Perspectives on Parent Involvement: How Elementary Teachers Use Relationships with Parents to Improve Their Practice
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Abstract Title of dissertation: PERSPECTIVES ON PARENT INVOLVEMENT: HOW ELEMENTARY TEACHERS USE RELATIONSHIPS WITH PARENTS TO IMPROVE THEIR PRACTICE Bryce A. Jacobs, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Annette Lareau Department of Sociology One of the most important areas of research in education is the role of parents in student achievement. Studies indicate that parents working as volunteers, homework helpers, and participants in school activities influence student success, but we do not know exactly how that happens or how teachers perceive of their relationships with parents. Although researchers state that the parent teacher relationship is important, they have not systematically unpacked how parent involvement is related to the instructional decision making of teachers. This study uses in depth interview data from 21 elementary school teachers who teach grades one through four. The study also includes participant observation in one private school. My findings suggest that teachers, in a variety of kinds of schools, use information about students’ home lives and outside interests to make their teaching more effective. They report doing this by being able to motivate students, by being sensitive to a student’s mood and by being able to make changes to their curriculum based on student needs. Much of what a teacher, especially in the elementary grades knows about his/her students is gleaned from the students’ parents. It is this information that affects teacher practice in the classroom. This leads to teachers not treating all forms of parent involvement equally; they value communication and they use what they learn from communications with parents to customize their curricula for individual students. The literature to date has not examined communication patterns between parents and teachers fully. When examined closely, it seems that teachers try to manage and negotiate their relationships with parents through setting boundaries and through their communication patterns. It has been reported that teachers do not learn about parent involvement in their teacher education courses. This study affirms that assertion and increases our understanding of what teachers are influenced by: their mentor teachers, their colleagues, the school administration and their own parents. This study will add to the parent involvement research by examining teachers’ views on their relationships with parents and will help educators and policy makers better understand how parents contribute to classroom instruction. PERSPECTIVES ON PARENT INVOLVEMENT: HOW ELEMENTARY TEACHERS USE RELATIONSHIPS WITH PARENTS TO IMPROVE THEIR PRACTICE by Bryce Anne Jacobs Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Committee Members: Dr. Annette Lareau, advisor/chair Dr. Janet Coffey Dr. Joyce Epstein Dr. Jennifer Rice Dr. Sylvia Rosenfield Copyright By Bryce Anne Jacobs 2008 Acknowledgements This dissertation represents the stories of many teachers and parents who welcomed me into their homes and classrooms. They trusted me with their personal experiences and spent countless hours talking with me honestly. I am grateful for their time and their openness. Through the time I spent with these teachers and parents, it was clear to me that they care deeply about the children in their lives. I hope that I reflected their experiences accurately and have been able to show the love that they have put into raising and teaching their children and students. My assistantships over the years at the University of Maryland, first in the Graduate Student Government office, and then in the College of Education Dean’s office, provided me with the needed funding to complete my coursework and research. For that I am grateful. I came to the University of Maryland because of the quality of the professors and the program. Neither disappointed. I have been lucky to learn from outstanding professionals in the field of education and I have had the opportunity to broaden my knowledge of the different aspects of education. This dissertation and my work as a researcher would not be the same without the guidance I had from so many wonderful scholars. My esteemed committee members, Jennifer Rice and Joyce Epstein have provided sound guidance and have helped me define my research to make it most relevant. In particular, Janet Coffey and Sylvia Rosenfield carefully read chapters of this dissertation and have always shown me the way to find valuable insights. I also thank Jackie Cossentino and Meredith Honig who began this journey with me and helped me discover what it was I wanted to study. ii Within this cohort of leading academics is Annette Lareau, who has served as my advisor and mentor. Annette gave sound advice, analytical without ever sounding critical. The way she was able to provide feedback is the mark of an excellent teacher. While balancing many other priorities, Annette has prioritized my work and made it