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Teacher-Driven Strategies for Enhancing Parental Involvement in Rural Education
Views:66Parental involvement is widely acknowledged as a vital contributor to learners’ academic achievement and overall school success. While much is known about the benefits of parental engagement, particularly in urban and well-resourced settings, the dynamics and challenges in rural schools remain underexplored. This study addresses that gap by investigating how teachers perceive and implement strategies to enhance parental involvement in rural contexts. Specifically, the study aimed to answer the following question: (1) What are teachers’ perceptions and experiences regarding parental involvement in rural schools? and (2) What teacher-driven strategies do they propose to improve collaboration with parents? This qualitative case study draws on Rotter’s Social Learning Theory to explain how behaviour is shaped by observation, reinforcement, and social interaction. The study was conducted at a rural high school in Mandlanzini Agri-village, KwaZulu-Natal, with ten purposively selected teachers as participants. Data were collected through a semi-structured online questionnaire and analysed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) coding process. The findings reveal a pressing need for structured, teacher-driven strategies that extend beyond standard parent-teacher meetings to include structured and culturally responsive interventions. The study highlights the practical value of teacher agency in facilitating parental involvement and offers context-specific insights that may guide future interventions in similar rural settings.
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Educational poverty in Italy: concepts, measures and policies
1-10Views:922In recent years in Italy, as a result of the initiative by the NGO Save the Children Italia and of the government action, we have witnessed the success of the notion of “povertà educativa”, as an effective way to indicate severe inequalities in education across the country. Firstly, the aim of this paper is to shed light on the different concepts and measures of educational poverty in socio-economic literature, in order to highlight specific and innovative aspects of this idea. Moreover, the paper intends to scrutinize Save the Children’s proposal in order to monitor and tackle educational poverty as well as to show how the action of the NGO has influenced the development of Italian recent government policies against child and educational poverty.
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Social Mobility through Education: Lifelong Learning and the Roma-Minority in Selected Central and Eastern European Countries
58-69Views:424Education plays a central role in supporting or impeding social mobility (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1974; Fend, 1980, 2006). The disadvantaged social and economic situation of the biggest part of the Roma minority (not only) in Central and Eastern Europe is usually seen as the main reason for their low educational attainment and success. And vice versa: the poor educational results are considered the main reason for their social deprivations. Therefore, education and lifelong learning have become the main strategy for improving their situation, especially since the ´Europeanization of the Roma issue` (Ram, 2015) through the European Union. Today, Education and lifelong learning are now the centre of EU-policies for achieving political and economic goals, like economic growth and social cohesion (Óhidy, 2008, 2009). This article analyzes the problems faced by and opportunities presented to the Roma people in selected Central and Eastern European countries, problems and opportunities arisen in the years up until 2020, regarding social mobility through education. In its analysis, this paper focused on the similarities. The article is based on 5 country studies from 2019, written by experts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia (see Óhidy & Forray, 2019). The study uses the evidence from the country studies from Markéta Levínska, Dana Bittnerová & David Doubek, 2019 (Czech Republic), Julianna Boros & Eszter Gergye, 2019 (Hungary), Agnieszka Swietek & Wiktor Osuch, 2019 (Poland), Aurora Adina Colomeischi, 2019 (Romania) and Rastislav Rosinsky, 2019 (Slovakia) to explore the similarities in challenges, to increase the participation and success of Roma people.
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Curricular and Extracurricular Learning among Students with Resilience Potential. Social Inequalities in Higher Education
37-42Views:295Does resilience potential in higher education mature into success or does it remain merely a promise of success due to rising social inequality? We studied curricular and extracurricular learning of students with outstanding academic achievement who entered higher education despite their disadvantage of social background (= students with resilience potential). A student survey database compiled in the research project “Higher Education for Social Cohesion – Cooperative Research and Development in a Cross-border Area” (HERD) (HURO/0901/253/2.2.2.) in 2012 was analyzed. Students of three Eastern Hungarian higher education institutions were surveyed (N = 1205). Students with resilience potential were identified in the intersection of two groups of variables: social background and input academic achievement. We have conducted a cluster analysis, which has resulted in the identification of students with resilience potential and other researched groups: drifters (low social background and low input academic achievement), beneficiaries (high social background and high academic achievement) and indifferent prodigals (high social background and low academic achievement). To sum up our results, the students with resilience potential only use higher education to fulfill curricular requirements, and hit a ceiling, compared to the beneficiaries, when it comes to the student year mining, meaningful extracurricular activities. Thus social inequalities crawl through these invisible channels into higher education and beyond.
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Non-completed Studies: What Factors Affect Academic Success or Failure?
79-89Views:393The ratio of early school leavers is 12.5 in Hungary, which means 22nd place within the EU28. Early school leaving is an important issue in all European countries, because those who finished their studies after primary education are more likely unemployed and it causes problems for both them and the society. Higher educational drop-out also an important issue, although for other reasons than early school leaving. It is even more difficult to find precise data on this: we don’t know what proportion of the students is affected by this in Hungary. In this study I analyze the database of the Hungarian Youth Research 2016. This survey was conducted on a representative sample of 15-29 year olds, questioning 8,000 people, therefore, early school leavers and higher educational drop-outs should be found among the interviewees. The results show that early school leavers have significantly worse status both financial and cultural. Some of those who had finished only primary school think that they have successfully completed their studies. They answered that despite 18.3 percent of them have started a vocational training, which didn’t finish. Despite the expectations, not much is known about the higher educational drop-outs. 4.5 percent of the interviewees did not answer the question of whether they had completed their studies: they are probably the drop-outs, but we can just assume that. The results show that they have better cultural status than the others.
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Examining challenges to Parental Involvement in Enhancing Academic Performance Among Grade 7 Learners/Students
Views:48Parental involvement is a critical determining factor of learners' academic success, particularly during transitional educational phases such as Grade 7. This study explores the factors challenging parental engagement in supporting their children's academic performance at this crucial stage in South Africa, Tshwane South District. Although extensive research has been conducted on parental involvement, there is limited studies focusing on the transitional phase of grade 7 within the South African context. Employing a qualitative approach, and purposively selected 11 participants (6 parents, 5 educators). Furthermore, data were collected through interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis. Findings indicate that socioeconomic constraints, limited parental education, communication gaps between schools and families, and parents' time constraints significantly hinder effective involvement. Additionally, cultural perceptions of parental roles in education and students' increasing need for autonomy in adolescence further complicate engagement efforts. The study also identifies systemic barriers, such as inadequate school initiatives to foster parent-teacher collaboration. Recommendations include capacity-building workshops for parents, and the development of inclusive communication strategies by schools. This paper highlights the need for a holistic, community-driven approach to overcoming barriers and fostering sustained parental involvement to enhance student achievement in Grade 7, offering insights that are particularly relevant within South African context.