This paper presents an action research proposal designed to improve parental involvement at a public middle school. Drawing on existing literature, the paper establishes the well-documented connection between parental involvement and student achievement across multiple outcome measures, including academic performance, self-efficacy, and future success. It identifies gaps in current institutional practice—particularly the failure to engage disenfranchised parents—and proposes a qualitative, focus-group-based research design to address them. The paper outlines eight targeted research questions, explains the rationale for choosing action research as a methodology, and details a structured interview and focus group process intended to surface practical, community-grounded strategies for increasing parental engagement across diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts.
Parental involvement has long been established as an important variable in student achievement across various outcome parameters. Prior research has shown that parental involvement can lead to the cultivation of strong reading habits (Castro, Exposito-Casas, Lopez-Martin, et al., 2015), student self-esteem and self-efficacy (Ule, Zivoder & DuBois-Reymond, 2015), future success (Hill, Witherspoon & Bartz, 2016), and quantitative measures of academic success (Benner, Boyle & Sadler, 2016; Castro, Exposito-Casas, Lopez-Martin, et al., 2015). Parental involvement can also promote the efficacy of the school as a whole, improving its performance ratings, its reputation, and its effectiveness in forming strong ties with other governmental, human service, and community organizations (Ma, Shen, Krenn, et al., 2015). Therefore, parental involvement stands as one of the most important subjects in educational research and educational administration. Researchers need to learn how to increase parental involvement in meaningful ways — ways that yield desired outcomes for individual students and for the school and community alike. Furthermore, researchers need to identify the best ways of increasing parental involvement while accounting for the socioeconomic and cultural diversity of the population.
Because of the evidence-based connection between parental involvement and student achievement, many schools have put formal methods in place to encourage parental engagement. Institutional supports that encourage and promote parental involvement have also been shown to be among the most reliable means of increasing actual parental involvement, which in turn raises student outcome levels (Ule, Zivoder & DuBois-Reymond, 2015). Because of differences in parental attitudes toward involvement, toward educational institutions, and toward the value placed on educational attainment, it may be difficult to ascertain what works best in each scenario. Moreover, parental and student attitudes toward power distance, communication, and parenting practices as a whole will also factor into levels of parental involvement.
Prior research on the determinants of parental involvement includes structural and formal factors such as whether the school is perceived to have a "welcoming environment" for parents, whether the school and staff maintain "informative communication" with parents, and overall "parental satisfaction with the school" (Park & Holloway, 2018, p. 9). Parental perceptions of the school itself are important factors, but so too are parental perceptions of the "power of education" in helping their children reach their goals (Ule, Zivoder & DuBois-Reymond, 2015). If some parents perceive education as unnecessary for the future success of their children, school administrators may need to work harder to shift those perceptions by forming strategic partnerships with public health and community service organizations. Alternatively, school administrators and teachers could learn how to mitigate negative parental attitudes by reaching out more strategically to high-potential students. High-potential students whose parents may be inadvertently holding them back can be considered at high risk of unfulfilled potential due to a lack of parental involvement. Learning how to work with these types of high-risk students in a sensitive and ethical way may help promote higher student outcomes.
It also helps to learn more about the types of parental involvement, given that what works well for one family may not work as well for another. Individual differences in parenting style and cultural differences will impact communication style and type of involvement, and yet educators should never assume that cultural background is a fixed, immutable determinant of parental involvement. What some researchers call "general supervision" of children's performance at home and school may itself be considered a sufficient form of parental involvement to stimulate higher achievement outcomes (Castro, Exposito-Casas, Lopez-Martin, et al., 2015). Other ways of measuring or defining parental involvement include home-based involvement such as helping children with projects and homework, school-based involvement such as attending parent-teacher meetings or participating in school events, communicating educational expectations to students, and offering academic or career planning advice (Benner, Boyle & Sadler, 2016; Ule, Zivoder & DuBois-Reymond, 2015). Educators and administrators may also need to learn how to distinguish between cultural sensitivity and moral relativism — recognizing when to pursue evidence-based interventions that serve the student's best interests even in the face of negative parental attitudes toward education.
This proposed research will address best practices in promoting parental involvement in public schools using qualitative research methods. Research on parental involvement has tended to focus on its efficacy in promoting student outcomes, but emerging studies have focused more on how school administrators and educators can better engage parents through outreach, communication, and partnerships with community organizations. An action research approach to qualitative methods helps to promote the "action agenda for change" (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 25). In other words, action research is an ideal qualitative method for bringing about actual changes to institutional practices, grounding research in real-world scenarios.
Problem Statement: The problem is that the school has an inconsistent approach to parental involvement and does not actively encourage disenfranchised parents — those whose children may be at risk of underachievement — to participate more fully in the educational process.
Purpose of the Research: The purpose of this action research study is to develop a more effective means of stimulating parental involvement at a specific middle school.
The following research questions guide the study:
Action research is a qualitative method that has been described as "participatory," "emancipatory," "practical," and "collaborative" (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 25). It is participatory in that it engages the actual recipients of the research — the primary stakeholders and beneficiaries — in constructing a more desirable reality. Using action research means that parents, students, teachers, and administrators all participate in the process of community-building and improving the efficacy of public schools. Action research is meaningful to the primary stakeholders and is not carried out solely for academic or theoretical purposes.
Action research is emancipatory because it lacks the elitism that can otherwise cloud research that is not grounded in daily realities and the lives of ordinary individuals. In this case, action research provides the framework through which educators and parents can co-create a better system of education for their children and grandchildren. Emancipated from the immobilizing effect of powerlessness in the face of bureaucracy — and from the belief that systemic failures are beyond anyone's control — action research does what is possible within the means and resources currently available.
Action research is practical because it takes place in a real-life, real-world setting rather than in a clinical arena removed from the lived experiences of genuine stakeholders. Its means and methods are cost-effective and manageable. Finally, action research is collaborative and therefore empowers all participants to help guide the direction the research will take as the body of knowledge expands. By taking into account varying perspectives on causes and solutions, action research permits the emergence of genuine social change and social justice.
The following interview questions are ideally presented in a focus group setting:
Researchers will use a convenience sample of parents, teachers, and administrators who agree to participate in the study. The interview process will take place in the form of focus groups, with several sessions conducted over the course of several weeks.
Two sessions will involve the entire sample set. Additional sessions will divide the sample population into parents and educational professionals, allowing more pointed questions to be directed at each specific group. For the full-group interviews, there will be four 90-minute sessions. There will be two 90-minute sessions each for the parent-only and educational-professional-only focus groups.
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