Parent involvement in schooling processes: a case study in an Aceh school

Abstract

The research topic of parent involvement in schooling processes in an Aceh school is examined through qualitative case study and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The study focuses on exploring the parents' understanding of their involvement in schooling processes based on the six typologies of Epstein. Parent involvement in an Aceh school is a crucial issue which needs to be studied. This research provides an analysis of parents' understanding of their involvement in schooling processes, what different kinds of ways parents/homes and school communicate between each other, and whose parents are frequently involved in schooling.

The research design is based on a case study which explored the implementation of parent involvement in schooling processes in an Aceh private school. This study tried to find information concerning the parents' understanding about their involvement in schooling processes, the ways parents/homes and the school communicate with each other, and whose parents were frequently involved in schooling, from 16 parents consisting of eight mothers and eight fathers. The data included interviews of parents, and a document review that was comprised of the attendance list of the parents in school meetings and student academic reports. The steps of data analysis were covered through the transcript, and by coding and categorizing. The categories of the study were based on the six typologies of Epstein consisting of parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaboration with the community. The purpose of these categories was to uncover the whole understanding of parents related to their involvement in schooling processes.

The three cores of education consisting of family, school, and community have an important role in attaining the goals of learning. The theoretical basis of parent involvement discusses several previous studies concerning parent involvement and student achievement. School and student achievement can be enhanced by involving parents in schooling processes. A good relationship between parents and school will foster the children's development in their learning. There are several barriers parent involvement in schooling, such as work demands, reluctance to attend the school, lack of communication with the school, and parents' perception of their involvement. Likewise, the reason behind parent involvement in schooling processes can be explained with attribution theory. According to Bernard Weiner's framework concerning of an attribution theory, there are four causes of motivation and emotion comprising of ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck.

This study revealed that parents' understanding regarding parent involvement in schooling processes is limited and needs to be improved. The parents have limited comprehension in the typology of Epstein, on types such as parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community. The findings indicated that parent involvement in schooling processes in an Aceh school is low. In addition, the motivation of parents to be involved in schooling processes was related to their own motives, such as merely to fulfill their obligation as a parent in rearing the children. Therefore, we suggest that the school needs to improve the school system concerning parent involvement. Further studies are also needed for this topic, by involving participants from several public schools.