Parental involvement in the learning process in private primary schools in Westland’s sub-county of Nairobi
Date
2019
Authors
Miriti, Emma
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine parental involvement in the learning processes in private primary schools in West lands sub county of Nairobi. Specifically, to investigate the way private primary schools help families establish home enviro1m1ents that support children in studies, examine the home-to-school and school-to-home communication, assess how schools coordinate the recruiting and organizing of parents for voluntary work in the schools and to determine how schools help parents to monitor learning at home. The study was guided by Epstein's theory of parent involvement. The study employed a descriptive research design and approach. The target population of this study included all the 30 private primary schools in the sub county. The researcher drew a random sample of 20% of the schools translating to six schools that were selected using simple random sampling technique. The respondents were 24 teachers and 120 parents of the pupils in the sampled schools. A semi-structured questiom1aire was used to collect data from the parents and teachers. The researcher used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 22) to analyse quantitative data from the questionnaires. It was established that to a great extent, parental involvement in the learning process was taking place. It was established that the parents were regularly invited for meetings at school. The most conm1on mode of communication adopted by the schools included the newsletter, emails, text messages formal letters, school calendar, school circulars and parents' orientation brochures. It was also established that 75% of the schools had volunteer programmes where parents volunteered for three key activities that included donations to charity, fundraising for school development and social work among the pupils in the school especially the girls. The schools provided information on how families could participate in setting the goals of the pupils and gave scheduled homework that required students to discuss and interact with their respective families on what they are learning in class. Schools also provided information on homework policies and how to monitor and coordinate learning at home. To a ce1tain extent, the schools in the sub county were in agreement with the dictates of Epstein's theory of parent involvement with regard to Parental involvement, school- home communication and with monitoring and coordination of learning at home. However, the schools did not comply with the aspect of volunteering whereby Parental involvement workshops are to be expanded to include school administrators and teachers and that volunteer programmes are expanded to include participation of parents in classrooms. Further research was suggested
on parental involvement in the learning process in public primary schools.
Description
Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirement for the award of a Master of Science in Education Management, at Strathmore University.