Personal growth and development of parent leaders through a group parent education program

Abstract

Many scholars assert that current parent education practices in Hong Kong are dominated by the transmission perspective. This perspective assumes inadequacies in the knowledge and skills of parents; hence, the goal of parent education appears to be the transmission of facts as well as skills development and values information that prepare children to become better members of society. Simply providing parents with knowledge about child development and teaching them certain skills cannot help them gain deeper insights. Indeed, parents find it difficult to apply what they have learned because of inadequate reflections on their goals and values related to parenthood. These criticisms have serious implications on the re-conceptualization of parent education. This article reports on a new approach to parent education, in which a group of parent leaders developed and facilitated a group parent education program (GPEP) for low-income parents. The GPEP emphasized the use of the group approach and interactive activities as well as homework to help the target parents practice the skills they learned during the program. The parent leaders taught positive parenting strategies and exchanged their own experiences with low-income parents. This research aims to study how parent leaders evaluate their challenges, growth, and development, as well as analyze the impact of the GPEP approach on these parents. The study provides valuable data to facilitate further studies on GPEP and other alternative approaches for parent education.

Keywords:

• Parent education
• teacher education
• group parent education program