Parents' Participation Types in School Education

Abstract

The aim of this study is to identify parental involvement types and determine what type of parental involvement the parents of middle school children prefer. Moreover, it is aimed to examine the parental involvement types with regard to the parents' gender, their educational background and the socio-economic status of the school. The population of the study comprises the parents of the six grade students study in 29 middle schools during 2018-2019 academic year in Denizli province in Turkey. The sample of the study consists of 243 volunteer parents in three different schools with low, medium and high socio-economic level based on their residential area according to the information obtained from the National Education Directorate. According to the data obtained from the scale, it was seen that parents were more likely to use parenting, learning at home and decision-making as parent involvement types; on the other hand they used 'collaborating with community' the least. Parental involvement types did not differ significantly according to gender. Whether parents are female or male did not affect the types of participation. This may be related to parents' trust in school. It may be stated that the school, which had a higher social status, met the expectations of parents and did not require active participation. Parental involvement types varied significantly depending on the parents' educational background. © 2019 The Author(s).