sociology of education

Sociology of Education

JAFLOR

Social Class Differences in Family-School Relationships

Annette Lareau's article focuses on the differences in the level of family-school relationships between the upper-middle-class families and lower-class families. She also discussed in the article the effects of parental involvement in children's education, as well as several factors that affect the ability of parents to be involved in their children's learning process.

According to Lareau, family-school relationship is an essential factor that helps children in their cognitive development. Family-school relationship, defined as a partnership in which family life and school life are integrated (Lareau), is being encouraged by teachers and school administrators because it serves as an additional guidance and enrichment activity to help children improve their performance. An example of which is involvement of parents during study time of children at home. However, as studies show, the success level of family-school relationship depends on the social class and financial status of families. Family-school relationship's success level is higher in schools where majority of the children are from upper-middle-class families, while it is lower in schools of lower-class families.

Lareau's main point in the article that social class differences affect family-school relationship is a reality. There are several reasons behind this. Lower-class class families may have shown little care for family-school relationship due to financial status. Most parents of such families tend to give most of their time in earning a living to survive. Another perspective for the little success of family-school relationship in lower-class families is the educational background of parents. Parents of lower-class families, usually, are high school graduates and dropouts. Hence, their ability to engage in their children's learning development is very limited. These reasons, however, should not be barriers in establishing a learning relationship between children and parents. Studies show that alternative activities can be done to achieve a successful family-school relationship.