Factors associated with parental involvement

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

Chapter Four: Parent and teacher interview findings

This chapter presents the findings from the parent and teacher interviews. As previously stated in chapter 2, semi-structured interviews with parents were conducted to obtain more in-depth information on parental ECE involvement including talking about their child, reading the ECE notice board, reading the child’s portfolio, helping with kindergarten sessions, helping with fundraising, offering ideas and suggestions to improve the kindergarten, and participating in committee meetings. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with kindergarten head teachers to find out details about the steps taken by kindergartens to facilitate parental involvement, particularly for Chinese immigrant parents.

Findings from parent interviews

The findings for each parent interview question are presented in the format as follows: (1) a table that contains the categories and category definitions summarising the reasons for low and high parental involvement, and the number and percentage of Chinese and non-Chinese parents who provided a response for each category; and (2) a summary of the key findings reported in each table illustrated by quotes to provide insight into category meanings. Some parents reported more than one reason for high or low involvement. Accordingly, their responses were coded into more than one category. Thus the percentages reported in the tables reflect the percentage of parents in each group whose responses were coded in each category. Independent sample t-tests were conducted to determine whether there was a significant difference in the types of reasons reported for high and low involvement between Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents.

Communicating with teachers

Talk to teachers about how their child gets along with other children

Table 18 shows parents’ responses when questioned about reasons why they seldom or frequently talked to teachers about how their child gets along with other children. Reasons for low involvement (never, rarely, sometimes) were captured in 3 categories: (a) language barrier, (b) no problem, and (c) role construction. Reasons for high involvement (often, always) were captured in 5 categories: (a) information, (b) problem solving, (c) sufficient time, (d) invitations from teachers, and (e) teacher-parent relationship.
Language barrier
Of the Chinese immigrant parents who did not talk to teachers often approximately one third of them attributed their low involvement to their poor English proficiency
No problem
Among both the Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents who did not talk to teachers often, many of them reported that the lower involvement was because they did not perceive any problem with their child, particularly non-Chinese parents.
“I know that Emily is quite social, so I don’t have any concerns with how she gets along with other children at kindy, and I can see that she has a lot of friends from different sessions, so I don’t feel the need to go and talk to them, if I thought there was a problem I would.” [non-Chinese]
Role construction
Another reason mentioned by both the Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents was their belief that it was not their role to initiate conversation with teachers.
“Mostly I don’t really feel I need to ask them every single day about how they’re getting along. I think a lot of interactions that children have between children are dealt with by the kindergarten staff at the time, and I trust that if there is something they need me to talk about with him at home they will tell me.” [Chinese]
Information
The majority of both Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents stressed obtaining information about their child at the kindergarten as their motive to talk to teachers often.
“….to see how he is doing at kindy, if he has any interactions with other children, if he had a fight, or if he can communicate with them, and if he can make friends.” [Chinese]
Solve problem
The second main reason for high involvement that was mentioned by both Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents was that they wanted to prevent or solve the problem their child had at the kindergarten.
“If there’s been issue like Conner and I have talked about something and he said something a bit strange, or you know, one of the children hit him or something like that, or he hit one of other children, then I might say to the teacher …” [non-Chinese]
Time
Some Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents spoke of the availability of time that allowed them to talk to teachers often.
Invitation from teachers
Some Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents reported that they talked to teachers often because they perceived that teachers welcomed them to talk.
“The head teacher there is brilliant. I don’t know if you’ve met Browyn, but she is very very good, she’s worth her weight in gold, so very approachable.” [non-Chinese]
Relationship
Some Chinese immigrant and non-Chinese parents mentioned that they talked to teachers often because they had good personal relationship with teachers.
“I have good relationship with teachers, I often help kindergarten to translate stuff, so we are familiar, it’s good to communicate often, I ask them how my child is doing at kindy.” [Chinese]

Read the kindergarten notice board

Table 19 shows parents’ responses to the interview question on reading the kindergarten notice board. Reasons for low involvement were captured in one category only: language barrier. Reasons for high involvement were captured in 5 categories: (a) information, (b) visibility, (c) role construction, (d) relationship, and (e) no language barrier.

Abstract
Acknowledgements.
List of tables and figures
Chapter One: Introduction and literature review.
1.1 Importance and professional significance of the topic
1.2 Conceptual frameworks.
1.3 Interpretation of parental involvement
1.4 Effect of parental involvement
1.5 Determinants of parental involvement
1.6 Traditional Chinese culture
1.7 Parental involvement among Chinese immigrant parents in NZ.
1.8 Parental involvement in NZ ECE settings.
1.9 Research gaps and justification for the current study..
1.10 Research questions and hypotheses
Chapter Two: Method.
2.1 Participants.
2.2 Sampling procedures.
2.3 Measures and procedure
Chapter Three: Results
3.1 Data analytic plan
3.2 Preliminary data analysis
3.3 Comparisons between Chinese and non-Chinese parents in parental involvement, parental beliefs and parenting practices
3.4 Factors associated with parental involvement
Chapter Four: Findings from parent and teacher interviews
4.1 Findings from parent interviews.
4.2 Findings from teacher interviews
Chapter Five: Discussion.
5.1 Level of parental involvement.
5.2 Parental beliefs and parenting styles
5.3 Variables uniquely associated with parental involvement dimensions
5.4 Implications for practice..
5.5 Study limitations and future directions.
5.6 Contribution of the study and conclusions.
Appendices
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
Parental involvement in early childhood education among Chinese immigrant and English Speaking non-Chinese parents in New Zealand