Teacher Perceptions of Parent Engagement at a Cyber High School

Abstract

A growing number of adolescents are taking all or most of their courses online. This places a greater responsibility on parents to support and facilitate their students' learning. This case study used teacher surveys and interviews to better understand how teachers perceived and supported parents' attempts to support their online students at a single online charter school. The results indicated that teachers observed multiple ways in which parents supported their students by (a) organizing and managing students' schedules, (b) nurturing relationships and interactions, (c) monitoring and motivating student engagement, and (d) instructing students when necessary. However, teachers believed that parents could act as obstacles to their students' learning by being overly engaged in certain types of learning activities. Additional research is needed that examines parent engagement in a variety of online learning environments. Research that identifies best practices could also be especially valuable to online teachers and administrators wishing to improve the quantity and quality of parental engagement in their programs.

Keywords:

• cyber school
• K–12 online learning
• parent involvement
• parent engagement

 Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the feedback of Dr. Charles R. Graham concerning the research design. Furthermore, he greatly appreciates the participation of the administrators and teachers at Mountain Heights Academy, who made this research possible.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jered Borup

Jered Borup is an assistant professor in the Division of Learning Technologies at George Mason University. His research interests focus on learner support systems in K–12 online learning environments, online learning communities, and parental engagement in online learning. Please address correspondence regarding this article to Jered Borup, Thompson Hall L042, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, MS 5D6, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA. E-mail: [email protected]