This section focuses on the second phase of the study and the research question:
- What are the activities that the school employs in engaging with parents in the process of decision making?
The purpose of the second phase of this study was to explore the viewpoints produced in the Q-study to illuminate understanding of the social phenomenon
127 of engaging with parents in decision making at a more micro-level. Review of the data indicates that the school values many actions to help develop a trusting and respectful two-way relationship with parents, as advocated by Mackenzie (2009) (for example, ‘listening and working together’, ‘say hello and take an interest in their child’, ‘talk to them and not down to them’ and ‘being interested
in what they have to say’). The school also appears to value actions taken to
ensure that parents are engaged in a meaningful way (Epstein, 2001) (for example, ‘giving parents the option to change paperwork’ and ‘ask them their opinion’).
In addition there are also many features that relate to developing the parents’
feelings of competence (for example, ‘tell them they are the experts of their children’, ‘language used – you could rather than you should’ and ‘using parents preferred methods of communication’) and parents’ feelings of autonomy (for example, ‘offer alternative solutions to problems’, ‘balance positives with not so positive’ and ‘in minutes use language that parents have used’).
It is also interesting to note that there are many actions valued by the school which directly relate to the concept of developing a parents’ sense of relatedness to the school. That is, developing the parents’ perception that the school wants them to be involved (for example, ‘answering and listening’, ‘arranging an appropriate time to chat’, ‘repeated invitations’ and ‘repeatedly saying they are welcome anytime’).
9.3 Discussion of the findings from Phase 3: the parents’ survey
This section focuses on the third phase of the study and the research question: - What do the parents see as the important features in relation to the
128 Within the participants of the survey there is a fairly even spread of length of the children’s attendance at school which is an indicator of the length of time the parents’ have known and had a relationship with the school. Some parents have known the school for a number of years and it could therefore be assumed there have been numerous opportunities for the school to engage with them in decision making. Other parents have only known the school for a relatively short period of time (less than one year) and may still be at the stage of initial contact and building up a rapport and relationship with the school. Therefore it is fair to
say that there is a good representation of parents’ experiences in engaging with
the school. This is pertinent because, as highlighted in the literature review, the quality of the rapport and relationship between parents and school is a crucial aspect to enabling parents to feel able to engage in decision making processes (see chapters 2.3.4 and 2.4.2).
Due to the fact that this school was chosen for its recognised good practice it is perhaps unsurprising that parents rated the majority of features as being essential and there was no feature that participants rated strongly as being not necessary. What is interesting, however, is the spread of opinion across the variables (i.e. ‘Essential’, ‘Nice but not essential’ and ‘Not necessary’).
Tables 7-3 to 7-7 (see chapter 7.4) highlight the features of the school’s system
that parents most value as well as those features that they feel are not necessary. Although ‘building up parents’ self-esteem’ is not viewed as necessary to 19.4% of participants, 41.6% of participants do view this feature as essential (see Table 7-3). Therefore this is a feature that the school should take consideration of. Interestingly, ‘praising parents’ had a similar spread of opinion across the variables (38.9% = essential; 44.4% = nice but not essential; 16.6% = not necessary).
In addition, there are a couple of interesting observations that are worthy of note. Firstly, time is an issue which the participants appear to feel strongly
129 about as several of the features rated as being essential pertained to this issue (for example, ‘in Review Meetings ensure parents have time to ask questions/give opinions’ and ‘giving parents time to ask questions/give opinions in Parents’ Evenings’). It is also interesting that there is a fairly even spread of
opinion on the feature ‘give reminders of dates and times using transport
escorts’ (27.8%, 41.2% and 30.6%). One explanation could be whether parents use transport escorts or not. Unfortunately this survey was not able to determine this. From the additional comments that parents made in the survey it appears that parents who volunteer at the school do like to be made to feel like they are being helpful and not just taken for granted.
Finally, whilst the features ‘making home visits’ and ‘having coffee mornings’ were not viewed as being essential by parents in helping them to engage in decision making, the school may consider the value of this practice in relation to creating a conducive climate within which parents feel that they can, and are welcome to, engage with the school. Therefore the school should not necessarily abandon this practice because these features have other important purposes in relation to the wider issue of engagement with parents.
