TODO TIPO DE OBLIGACIÓN

Greta’s family arrived in Ireland eight years ago. Her son, who is in first year in post- primary school, completed all of his primary education in Ireland. In primary school Greta’s son was withdrawn from classes, including irish, for english language support. Greta is confident that her son speaks english fluently, is good at mathematics, but still struggles with spelling and writing. Her son is not exempt from studying the Irish language in post-primary school as he attended primary school in Ireland. Initially when her son went on summer holidays to his grandparents in Lithuania his mother arranged english lessons for her son. Now that his standard of english has improved he still reads english books but is also getting lessons in written Lithuanian. Clare, Deirdre, Karen and Lisa, whose daughters attend Beech College, participated in a focus group discussion. They are ambitious for their children and support their children’s aim of progressing to third level education. Cora, whose twin sons attend Hazel College, owns a shop. She

worries about her sons’ progress in school and considers that she was much more involved in her sons’ primary school. Ellen’s two sons attend Larch College. She left post-primary school following her Junior Certificate examination as she did not like her teachers. She has since worked in cleaning, catering, car manufacturing, and as a home help. Following her marriage, and birth of her twin boys, she returned to work as a home help but now works as a traffic warden for a primary school. Maria, whose five daughters have attended Spruce College, regards herself as a stay at home mother. Her oldest daughter attends Dublin City University School of Nursing and two other daughters are in further education programmes. Following her leaving certificate examination another daughter aims to study sports and leisure management and her youngest daughter, currently in third year, aims to become a physiotherapist.

5.3 Vision, purpose and planning for home-school partnership relations

Members of the JCSP focus group agree that students benefit when parents support the work done by schools. James says ‘it is not enough that when they leave us at four o’clock that support stops’ (James: 1: 10-11). James sees that through the JCSP

programme barriers between schools and parents can be broken down by using positive communication. Positive relationships are developed with parents when the JCSP programme is explained to parents at an induction meeting for first years. James says ‘even that action is something they have never experienced before, where suddenly they are being involved and we are asking them for their opinion and support’ (James: 1: 35- 37). Turnout varies from year to year for this special meeting following visits by the HSCL teacher to each home. Anne is less positive about the ability to involve parents in students’ learning in DEIS schools. Some parents she feels are either not capable or not interested and visit schools only to solve problems of a disciplinary nature or otherwise. Sharon considers that home-school partnership can be developed by inviting parents into schools to participate in literacy and numeracy activities and she stresses the importance of training parents.

The JCSP librarian, who visits other JCSP libraries, describes positive aspects of the JCSP programme aimed at involving parents who may have had negative experiences

themselves in school. She says that the library project is ‘consciously trying to flip that and engage parents for positive reasons’ (Librarian: 1: 16-17). Parents are informed through letters and postcards about the JCSP programme and attend celebrations, book clubs, creative writing sessions, storytellers or visiting authors.

When discussing home-school partnership relations within a focus group one parent in Beech College considers her presence in the school is appreciated by her daughter as ‘it makes a difference to them when you are down doing something in the school (Deirdre: Beech 1: 13-14). Cora, who was an active participant on a parents’ committee in primary school, is disappointed that the same degree of parental involvement is not promoted in Hazel College as she thought ‘we’d be going to this school and we’d be all together and we’d be all helping out and fundraising and all that’ (Cora: Hazel 5: 5-6). When asked what home-school partnership means Ellen in Larch College said ‘just to be more involved. A lot of parents won’t you know, I don’t think they feel intimidated but some of them couldn’t be bothered because they are working, but I think they should be able to approach someone’ (Ellen: Larch 1: 5-8). She agrees that children ‘come on leaps and bounds’ (Ellen: Larch 7: 3) when parents and schools work together and parents push for their child.

5.3.1 Vision, purpose and planning for home-school partnership relations analysis

In planning for partnership between homes and schools emphasis is placed on the need for parents to attend schools in order to receive information or respond to requests made for their involvement in school literacy and numeracy activities. When parents do not respond to these requests they are considered disinterested, or not capable of being involved. Parents too adhere to this perception of partnership. This may be due to an acceptance by disadvantaged parents that schools know what is best for student achievement, and the role parents should play.

According to Mannan and Blackwell (1992) a gap between families and schools developed as, historically, education became more controlled by schools and parents delegated responsibility to schools. A delegation model, however, was replaced by a

partnership model as students with a variety of abilities began to attend schools (Seeley 1993). Gradually the idea of parents as partners emerged as governments realised that in the interests of democracy, accountability, and the raising of standards, that responsibility for student achievement could not rest with schools alone (Kelley-Laine, 1998). A study (OECD, 1997) pointed out that standards improved when parents were shown how to support students more effectively at home. JCSP co-ordinators, the school librarian and parents perceive parental involvement as well developed if parents are responsive to the needs of schools. Parents do not seem to be aware that schools could be more supportive in helping them to support their child’s learning at home.

Ideal home-school partnership relations have been the subject of much research (Epstein 1986; Ashton and Cairney 2001). Hornby and Lafaele (2011) observe that the issue of parental involvement in education is notable for extensive policy rhetoric but a variation of its implementation in schools. This gap has come about as a result of the influence of factors at the parent and family, child, parent-teacher, and societal levels, and act as barriers to the development of effective partnership relations. The view of partnership shared by DEIS schools and parents is that parents support the work of the school. An OECD study Parents as Partners in Schooling (OECD, 1997) sees a difference in the goals and agendas between families and schools. Parents’ goals focus on improving their child’s performance, wishing to influence the ethos or curriculum within schools, and a desire to understand school life. Teachers focus on parental assistance with homework, providing a supportive environment in the home, raising money and attending school events. Adelman (1992) sees home-school relations as being based on an agenda of socialisation with schools attempting to shape parental attitudes to support the work of the school. O’Brien and O’Fathaigh (2005, p.70) see education as a ‘field’ that sets its own rules that regulate behaviour. Working class parents may not have the capacity to manipulate ‘rules of the game’ and ‘play the game without questioning the rules’. Harris, Andrew-Power and Goodall (2009, p.15) suggest that it is necessary to remove the idea that interventions won’t work with ‘hard to reach’ parents and argue that parents’ support for learning in the home is far more important to student achievement, and is ‘still the most under utilized way of raising school performance’.

5.4 School structures and collaboration to promote parental involvement in the