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Review of best practice in parental engagement

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Janet Goodall at Swansea University
Janet Goodall
John Simon Vorhaus at University College London
John Simon Vorhaus
Jon Carpentieri
Jon Carpentieri
Jon Carpentieri
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Greg Brooks
Greg Brooks
Greg Brooks
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... Preschool teachers play a crucial role in supporting families by providing suggestions for how they can support their children's education through family involvement practices (Leenders et al., 2019). In preschool education, families fulfill their roles in family involvement activities by attending parent-teacher conferences (Goodall, 2013(Goodall, , 2018, engaging in social activities with their children (Torre & Murphy, 2016;Watt, 2016), communicating and collaborating with the teacher (Goodall & Vorhaus, 2011;Jeynes, 2018), and directly participating in their child's learning process (Spear et al., 2021). Schools and educators are essential in promoting family involvement, fostering relationships with families, and establishing mutually respectful communication with families (Department of Education, Employment and Workforce Relations [DEEWR], 2008). ...
... Moreover, educators organized informative seminars to make families cognizant of the significance of familial involvement and supplied them with the rationale behind its implementation. Such educational initiatives motivated families to actively participate in the educational process and facilitated their efficient collaboration in their children's academics (Goodall & Vorhaus, 2011). Additionally, educators established guidance and support programs to guide and encourage families to participate more actively in the educational process. ...
Engaging Families in the Education of Children with Special Needs: Challenges and Strategic Recommendations
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2024
  • Early Child Educ J
Despite the legal requirements for families to participate in the education of children with special needs, the implementation of these requirements is often inconsistent due to a lack of awareness among both families and educators. This study was conducted to critically examine the roles, challenges, and effective strategies for family involvement using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory to explain the complex relationship between family and educational systems in supporting child development. Using a mixed-methods research design, this study combines quantitative data from a survey of 157 preschool teachers with qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 16 educators who have experience in inclusive classroom settings. Quantitative analysis showed no significant differences in the implementation of family involvement strategies based on teachers’ professional seniority or gender (p > 0.05). However, educators who implemented classroom adaptations for students with special needs showed higher levels of effective family involvement (p < 0.05). Qualitative findings identified significant barriers to family involvement, such as time constraints due to parents’ work commitments, socio-economic and educational disparities, and inadequate communication between families and schools. Educators proposed solutions, including flexible scheduling, targeted awareness initiatives, and enhanced collaboration among stakeholders to overcome these obstacles. The insights from this study are essential for policymakers, educators, and families working to create inclusive educational environments that effectively address the needs of children with special needs. Recommendations for future research include expanding the study to diverse geographic regions and educational levels and conducting a comprehensive examination of the long-term effects of family involvement on children’s academic and social outcomes, as well as on teachers’ professional development and satisfaction within inclusive education frameworks.
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... There is clear and abundant evidence that the engagement of parents in the educational lives of their children from early childhood to secondary school is important and effective; it improves academic success, high school completion, and postsecondary attendance and retention (Goodall & Vorhaus, 2010;Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, & Sandler, 2005;Leonard, 2013;Stepaniak, 2015;Wang & Sheikh-Khalil, 2014). ...
Pathways to Postsecondary Education: Engaging Families of Students in Grades 6-8
Technical Report
Full-text available
  • Nov 2016
This report has been prepared by Research Associates from the McMaster Research Shop at the request of the Industry Education Council (IEC). It is intended to review best practices for engaging parents of children in Grades 6-8 in conversations about pathways to postsecondary and career opportunities for their kids.
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... According to him, children develop positively only when there is active involvement on the part of parents. In furtherance, this view is supported by the fact that a substantial number of empirical researches have pointed out that parental involvement has a great potential to influence children's cognitive, social, and emotional development to a great extent (Morrison, 2007;Goodall & Vorhaus, 2011) Research has indicated that involvement is varied and involves a set of activities beyond attendance-type events. According to Sheldon, the critical dimensions of involvement are emotional support, skill-building, and effective communication with educators. ...
The Role of Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Dec 2024
Parental engagement is crucial in influencing the developmental outcomes of young children in early childhood education environments. This research examines the influence of parental involvement on multiple facets of child development, encompassing cognitive, emotional, and social growth. The research analyzes various studies and educational frameworks to demonstrate how diverse types of parental involvement—such as home activities, communication with teachers, and engagement in school events—enhance academic performance, self-regulation abilities, and overall well-being in young learners. The document also examines the obstacles families encounter in participating in early childhood education, such as socio-economic barriers, cultural disparities, and time limitations. The study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative data to highlight the significance of cultivating robust home-school connections and the necessity for policies that promote and facilitate active parental involvement in educational environments. This research highlights the essential role of parents in fostering an engaging educational environment that promotes lifelong learning and success.
