Abstract
M.A.
The Department of Education encourages parents to become involved in their
children’s education by joining the school governing bodies. However, serving
on a governing body is not the ultimate form of parental involvement.
Governing bodies are involved at the macro level of planning which involves
the holistic planning and management of the school, they are not involved at
the micro level which deals with the day to day issues that arise within the
classroom.
Teachers at the Geluksdal Primary School say that they cannot give children
with learning difficulties the individual attention with an average of forty-five
pupils per class. They have found that more than fifty percent of the children
they teach do not understand the lessons. Teachers feel that the school day is
short and the number of children struggling too great for them to intervene
effectively. They welcome parental involvement and think that parents should
assist their children individually at home.
This qualitative action research study is a partnership between the
researcher, parents (with children who have learning difficulties) and teachers
for the co-creation of community in the best interest of children's educational
development. The co-creation of community between parents and teachers
requires of them to meet with each other to discuss children's needs and
difficulties and to attend to these needs and difficulties. The co-creation of
community refers to the joint effort of parents and teachers to better the
education of children with learning problems.
The focus group consisted of five parents who committed themselves and
three parents who moved in an out of the group. Seven teachers participated
in this study but failed to commit themselves to the forming of community.
These teachers seemed de-motivated from disappointing past experiences to
get parents involved in children's education, but to little avail. It appeared as if
they did not believe that meeting with parents after school to build a
relationship in the best interest of children would make a difference, and did
not think it to be important. Another important factor that could be related to
the teachers’ reactions, was that they held an ‘out-there’ philosophy which
suggested that the problems experienced by children with learning difficulties
was caused by the home. The research was continued with the hope to raise
the teachers’ consciousness of their involvement in the educational progress
of children with learning difficulties. Three teachers were interviewed
individually on their views of parental involvement in education.
Results showed that the co-creation of community between parents and
teachers do have an impact on children’s educational development. Those
parents who were committed to become involved in their children's education
found that their children’s progress at school improved considerably.