Parental involvement in education

The Foundation for Educational Services (FES) in Malta is organising a two-day European conference from July 10 to 11.

The conference, entitled 'Lifelong Learning through Parental Involvement in Education' will discuss the state of parental involvement in education in Europe focusing on how such involvement is leading to the parents' own lifelong learning.

This conference will bring to a close the PEFaL (Parent Empowerment for Family Literacy) project which was led by the Foundation for Educational Services in Malta, in collaboration with the participating partner countries, namely Belgium, England, Italy, Lithuania and Romania, with the support of the European Commission in the framework Grundtvig 1 strand of the Socrates programme. Through the PEFaL project, organisations from the participating countries have set up innovative and successful family literacy programmes that are breaking new ground in the application of strategies that enhance parental participation in their children's educational development and lead to parents' own development both as parents and as learning adults.

The main aims of the conference, among others are to:

a) celebrate the achievements of the families that participated in the family literacy programmes run by the PEFaL partner institutions;

b) disseminate the experiences, expertise and findings of both PEFaL partner institutions as well as those of other institutions around Europe;

c) include the PEFaL experience in the wider European debate on the role of family literacy programmes in, stimulating parental lifelong learning processes and socio-cultural integration;

d) support the setting up of Europe-wide information-transfer and support networks both of organisations involved in family literacy and parental involvement initiatives, as well as those of parents involved in such initiatives.

As a result, the conference shall have two components. The academic component involves academics, researchers, policymakers and practitioners in the field of lifelong learning and parental involvement in education from all over Europe, including the PEFaL participating institutions, sharing their experiences, findings and expertise on a number of selected issues through keynote speeches, workshops and fora. The academic component of the conference shall have three main themes: parental participation in educational assessment; home-school links for enhanced lifelong learning processes and family literacy. These themes will be addressed at great lengths in the workshops that will take place on both conference days.

In the experiential component, parents from family literacy programmes of the PEFaL partner institutions will be able to share their experiences on the implementation of family literacy programmes in their countries, with a particular focus on the effect on themselves as learning adults. The highlight of this aspect will be the European Family Festival, where an educational market, featuring displays of local and European family literacy programmes, will be set up as a celebration of our common educational achievements. This event will be open to the general public.

Both academic and experiential components will be intertwined to enrich the conference experience of all participants.

Definition of lifelong learning

UNESCO defines lifelong learning as 'the development of human potential through a continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills and understanding that they will require through their lifetimes and to apply them with confidence, creativity and enjoyment in all roles, circumstances and environments'

To put it more simply, lifelong learning means learning from cradle to grave, but for most practical purposes, the term is taken by the high education sectors to mean all post-16 learning. Support for lifelong learning complements policies to raise standards and achievements in schools, to ensure that young people get the best start in adult life and to help unemployed people find work. Lifelong learning is viewed by many state governments as one of the keys to prosperity for individuals and the nation at large. It also promotes a fair, active and cultured society.

Lifelong learning can include anything from basic literacy to advanced scholarship. It can happen in many different ways, such as formal study leading to qualifications, reading, the media, training courses, evening classes, the Internet and other new technologies, work, family and friends and so on. Lifelong learning does not mean learning all the time, one course or qualification after another. It means regarding learning as an everyday activity, returning to learning throughout life to update and acquire skills, knowledge and experience.

How is this notion applicable to parents? What can parents benefit in this regard through their active involvement in schools and their children's educational development?

Bridging the gap between home and school

For many decades, the dominant practice in schools has been that of parental exclusion. The system in itself was seen to take children from their homes and 'educate' them which teachers were seen as the professionals and experts. The linguistic jargon used by teachers often made parents feel inadequate and uncomfortable to form part of their child's educational development.

Early intervention programmes, family literacy and parent involvement initiatives from the preschool stages are particularly meaningful because they encourage parental activities at home that partially account for disparities in performance between children at school entry (Melhuish, 2001).

In Malta, the area of family literacy and family/out-of-school learning is still relatively new ground. The NMC clearly advocates parental involvement in support of learning. However the route to practice will be long and laborious, although the first positive signs are now emerging. The implementation of FES family literacy programmes and parent-to-parent courses together with a wide range of initiatives aimed at including parents in school life across a number of primary state schools, all augur well.

