Obstacles to parental involvement in children's education

Abstract

This study explored new teachers’ perceptions of, and strategies for overcoming the obstacles to parental involvement in children’s education. 30 elementary school teachers with 1 to 5 years’ teaching experience were interviewed. Data were first coded through the grounded theory approach and then analyzed by case and cross case. As found out, obstacles to parental involvement were related to parents’ lack of cognitive readiness, affective preparedness, and physical resources. Strategies new teachers employed to overcome their perceived obstacles included cognitively informing, persistently outreaching, psychologically disarming or comforting, and consciously attending to parents’ individual differences, needs, or personal preferences. Lessons learned from this study will inform both in-service teachers’ efforts to engage parents for optimal student learning outcomes and teacher educators’ endeavors to prepare prospective teachers for more effective teacher-parent communication.