Narratives of parents’ participation in their children’s education

Abstract

Parents are an important part of any educational progress, and they are recognised as of key importance in children’s learning. In addition, fruitful parents’ participation in children’s education has been reported to facilitate the development of learners’ values, positive attitudes, and behaviour in which their emotional balance and maturity have also been reported to be supported and boosted. With this study, we sought to investigate narratives of parents’ participation in their children’s education at a secondary school in the Amathole West district of the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. The study was underpinned by Epstein’s theory of parental involvement and the ecological framework. A qualitative approach was adopted in this study, with a sample of 8 participants (parents), and data were collected through interviews. The findings reveal that parents who were fully involved in their children’s education could track and monitor their children’s progress at school and such parents quickly knew about any problems and talked to their children’s teacher about it. Consequently, we recommend that parents must be more actively involved in their children’s education by collaborating with their children’s teachers to bring out the best in their children.