The role of parents in education: a primary school teacher’s perspective

Abstract

This mixed methods research “The Role of Parents in Education: A Primary School Teacher’s Perspective”, aimed to explore the role parents have in their children’s education from the teachers’ point of view. All teachers and members of the senior management team of four primary schools were recruited to take part in this research study. Questionnaires were distributed amongst all teachers and members of the senior management team in all four schools, while semi-structured interviews were conducted with one member of the senior management team and two teachers, one from the early years and one from the junior year’s sector. Results were presented under four main themes “Parental Involvement”, “Parents and Teachers”, “Parental Involvement and the Child” and “Parental Involvement and the School”. Findings show that teachers value the involvement and roles that parents take up; however they identified a number of reasons why they believe parents are not involving themselves in their children’s educational life. Different ways in which parents can involve themselves in their children’s education are discussed. Analysing data from both the questionnaires and interviews shows that teachers would like parents to take up active roles and get involved in their children’s education.