Effective parental involvement in education: experiences and perceptions of Turkish teachers from private schools

Abstract

Parental involvement has been associated with numerous student benefits. However, related literature reveals that neither parents nor teachers are content with the scope and depth of parental involvement in schools. This may be partly due to differential understandings that both sides have on the concept of parental involvement. In this study, teachers’ experiences and perceptions of effective parental involvement in the private middle school context of Turkey were examined. Participants are 38 teachers, from five different schools, who were selected by the maximum variation sampling technique. This study provides an insight into how teachers make sense of the educational involvement of the middle to high socio economic status (SES) parents with whom they theoretically share similar cultural capital. The findings of this collective case study demonstrate there are important misunderstandings and related tensions among parents and teachers over the roles of each party. Teachers believe that parents’ educational roles are mostly performed at home. On the contrary, parents are shown as having a higher desire to participate in educational decisions. This divergence between parents and teachers seems to decrease productive partnerships between the two parties. Future studies are needed in order to search for collaboration mechanisms that would work for all actors involved.

Key words:

• Epstein’s framework
• parental involvement
• teachers’ experiences
• private schools
• Bourdieu’s social field theory
• decision involvement