Schools as sustainable learning environments: a framework for enhancing parental engagement

[摘要] English: The democratic dispensation in RSA since 1994 brought hope for parents to take theirposition alongside the teachers in the education of their children. The expectation wasthat more parents would engage themselves and also be welcomed into the school toshape the direction of their children‟s education and thus help change the traditionalschool landscape. However, the realization of full parental engagement, especially intownship schools, was just a utopian dream in that many schools found this very elusivebecause of intransigent, deep-rooted power inequities between the teachers andparents.The study is couched in critical emancipatory research (CER) paradigm whichrecognized parents as equal partners in the education of their children. Through CERparental engagement which is about equitable power sharing and responsibilities inteaching the learners is actualized. This is opposed to „involvement�?which allowsparents to speak through the mouths of the teachers by simply doing the things thatteachers tell them to do.Through the principles of Free Attitude Interview technique (FAI) by Meulenberg-Buskens, one big open-ended question: 'How can we enhance parental engagementsuch that it is sustainable? was posed to initiate the discussions. This question openeda communicative space between the parents and other community members regardingtheir engagement. This question was followed by clarity-seeking questions in order tofathom the nature and extent of parental engagement at the participating schools. Thisopen-ended question allowed the previously marginalized parents to speak forthemselves regarding their engagement and what they would like to see happening intheir children‟s education. Through CER and FAI parents and other communitystakeholders with interest in education, were regarded as assets instead of adversarieswho can co-construct knowledge regarding the direction that the schools should take.The study used the critical discourse analysis (CDA) by van Dijk to analyse data fromthe participants. This allowed the study to have access to rich data in the form ofspoken words from the participants which were transcribed verbatim into text. The CDAallowed the study to analyse data at three levels; namely, the textual, discursive andstructural levels. This broad analysis allowed the study to uncover subtle powerrelations between the teachers and the parents and which accounted for low parentalengagement at the participating schools. Through CDA the study found that parentshave invaluable knowledge which if recognized can benefit the participants such asschool, teachers, learners, other parents, and the community in general.

[发布机构] University of the Free State