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... The promotion of such partnerships is also present in progressive iterations of the EYFS curriculum (DfE, 2017(DfE, , 2021b. Little is known about what schools do to support parental engagement (Axford et al., 2019) but a few explicit frameworks to guide practice exist (Education Scotland, 2017;Goodall and Vorhaus, 2011;Hannon, 1995;Van Poortlviet et al., 2018). ...
Adapting early years language and communication support in response to COVID-19 – A catalyst for reflection and more successful parental engagement?
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2024
COVID-19 impacted all aspects of children's lives. Research showed that teachers were most concerned about Communication and Language, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development, two of the three Prime Areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage which underpin all learning. The pandemic had a significant impact on early years settings. Practitioners reacted quickly, adapting the way they worked with children and families to ensure all children were supported, whether at home or in the education setting. This paper examines these short-term responses and reflects on what the disruption tells us about what is important to early years practitioners and parents. The Language Intervention in the Early Years (LIVELY) project, focusing on language and communication skills in the Early Years Foundation Stage, started just before the first lockdown and was therefore ideally placed to investigate changes that resulted from the pandemic. We interviewed 11 practitioners, from 10 schools and 1 nursery in the North East of England. Within the group, the experiences of children, families and practitioners varied; our aim was to identify common themes. Parental engagement, the relationships between schools and parents/caregivers which enable children's learning, became even more central and much of the support provided by settings focused on how parents and carers interacted with their children to support language and communication. This paper identifies some of the benefits of the imposed changes and how these could continue in early years settings post-pandemic.
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... However, today it is more likely to work with the thesis that not the education of the parents, but the quality of time spent together is essential for children. In England, for example, parents are strong players in the field of home preparation, their support is expected, and they are approached in this way; on the other hand, schools should also be obliged to help them methodically (Goodall & Vorhaus, 2011). ...
A Narrative About Homework in Primary Education – the Perspective of Pedagogical Staff
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2024
The paper discusses the issue of homework in primary education in Slovakia. It attempts to contribute to uncovering the homework narrative that is created and used by its teaching staff and to relate it to the discourse on homework and its place in education in the Anglo-American environment. The research used content analysis of the written products of 30 participants (teachers, educators in children’s school clubs, and teacher’s assistants). Data processing and analysis were carried out by thematic analysis. The results, concentrated in four topics, showed that the homework narrative in primary education is based on homework support. It clearly resonates with the teacher’s expectation of the involvement of the pupils’ parents in its completion. However, it is without the methodical support of the parents from the school. Part of the discourse is also the teachers’ prescription taking into account, particularly, the appropriate number of tasks, their attractiveness, an individual approach when assigning them, and the comprehensibility of homework for all persons involved. Such a setting should reflect potential inequalities between pupils concerning their family background. The narrative revealed details the semantics of school-family relations and the pedagogical strategies of teachers in primary education.
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K.Ö.SZ.I. – Kommunikáció és Összhang a Szülők és az Iskola között: A család és iskola kapcsolattartásának fejlesztése társasjáték által
Article
  • Mar 2025
A szülői részvétel hatását sokféleképpen mérték, s leggyakrabban a tanulmányi eredményre gyakorolt pozitív hatását támasztották alá, de egyéb járulékos előnyökről is beszélhetünk. A szülői bevonódást támogató nemzetközi programok tapasztalatai szerint nemcsak az iskolai színtéren látható javulás, hiszen a részt vevő családok a szülő-gyerek kapcsolat javulásáról, a szülők nevelési stílusának fejlődéséről számoltak be. Korábbi kutatásaink tapasztalatai azt mutatták, hogy a szülő-pedagógus kapcsolattartásban vannak fejlesztésre szoruló tényezők. A kutatócsoportunk célja feltárni az eredményes iskolai gyakorlatok működési mechanizmusait, s olyan eljárások kialakítása, amelyeket a pedagógusképzésbe integrálva a pedagógus-szülő kooperáció fejlesztését és a szülői gyermeknevelési kompetenciák erősítését eredményezik. Fejlesztőmunkánk eszköze egy általunk tervezett társasjáték, amelyet elsősorban tanárjelölteknek, pedagógusképzésben részt vevő hallgatóknak, illetve pedagógusoknak ajánlunk. Kiemelten javasoljuk a társasjátékot az iskolai segítő szakembereknek. A társasjáték segítségével a játékosok részletesebben megismerkedhetnek a szülői bevonódás kérdéskörével és fontosságával, bővíthetik tudásukat a szülői bevonódás hatásairól, a hazai és nemzetközi jó gyakorlatokról.