Experience in this field is clearly indicating that parents want to be involved in their child's educational development but are not yet confident to do so. For this reason, parents often need to be supported by teachers and professionals to enable them to recognise the benefits of active participation and involvement. Parents need to have the opportunities of dialogue and provide feedback on fundamental issues such as the uses of literacy within home and school, and problems related to the curriculum.

As home learning experiences that children possess are rarely incorporated into formal educational processes, Spreadbury (1995) proposes a continuum from home-based to school-based learning which would redress the power balance and restore some equity in relations between parents and teachers, particularly in literacy teaching. Parental involvement and partnership schemes will hopefully encourage more schools to incorporate similar dimensions and adopt a whole school policy on involving parents with the teaching/learning of reading and literacy and beyond (Topping, 1989).

Research and literature on school effectiveness denote that the degree and quality of home-school links is one of the key indicators of school effectiveness. Weinberger (1993) advocates schools as 'taking more of the initiative in communication with parents about literacy, and finding ways to allow the literacy learning that takes place at home to become more visible' (p.91). It is necessary that similar initiatives will also gradually be established here in Malta. If this process does not take place, the division between home and school literacy practice, wherever it may be, is sure to remain.

The effectiveness of parental involvement on children's development and achievement

Despite the varying evidence to date, there certainly is consensus among researchers that there is sufficient indication that parental involvement in children's development and learning, including the out of school dimension, makes a positive difference to children's achievement, besides nurturing other related mutual gains and benefits (Dyson and Robson, 1999). Desforges and Abouchaar, commissioned by the Government Department of Education and Skills (DfES) in the UK to undertake a meta-analysis of the effects of parental involvement, (Desforges and Abouchaar 2003), conclude that parental involvement has a significant effect on pupil achievement and adjustment through the years of schooling. Their evidence clearly indicates that the effects of parental involvement on achievement at the primary level are actually larger than the effects of schooling per se.

Brassett-Grundy and Hammond (2003) and Rees (2003) suggest that if a family shares goals and fosters a team spirit, a 'learning buzz' can be created within the family, which is extremely effective in motivating learning among all family members.

Parental involvement leads to lifelong learning

Within this context, there is also a strong evidence-base for the impact and effectiveness of parental involvement not only upon children's development and achievement but also on adults' (parents) own self-growth and development. Parental involvement in the child's educational process therefore not only greatly enhances the attainments of children and improves their attitude towards learning but also allows parents to invest heavily in their very own lifelong learning process.

One of the cardinal aims of parental involvement initiatives is precisely to empower parents to become co-educators in the educational development of their child, and in so doing become learners in the process. As parents enter into this realm, they have the potential to become "parent leaders" as they are now able to motivate other parents in following them in their experiential journey of self-discovery and lifelong learning.

Within this view, the PEFaL project is a model that firmly incorporates and encourages these parental dimensions of learning.

In fact, PEFaL has aimed to develop: parents' literacy, and social skills whilst helping their children achieve these same skills; parents' ability to participate meaningfully in their school community's educational endeavour; parents' IT skills as they communicate with parents in other European countries about the project and children's literacy and social skills, fuelling their parents' sense of achievement and will to persevere.

It is envisaged that through PEFaL, participating parents are empowered to:

¤ Own their children's education needs

¤ Feel that they can act effectively to address these needs

¤ Acquire the necessary basic skills to do so

¤ Realise that they are part of a European network of families sharing the same challenges and achievements

¤ Translate their acquisition of basic skills into better life-chances and greater participation in their community's political, economic and cultural life.

The process of being a parent in itself is not a static stage but is constantly changing and adapting to new developments, particularly sensitive to their children's own learning and maturing process. As parents become actively involved in this process, they acquire a new dimension of their own learning capacities and begin to explore new competencies previously unthinkable. We need to look at parental involvement initiatives as adult learning experiences in their own right. When parents' lifelong learning needs are also addressed, as well as those on behalf of their children, we can assert that we will enhance learning and well being all round for all who are involved - both children and adults.

Juan Camilleri is programme co-ordinator within the Foundation for Educational Services