The survey also asked if there were any features that had been missed out. Only a few parents chose to answer this question (n=10). 6 parents stated the list seemed to have covered everything. 4 parents provided some additional steps that the school does that they felt were also important:
Taking into account the child’s opinions and feelings by helping parents to ascertain what these are and advocating for them where necessary. Staff taking good care not to show if they are in a hurry or under
pressure, without fail they take care to give parents their time and attention.
Having parents into classes to enable them to meet with the children and other parents.
130 Appreciating the value of a conversation which can solve many issues and ensure no misunderstandings occur whilst making a decision together.
9.3.1 Linking the findings from Phases 2 and 3 back to the Literature Review
An observation is how the features that parents ranked highest can be
interpreted as corresponding to factors related to parents’ intrinsic motivation;
that is the psychological need for competence, autonomy and relatedness as discussed in the literature review (see chapter 2.3). An interpretive summary of how these factors could be considered to correspond to the features is presented in Table 8-1.
Table 9-1: How the features that parents ranked highest in the areas of essential features, nice if it happens but not essential and features that are not necessary correspond to factors related to parents’ intrinsic motivation
Psychological concept
Feature Ranking
Relatedness Always keeping in touch with parents Essential Answering phone calls, listening to what parents have to
say and follow up on things
Essential
Not being judgement – seeing the child as an individual Essential
Listening to what parents have to say and working together to find a solution
Essential
If busy arranging a mutually convenient time to talk further
Essential
Giving parents plenty of warnings of events/meetings Essential
Making home visits Nice it if happens but not essential
Having coffee mornings Nice if it happens but not essential
Give reminders of dates and times using transport escorts
131
In meetings all sit on chairs that are the same height Not necessary
Perceptions of Invitations
Always keeping in touch with parents Essential
Answering phone calls, listening to what parents have to say and follow up on things
Essential
In ‘Review Meetings’ ensure parents have time to ask questions/give opinions
Essential
Giving parents plenty of warning of events/meetings Essential
Having coffee mornings Nice if it happens but not essential
Give reminders of dates and times using transport escorts
Not necessary
Competence Giving parents details of what is going to happen and when in IEP
Essential
In ‘Review Meetings’ ensure parents have time to ask questions/give opinions
Essential
Giving parents plenty of warning of events/meetings Essential
Listening to what parents have to say and working together to find a solution
Essential
Speaking to parents as equals by talking ‘to’ them and not ‘down’ to them
Essential
Giving parents ‘all’ information from ‘all’ professionals Essential
In meetings all sit on chairs that are the same height Not necessary
Self-efficacy In meetings all sit on chairs that are the same height Not necessary Building up parents’ self esteem Not necessary
The concept of relatedness corresponds to ten features; six features that are ranked as being essential features by parents, two features that are ranked as nice if it happens but not essential and two features that are ranked as being not necessary by parents. Therefore it can be postulated that having a sense of relatedness and a perception that the school wants them to be involved is a central factor for parents in developing their engagement in decision making processes.
132 This is closely linked with parents’ perceptions of invitations, opportunities and demands for engagement which again it can be postulated is another key factor for parental engagement as five features that are ranked as being essential by parents correspond to this factor; one feature ranked as nice if it happens but not essential and only one feature that is ranked as not being necessary. This is
in accord with Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler’s (1997) claims that the general
invitations, opportunities and demands presented by schools are potentially very influential in parental engagement.
An implication for the practice of schools is the importance of fostering parents’
sense of relatedness by considering what opportunities and meaningful ways there are for parents to become engaged and how the school presents their invitations to parents. This relates to the findings from Epstein’s study (2001) which found that when schools included parents in a variety of meaningful ways then communication and trust among parents and school staff was increased. Thus it is worthwhile for schools to invest in developing a two way relationship with parents that is based on mutual trust, respect and commitment; and noting Mackenzie’s (2009) advice this is developed through an attitude of mutual humility and hope and awareness, on the part of the teacher, of their verbal and body language.
The concept of competence also corresponds to the majority of the features and because it corresponds to six features that are ranked as being essential by parents and just one feature ranked as not necessary, it can also be posited to be another key factor for parental engagement. What is interesting to observe is that these are features that enable parents to feel they have a role in decision making by giving them adequate notice of events, providing them with adequate information to make informed and meaningful decisions and giving them adequate time in meetings to voice their ideas and opinions. In the above sentence the term ‘adequate’ has been used three times but it is acknowledged that this is a subjective term in that what is adequate to one person may not be adequate to another.
