Engaging the disengaged parent within education

Studies within education have consistently found that parental engagement within education positively impacts upon the educational success of young people: this is referred to as “good parenting” (Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003; Goodall, 2016; Goodall, 2017; Goodall and Vorhaus, 2011; Harris and Goodall, 2010). After critically engaging with these studies, it could be inferred that they assume a bias against parents that do not, for whatever reason, value the field of education: it positions this parenting as “bad”. As Bourdieu (1977) attributes parental involvement in education to parents of the middle class, it could be seen that this positioning of “bad parents” replicates some sociological studies which found the distancing and “disgust” of working class individuals (Lawler, 2005).  

Despite whether it is believed that labelling some parents as good or bad should be done, it has been found that the field of education can transform a child’s life (Teach First, 2017). If parental engagement contributes towards the educational success of a child, it is important that this is encouraged for disadvantaged pupils. Therefore, to raise the educational attainment of disengaged and underachieving pupils, educators must firstly engage the disengaged parent. To engage the disengaged parent, schools must strike a balance between encouraging parents to attend training session to support their child’s educational progress and treating them as a colleague: the expert on their child. Literature suggests that this balance should be achieved through engaging parents in a sensitive and personalised manner (Goodall, 2016; Smith, 2016).

There are two strategies, within the literature, that have been proven to engage parents in a sensitive and personalised manner: one that I cannot implement but another which I could adapt. The first one is Save the Children’s FAST programme in which parents and children were brought together for a meal within school (Harris and Goodall, 2010). This non-invasive approach gets the parent into the school to socialise with their child. It could make the parent feel more comfortable within the school environment and encourage them to speak about their child’s studies. Of course, as a classroom teacher, I could not implement this method. However, I found it an interesting social strategy to break down the barriers of parental disengagement. The second strategy comes from Goodall’s (2016) blog post on teachertoolkit.co.uk. This post encourages teachers to shift from reporting to parents at parents’ evening to fostering a partnership to support learning. Treating parents with respect, recognising and acknowledging their efforts to come to the parents evening are encouraged to foster this working relationship (Goodall, 2016). Furthermore, Goodall (2016) suggests giving parents a list of questions to ask teachers to supplement their cultural capital, as some parents may not know how to engage with the teacher. Similarly, Goodall (2016) suggests that teachers should ask the parents how they can facilitate learning for their children. Through treating the parent as the expert, the parent will feel more comfortable and at ease with engaging with teachers (Smith, 2016).

Following this research, I plan to approach parental engagement in a different way than I did last academic year. By moving from reporting to engaging parents to support learning and providing parents with resources they may need to do so. This is especially important within my subject, Computing; often parents will approach me and state that they “know nothing about technology” and that it is their children who are the experts. If parents feel intellectually inferior to their child, how can they possibly help support learning? Therefore, I plan to give a list of resources that may help to these parents and move away from subject specifics at parents evening. As Goodall, in a recent lecture, stated: it does not matter that parents do not know the answer, what matters is they know how to find the answer. I intend to provide parents with the means to find that answer.

References:

Bourdieu (1977) Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.

Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) The impact of parental involvement, parental support and family education on pupil achievements and adjustment: a literature review.

Goodall and Vorhaus (2011) Review of best practice in parental engagement. Department of Education.

Goodall, J (2016) Reporting to Support. Online: https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2016/08/10/parental-support/

Goodall, J (2017) From project to process. a report of the pilot of a toolkit for parental engagement. 

Harris and Goodall (2010) Helping families support children’s success at school. Save the Children.

Lawler (2005) Disgusted subjects: the making of middle-class identities. The Sociological Review, 53(3), 429-446.

Smith (2016) Swing Time. London: Penguin.

Teach First (2017) Income defines how well children do at school. Online: https://www.teachfirst.org.uk/our-mission/the-issue.