stronger. I thank her for her time and dedication to this project, as well as the many cups of tea and coffee, both in her office and at her home. I want to thank my family and friends who have always supported me in all my endeavors, no matter how long or crazy they have seemed. Many friends have provided emotional support in the form of conversations and advice about writing a dissertation in general, as well as discussions about my research in particular. As always, friends have supported and motivated me through study dates and long days working in coffee shops. I am also grateful to Shelley Klein and Elizabeth Mayers who took time out of their busy schedules of work and a newborn baby to read complete drafts of this document. They used a keen eye to make catch mistakes and make the work better than it was before their reading. Finally, I thank my husband, Matt Mayers. Matt has supported me financially and emotionally these past four years. I am sure he had no idea what he was getting into when he signed on to marry a PhD student. Despite that, he has been understanding when I needed to work at all hours of all days and nights. Matt has helped out at home by taking on additional chores and has been a rock of support especially when times were stressful. Matt has read my work with a critical but sympathetic eye and has taught me about simplifying both my sentences and my life. iii Table of Contents Chapter One P. 2 Introduction Statement of the Problem Chapter Two P. 31 Research Design and Methods Purpose of the Study Sample and Methods Site/Participant Selection Data Analysis Limitations Chapter Three P. 50 Not all forms of parent involvement are equally valuable to teachers. Some forms of parent involvement do not provide teachers with information and some do. What is important to them is communication and what influences their curriculum. Differences Between Communication and Volunteering Addendum to Chapter Three P. 76 Parent responses regarding the differences between communication and volunteering Chapter Four P. 82 How do teachers use parent knowledge in their curriculum? They use it through customization of their curricula. For Routine Classroom Teaching For Special Circumstances Chapter Five P. 125 Negotiating Boundaries iv Who sets the terms for the relationships between parents and teachers? Chapter Six P. 159 How do we understand influences on teachers now that we have seen how teachers think and behave? Mentor teachers Colleagues School administration/leadership Teachers’ own parents Chapter Seven P. 186 Conclusions Implications for Further Research Appendix A P. 194 Teachers perceive parents differently, even when working in the same school. We see how teachers at Montgomery Montessori differ in their attitudes through their boundary setting and communication patterns. David – Distant and professional Karen – Professional and laissez faire Lucy – Personal and informal Appendix B P. 227 Interview Protocol for Teachers Appendix C P. 229 Interview Protocol for Parents Appendix D P. 231 Interview Protocol for Principals Bibliography P. 233 v Chapter One Statement of the Problem Over the past twenty years, parent involvement has become a topic of concern for policy makers, educators and researchers (Booth and Dunn 1996; Chavkin 1993; Coleman 1997; Epstein 1982, 1995, 2001; Henderson 2002; Lopez 2001; Maynard 1997; Sanders 1998; Smrekar 2001; Weiss 1998). These studies contend that parent involvement impacts student achievement. What is not clear however, is how parent involvement impacts teacher practice. These studies investigate parents as volunteers, homework helpers, and participants in school activities, but this body of literature does not examine what kinds of involvement teachers perceive as useful. Different forms of involvement may produce different results for teachers, students, and/or parents. Some forms of involvement may impact classroom teaching, while others might not. There has not been sufficient development of the implications of different types of parent involvement for teachers. Unless we know teachers’ perceptions of the utility of parent involvement, our picture is incomplete. Some of this literature is quantitative and much is in the form of “how to” guides which are not sufficiently conceptual or empirical. There has not yet been a study of how teachers report understanding and using their relationships with parents to improve their teaching. The Existing Literature It is important to study parent teacher relationships because schools cannot be studied in isolation. Parents influence schools and schools influence parents. As a result, they should be studied together. Urie Bronfenbrenner, the developmental psychologist and his theory of “spheres of development” have become widely used in 1 studies of the parent-teacher relationship. Bronfenbrenner claims that human development occurs in many settings. While the family is the “principal context in which human development takes place, it is but one of several settings in which developmental processes can and do occur” (Bronfenbrenner 1986, p.723).