How important Parental Engagement is?

In recent years, it is a fact that more and more parents are increasingly engaged in many ways in their children’s education. Although their working hours are often devastating. In every opportunity they have they try to teach their children more and more things from infancy. With this in mind, we can say that parents are the first teachers of a child. But what involvement do parents have in education when their child goes to school?

What Parental Engagement is?

It is necessary to clarify that parental involvement/engagement is when parents work with teachers. Teachers have the ultimate goal of fulfilling not only educational goals but in general the learning, health, and development of children and adolescents. Let’s not forget that parents and teachers have to corporate not only in education. They also serve as role models for teaching other important areas such as values, morals, and more.

Thus, parental involvement also involves parents in issues about the school, such as school meetings, events, and volunteering at home. Encouraging parental engagement is one of the best ways to create a positive learning environment for every student. We have to create a community with good parent-teacher relationships at school. Let’s see what parental involvement is and how it can be fostered.

Indeed, parents often make a very big and crucial mistake… We don’t want someone else to comment on or criticize our child. It’s difficult for us to admit that our child made a mistake. When things don’t go as we want, we choose to “attack” the teacher, the school management, or even the system itself. We are not discussing the facts with our child, seeing what happened. Why our child was punished for behaving badly?

What shall we do?

Parents should try to correct this misconduct, or even justify the teacher’s behavior in our child’s eyes (talking about non-extreme cases). Sometimes parents attack the teacher and sometimes they do it in front of their child’s eyes. So, instead of solving the problem they just perpetuate it. This way, we give the wrong example to our child and the child himself will behave even worse next time.

With such behaviors, we become an obstacle not only to the teacher, not only to school and its functioning but also to our child. This way child only receives the wrong behaviors as a “reward” for his behavior. We forget that the teacher tries to maintain peace and tranquility in the classroom by managing several different characters. And so, in more difficult situations, the defamation of schools is created.

Children need healthy standards. These patterns can be found in the school and family environment. Once they have to face a difficult situation, they will turn to either their parents or their teachers. As parents let’s ask our children how they feel if everything goes well at school/family. What do they care about? How their day was like? Just that someone has shown interest can be especially important to them. Next, we should filter information, sharing it with teachers. Parents have to pay attention to behavioral changes, as the child may need help and support but not outsource it.

What have studies shown?

When parents and teachers work together to create a thriving classroom, the impact on their students is profound. Students with participating parents have not only high scores but also higher self-esteem. In fifty different studies of parental involvement, educational researchers found a relationship between family involvement and academic success.

Parental involvement reduces absences. When teachers worked with parents through home visits (in some countries this is permissible), the student had reduced their absences by 20%. Even after calculating the grade level and past absences, students with participating parents report fewer school days lost overall. Two-way parent-teacher communication engages students in day-to-day attendance and increases classroom engagement. If teachers don’t create a space for parents’ collaboration in our schools and if parents don’t ask for it, then the ability to develop the classroom and the school as a whole is limited.

Studies have shown that parental involvement in schools can promote positive education and the mental behavior of children and adolescents. Research shows a strong relationship between parental involvement and educational outcomes, including school attendance, higher grades, and classroom test results. Parental involvement in schools is a promising protective factor for behaviors and outcomes of sexual and reproductive health risk, gender, early sexual activity, frequency of sex, and pregnancy/birth. In addition, when students find a supportive school environment and parents participate in their school life, they are less likely to be involved in substance abuse, violence, and other problematic behaviors related to the risk of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.

Students are not the only ones who benefit from family devotion. Teachers can prepare parents to help with work or academic concepts. Parents also tend to think highly of teachers, which improves teacher morale. Knowing more about a student’s family life can also help teachers prepare lessons that best fit the student’s needs or interact more effectively with families. When students receive more support, classrooms perform better overall. If parents and teachers work together, everyone wins!

Νegative factors

The factors behind this event for reduced parental involvement in school are multifaceted. Some parents find it difficult or of secondary importance to being more active in their child’s school. They also might not recognize the importance of their involvement. Still, they may think that their participation is simply to get the child to school read and everything else is a matter of teachers, teachers, or school management.

Some may have planning and transportation issues. Parents may have a wrong attitude towards the teacher and the school, which is a low level of education. Though, they may have some kind of high level of education and, however, discredit the teacher. Some may discredit public schools either because of ignorance of their potential offer or ways they can help their child.

At the same time, however, some teachers are devaluing parental involvement, perhaps because they fear criticism of the methods they use in the learning process, as well as classroom management and organization. Still, the lack of teachers’ training ineffective parenting strategies in school life can be an obstacle to the process, even if there is the will of both school management and parents.

Teamwork

It is never too late to build the foundations of parent-teacher communication in schools. But the sooner you do it, students will be to get closer to the goals. The sooner parents are given opportunities and contact information the sooner they will get to know each parent. This way, when there are questions from both sides, they will be more comfortable discussing. Providing parents with opportunities to communicate with the school and classroom activities or parent-teacher committees are all excellent opportunities to participate.

Conclusion

Creating goals and expectations from all sides (students – teachers – parents), communicating as often as possible, using e-mails, texts, or apps to inform parents about activities, lessons, tasks or upcoming trips are methods that could help build a healthier relationship. Such cooperation could enhance or prevent common challenges that prevent parental engagement, such as conflicts or an atmosphere of intimidation!!!

We need to understand that relationships of trust must be built, and mutual respect is also essential. Families and teachers nurture the respect and pass it on to the children unconsciously. If the family respects the teacher then the children will respect the teacher, but they will behave badly when the family lacks respect. When the parent is constantly in school and engaged in activities, talks with teachers, and is close to their concerns, then it is highly likely that the child has a successful school career. If the teacher is receptive to suggestions, discusses with the parent equally, and shares their concerns and concerns, then it is likely that the child will have a smooth and successful school experience.

Sources
www.raisingchildren.net
www.paidiatros.com
https://www.grps.org
www.gettingsmart.com
https://www.waterford.org