Behind the Scenes? A Study of Parental Involvement in Post-Primary Education

13/01/2011

Behind the Scenes? A Study of Parental Involvement in Post-Primary Education

The most comprehensive study to date of Irish parents’ involvement in their children’s education is published today (13 January 2011). The Irish Constitution sees parents as the ‘primary educators’ of their children and parents are increasingly seen as ‘partners’ in the educational process. But we know very little about parents’ own perspectives or their level of involvement. Behind the Scenes? draws on surveys of, and in-depth interviews with, parents of senior cycle students as well as insights from school personnel. The study highlights many new findings relating to parental involvement in schooling, including: Irish parents play a very important role in their children’s education.

• Choosing a particular school affects a young person’s educational experience and later life-chances through their access to particular subjects, subject levels and programmes.
• Active school choice is common among all social groups in Ireland, with higher professional parents being more likely to send their child to a school outside the local area.
• In choosing a second-level school, parents take into account a multiplicity of factors, and the majority of young people play a role in the process. There is evidence of some middle-class parents displaying long-term active choice, by taking into account feeder primary schools when choosing a post-primary school.
• Parents are the main source of advice as young people make choices about what subjects to take, which programmes to select, what to do after leaving school, and whether to remain in school or not. This highlights the importance of providing parents with the information necessary to assist their children in these choices.
• Informal parental involvement, through discussing educational decisions, is associated with improved exam performance among young people.

Irish parents are broadly satisfied with their children’s schooling.

• All parents interviewed believe in and value the benefits yielded by post-primary schooling.
• Parents are broadly satisfied with their children’s schooling and with the range of subjects on offer at both junior and senior cycle. However, levels of dissatisfaction are greater with the junior cycle curriculum than with the senior cycle curriculum, particularly in relation to the number of subjects required at junior cycle. Parents also expressed concern when limited subject choice was on offer or streaming practices were in place, particularly at junior cycle.
• In assessing the contribution of schooling, parents are particularly positive about the benefits to children’s social and personal development, such as getting on well with others and increasing self-confidence.
• Parents are less positive about the extent to which their teenagers leave school prepared for the world of work and having the necessary life skills and computer skills. This viewpoint is also shared by the young people themselves. Furthermore, a quarter of parents are not satisfied with career guidance, mainly because they would like to see more provision in place.

Home-school contact varies significantly across Irish schools.

• The extent of contact between parents and the school varies across schools. Some schools have more developed structures for involving parents than others. Apart from general parent-teacher meetings, contact usually occurs at the crucial transition points of first and third year.
• Parents are broadly satisfied with the information they receive from the school but many would like more detailed information, especially on the subject requirements needed to pursue particular post-school pathways.
• Not all parents find different sources of information equally useful. Parents with lower levels of education are more reliant on informal contact through their child or by talking to a teacher in the school. This suggests that formal information sessions for parents would be usefully supplemented by the opportunity for more informal contact between parents and teachers to discuss the options open to students.

Irish parents are involved in different ways.

• Parents generally feel involved in their child’s education and school life.
• Parents are involved in their child’s education through formal channels (contact with school, participation on parent councils, boards of management) and informal channels (decision making, helping with homework, discussion with child about choices and progress).
• Parents in Ireland have a high level of informal involvement in their child’s education. However, formal contact is less well developed and typically involves parents in a more passive or reactive role, namely, that of receiving information. In contrast, more active forms of engagement, such as involvement in the parents’ council, are much less common and generally limited to more highly educated, middle-class parents.
• Unequal levels of parental involvement in schooling are attributed to time constraints, but can also be traced back to the educational institutions themselves. The perceived lack of openness of the school was a potential barrier for some parents as were their own negative educational experiences.

This book provides unique insights into parents’ involvement in their children’s education and the information flow between school and home. It highlights important issues for policy, suggesting ways to support the parental role through a whole-school commitment to communication, providing frequent and flexible opportunities for contact with parents, and offering accessible information on what parents want to know.

Notes for Editors: 1. Behind the Scenes? A Study of Parental Involvement in Post-Primary Education, by Delma Byrne and Emer Smyth, is a joint publication of the ESRI, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), and the Department of Education and Skills (DES). The study was funded by the NCCA and the DES.

Link to publication details