Parental involvement in primary and secondary education : the case of two primary and three secondary state schools in Malta

Abstract

Our research studied parental involvement in students' academic and social education and the extent to which it differs, if at all between primary and secondary schooling. The research focused on the parents of all year 3 students in two primary schools and on the parents of all form 4 students in three secondary schools, two boys' and a girls' secondary school respectively. The choice reflected our hypothesis that parental involvement differs markedly between primary and secondary. The methodology used was in the form of a questionnaire which examined issues regarding support in homework, studying and academic research, private tuition, extra-curricular activities and educational visits when being abroad, amongst others. Following a brief analysis of the results an interview schedule was drawn up and twelve in-depth interviews were held with parents, randomly sampled from the five schools. Collected data was thoroughly analysed from a comparative perspective to check for quantity and the range of parental interventions in the education process. The main findings confirmed our hypothesis that parental involvement decreases from primary to secondary school. The main reasons for this decline were attributed to the need of adolescents' independence, less help from parents at secondary level due to more difficult subjects, and finally it is more difficult to establish a strong parent-teacher relationship at secondary level.