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BUDDIES-Report (3)
Technical Report
Full-text available
  • Jan 2023
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Using the Harvard Smart Policy Design and Implementation Method to Promote Islamic Values and Saudi National Identity
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2024
This study aimed to build a practical framework for sustainable policies related to current initiatives that focus on strengthening Islamic values and national identity. These initiatives were designed to achieve Saudi Vision 2030. This study used the Smart Policy Design and Implementation (SPDI) methodology to provide a theoretical framework and evidence supporting sustainable and inclusive economic education policies. These policies focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of promoting Islamic values and national identity initiatives, and aim to achieve their objectives and anticipate obstacles during their implementation, including capacity building in Saudi schools. The study used interviews and focus groups at the macro and micro levels, and documentary analysis of documents related to the Saudi Vision 2030 programme. The contribution of this study is reflected in the three stages of implementing the SPDI to narrow the gap between the initiatives suggested by the macro system and their efficiency in schools. The first stage used the root causes to identify issues and choose appropriate tools. The second stage diagnosed the emerging issues. In the third stage, a framework for a solution was built using the theory of change.
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Engaging Parents in Raising Achievement Do Parents Know They Matter?
Technical Report
Full-text available
  • Jan 2007
Parents have the greatest influence on the achievement of young people through supporting their learning in the home rather than supporting activities in the school. It is their support of learning within the home environment that makes the maximum difference to achievement.
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Diversity in family involvement in children's learning in English primary schools: Culture, language and identity
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2008
  • ENGL TEACH-PRACT CRI
Government policy in England has for many years encouraged parental involvement in their children's education. In response, most primary schools have developed a range of strategies designed to assist parents in supporting their children's learning at home, particularly in learning to read. However, it is a common assumption that parents from some social and ethnic groups are "harder to reach" than others and - indeed - that some are even not interested in their children's education. There is also confusion among teachers about how a parent who herself does not speak English could possibly help her child to learn to read and write in English. These views, it can be argued, are based on simplistic notions of the roles that parents can take, and on a "one-way" model of involvement, which invests all the knowledge and skills with the school. In this article, using evidence from a small-scale, qualitative research project with parents of South Asian heritage in a multilingual city in the north of England, we show the complexity of the issues involved in recognising the diversity of ways in which families do and can support children's learning out of school, the importance of understanding the family contexts themselves, and the ways in which parents construct their identities in relation to their children's school experiences.
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Improving children’s attainment through a better quality of family-based support for early learning
Technical Report
Full-text available
  • Jan 2009
The processes that are involved in the provision of family-based support for early learning are best described by applying an ecological perspective. This emphasises the multiplicity of positive and negative factors that combine in complex ways to determine each child’s unique developmental history. It suggests the need to focus attention directly on the progress being made by individual children and to respond with whatever tools and strategies that we find to be effective to secure their future success and wellbeing. Some early childhood disadvantages (or risk factors) have the potential to lead either directly or indirectly to underachievement, whereas other resilience factors provide a child with the resources to overcome these risks. Parents can pass on risks and resilience to their children, thus emphasising the need to support families, not just children, and for the integration of adult and child interventions.
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Parent tutoring: A meta-analysis
Article
  • Feb 2006
This article provides a synthesis of research in which parents provided academic instruction to their own children. The effectiveness of parent tutoring in 37 studies was examined across grade level, basic skill area (e.g., reading, math), training feature (e.g., treatment length, availability of consultation), treatment fidelity, type of assessment (i.e. criterion-referenced or norm-referenced), and whether or not the study was published. Thirty-two comparisons were found for 20 group design studies and 25 comparisons were found for 17 single subject design studies. Separate analyses were conducted for group design and single-subject design studies using standardized mean difference between experimental and control groups, and percentage of non-overlapping data (PND), respectively. Effect size (ES) and PND were generally positive across both types of studies. A mean weighted ES of +0.55 was obtained for trimmed group design studies and a median PND of 94 was obtained for the single subject studies. Most studies involved reading and the use of primary grade students as subjects. Certain treatment characteristics appeared to moderate outcome. Implications of the current analysis for future practice and research in the area of parent tutoring are discussed.
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After-School Multifamily Groups: A Randomized Controlled Trial Involving Low-Income, Urban, Latino Children
Article
  • Jan 2006
This randomized controlled trial evaluated a culturally representative parent engagement strategy with Latino parents of elementary school children. Ten urban schools serving low-income children from mixed cultural backgrounds participated in a large study. Classrooms were randomly assigned either either to an after-school, multifamily support group (FAST: Families and Schools Together) or to receive eight behavioral parenting pamphlets with active follow-up (FAME: Family Education). Of 180 Latino parents assigned to FAST, 90 percent came once arid 85 percent graduated. Two-year follow-up teacher data were collected for 130 Latino children. The teachers, blind to condition, evaluated the children's classroom functioning. Data were analyzed with hierarchical linear modeling, using a conservative, intent-to-treat model. On standardized mental health instruments (Teacher's Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist; Social Skills Rating System), statistically significant differences favored assignment to FAST rather than to FAME on academic performance and classroom behaviors, including aggression and social skills.
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