133 The concept of self-efficacy (which is discussed in the literature review as a useful construct to consider when deliberating on how to foster parents’ sense of competency (see chapter 2.3.3) does not appear to be a central factor for parents in this study because it only corresponds to features that parents ranked as being not necessary. Therefore either the participants in this study already had a strong belief in their ability to succeed in situations or they did not believe that self-efficacy plays a pivotal role in determining motivation and
action. This study’s scope was not to ascertain participants’ level of self-
efficacy.
Although the concept of autonomy was not identified as corresponding to any of the features identified in this study it should not be discounted as being
irrelevant in understanding and fostering parents’ motivation to engage. This
study did not have the scope to explore these concepts explicitly with parents and therefore only tentative hypotheses and suggestions for practice are being made in this section with an acknowledgement that further study and research is required to explore these notions further.
Another pertinent link between the findings and the literature review is in relation to how school practices affect parents’ behaviour (see section 2.4.2). One observation drawn is the absence of the use of home-school contracts. These are disparaged by Vincent & Tomlinson (1997) as a means of schools controlling parents’ behaviour rather than developing a meaningful partnership with them. It is interesting to observe that within this school which has been recognised by OfSTED (2011) as having excellent links with parents and carers that home-school contracts are either not used, or at the very least, not valued by staff or parents.
Other observations drawn from the findings in relation to how school practices
affect parents’ behaviour link with the importance of developing a two-way
134 way partnership are observed to be present amongst the features that are ranked as being essential by parents. These elements include the language used by teachers; giving parents’ adequate time; working together in true partnership; developing a trusting relationship; and developing mutual respect. An interpretive summary of how this corresponds to the features is presented in Table 8-2.
Elements of a two-way partnership
Feature
Language used Trying to avoid using jargon
Watching language used – you ‘could’ rather than you ‘should’
Speaking to parents as equals by talking ‘to’ them and not ‘down’ to them
Working together: giving parents adequate time
Giving parents time to ask questions/give opinions in ‘Parents’ Evenings’ In ‘Review Meetings’ ensure parents have time to ask questions/give opinions
Giving parents plenty of warning of events/meetings
Asking parents first which days and times suit them best for meetings
Working together: true partnership
Listening to what parents say and working together to find a solution If busy, arranging a mutually convenient time to talk further School and parents setting the agenda of the meeting together
Developing a trusting relationship
Always keeping in touch with parents
Having a good relationship with parents by taking an interest in them, saying hello and showing an interest in what they have to say
Having individual, informal chats with parents
Developing mutual respect
Answering phone calls, listening to what parents have to say and follow up on things Reminding parents that they are the ‘expert’ of their child
Table 9-2: Elements of a two-way partnership that are observed to be present amongst the features ranked as being essential by parents.
The features which correspond to the language used by teachers’ echoes
Mackenzie’s (2009) views on the influence that language has on disaffecting,
disengaging and disempowering the minority voice. These features, which are ranked as essential by parents, show a wish by the school to engage and empower parents. This is also evident in the choice of language used with the
135
features. As explained in section 7.1.3 participants’ comments in the focus
group were written down verbatim and these comments became the features
used in the parental survey. The choice of language such as, ‘mutually
convenient time’ and ‘plenty of warning’ and ‘setting the agenda of the meeting
together’ highlight the school’s desire to be respectful to parents’ needs and to
establish a two-way partnership.
The elements of giving parents adequate time and working in true partnership can be considered as elements in developing a sense of working together; and this is closely linked to the element of developing a trusting relationship. This
links to Vincent & Tomlinson’s (1997) view that the way parents and teachers
construct and experience their relationship with each other requires careful consideration. The features highlighted here reveal that parents value the schools consideration in allowing them adequate time; in working together to find solutions; and in keeping in touch with parents and appreciating the importance of developing a more individual and personal (as well as a professional) relationship.
The final element of developing mutual respect highlights features that are indicative of the school’s wish to show deference to parents’ knowledge and experience. Through consideration of these features that are identified as being essential by parents, it can be postulated that developing a two-way relationship with parents based on mutual trust and respect underpins the school’s approach to engaging parents in decision making processes.