Guion 5

This chapter clarifies the aims and defines the research questions adopted in this study.

3.1 Aims of Study

In recent years there has been a growing interest in how public bodies engage with the community. There have been several studies looking at how schools and other public bodies such as healthcare trusts (Carlisle, 2010) and social care services (Kemp et al, 2009) are developing their partnerships with the community. Behind this growing interest have been drivers from national Government that have influenced local authority policy and practice. For example, since 2010, the local authority where the school used in this study is based has employed an officer with a dedicated role for increasing parental participation. In addition some schools within this local authority have established parent forums as a means of increasing their engagement with parents.

There are three phases to this study. The first phase of the study identifies an array of viewpoints of the school staff about the concept of engaging with

parents in decision making. The second phase explores the school staff’s views

in more detail by identifying the activities the school employs for engaging with parents in decision making processes. The third phase ascertains which of these activities the parents of the school view as being important, positive and worthwhile.

3.2 What is new and different about this current study?

Over the decades there have been numerous studies looking at the topic of parental engagement in their children’s learning, including studies investigating whether parents want to be engaged (for example, Irvine, 2005); whether

45 teachers want parents to be engaged (for example, Izzo et al, 1999); potential barriers to engagement (for example Grolnick et al, 1997); and how to promote and develop parental engagement (for example Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997). The common theme running through all of these studies is the focus on parental engagement in learning-based activities; for example, helping with homework.

Research evidence suggests that parental engagement is maximised when parents are actively engaged in decision making (Harris & Goodall, 2007; Irvine, 2005; DCSF, 2009; Ranson, 2011) however there have not yet been any studies published focusing on understanding why parents become involved in decision making processes and how that is enabled to happen. The focus of this study is on understanding an individual school’s approach to engaging with

parents in their decision making processes. By reviewing the school’s current

practice a detailed and nuanced knowledge of the features of their system for engaging parents in decision making will be acquired. In addition to the school’s voice, parents’ perceptions of this system will also be sought. This is to determine which features of the school’s system for engaging with them in decision making processes are rated as most positive and worthwhile by parents.

A second observation made about past studies is the choice of methodology. The majority of studies use quantitative methodologies, predominantly surveys or questionnaires with various rating scales. For example, one of the questionnaires used by Grolnick et al. (1997) was the Parent-School Interaction Questionnaire (Child report, Parent report and Teacher report) (Grolnick et al 1997) which measures the children/parent/teacher’s perception of parents’ level of involvement at school on a scale from 1 (never) to 4 (many times). Izzo et al. (1999) and Ice & Hoover-Dempsey (2010) also adopted similar methods of data collection and analysis. However there are also some studies that adopted a qualitative approach to research. An example of this is Irvine (2005) who

46 adopted a phenomenographic research approach using semi-structured interviews as the method of data collection.

The first part of this study aims to explore how the school staff view the idea of engaging with parents in decision making processes. The reason for focusing on the school staff’s viewpoints follows on from the discussion regarding the responsibility that the professionals (namely the school staff) have in establishing, developing and maintaining the relationship which facilitates parents’ motivation to engage (see chapters 2.3 and 2.5.2). Therefore, it is important to understand how the school staff view the concept of parental engagement as the first step in exploring the school’s approach to engaging parents in decision making processes.

A viewpoint is an individual’s position, opinion or point of view (Oxford English Dictionary, 2012) and as such is a first-person perspective of an object. As Watts (2011, p.40) explains:

A viewpoint does not exist within a person, but only in their current outlook or positioning relative to some aspect of their immediate environment (a circumstance perhaps, an event or some other object of enquiry)…it is an empirically observable, inherently meaningful and interpretable relationship (between subject and object) that emerges naturally during the conduct of our everyday lives.

Q-methodology facilitates the scientific study of people’s first-person

perspective (Watts, 2011). The procedure of Q methodology is designed so that a multitude of viewpoints can emerge (Watts & Stenner, 2005) although there are generally usually between two and four factors (Watts, 2011). Thus the process of factor analysis identifies the predominant shared viewpoints on the

issue; each factor, ‘identifying a distinct class of viewpoint that is shared by a

number of the study participants’ (Watts, 2011, p.44).

In addition the process of factor analysis in Q-studies does not reduce the data to general statements merging comments and remarks from several

47 participants, as other approaches (such as semi-structured interviews and questionnaires) do. The outcome of reducing the data in this way is that the individual’s viewpoint cannot be wholly represented. Q-methodology provides the researcher with a patterned nuance of viewpoints by illuminating the way in which viewpoints are structured. Watts (2011, p.45) postulates:

Q methodology (is) the only method capable of studying and comparing the viewpoints of everyday people mathematically, holistically and objectively.

Therefore, to establish the school staff's viewpoints on parental engagement in decision making Q-methodology will be utilised. Q-methodology helps to explore the meaning and importance that the school staff give to this construct.

Although the viewpoints ascertained from a Q-method study can be extremely useful and informative by themselves there are very few studies that have applied the insights gained to a further study; that is Q-methodology has rarely been used in a mixed-methods design. However there are some exceptions including studies that have used the results from a Q-methodology study to classify participants into specific groups which all shared similar views for evaluation of programme effectiveness (Ramlo & Newman, 2011) and university courses (Ramlo et al. 2008). Bradley (2007) used the five viewpoints from the Q-study as the basis for a content analysis of university prospectuses in order to consider how well university promotional material engages with the different views.

This study will apply the outcome of a Q-study in further parts of the study with the aim of not only improving the validity of the results; but also to further

explore the school’s approach to engaging parents in decision making

processes. This will form the second and third phases of the study. Following

the Q-study a focus group will further explore and clarify the school’s system

and practice for engaging with parents in decision making processes by identifying specific activities within this system. The focus group also provides an opportunity for member checking the viewpoints that emerge from the Q-

48 sort. The advantage for using a focus group is that the method allows for ideas to emerge from the group and it facilitates the discovery of a range of ideas that people have about something (Krueger & Casey, 2009).

The results from the focus group (that is, the list of activities obtained) will form the basis for the third part of the study. The aim of this final part of the study is to find out which activities the parents view to be important, positive and worthwhile in engaging with them in decision making processes. Unlike the Q- study which sought to identify multiple dominant shared viewpoints, this part of the study seeks to produce an aggregate viewpoint. Therefore a survey, which explains or understands a phenomenon but doesn’t seek to explore it (Robson, 2002) was completed with parents on what they view as being the important, positive and worthwhile activities in engaging them in decision making processes.

3.3 Research Questions

In order to address the aims of the study the following research questions were developed:

1) How does the school staff view the idea of engaging with parents in decision making processes?’

2) What are the activities that the school employs in engaging with parents in the process of decision making?

3) What do the parents see as the important features in relation to the school’s system engaging with them in decision making processes?

49