the relationship between parents and their children and teachers that are involved in the same school activities 

Parent: is a father or mother; one who begets or one who gives birth to or nurtures and raises a child. It also implies a relative or anyone who plays the role of a parent as a guardian for a child or children.

Parental involvement: This is a general term that denotes the participation of parents in the academic success of their children. It is the amount of support that a student gets or expects to get from parents or guardians during the time when he or she is undergoing an education programme.

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