Survey of Australian Parents
Survey of Australian Parents
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Prepared for the Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau by Caz Bosch and research staff from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
See publication notes at the foot of the page
Survey of Australian Parents
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary.
- Introduction.
- Methodology.
- Results and Analysis.
- Final comments.
- Appendix 1: The Survey Questionnaire.
Executive Summary
For most children – and their parents – moving from primary to secondary school is an experience that will be remembered for the rest of their lives.
This research examines how parents, most with children aged 14 – 16, can be better supported to engage with their child’s secondary schooling at and beyond this critical point in time. Survey response numbers (861) were sufficient to provide accurate insights into the broader Australian population of parents with secondary school students about these issues.
The survey finds that most parents are happy with the assistance provided by both their child’s primary and secondary school during the transition period. Most also feel welcome as volunteers in their child’s new school.
While satisfied overall with their own level of involvement with their child’s secondary schooling, most respondents agreed this is also a time when parents become less involved than they were at the primary school level.
This said, the survey showed the vast majority of parents still regarded matters such as supporting and assisting their children with their studies, working with teachers and understanding their children’s academic progress and performance, as well as their friendships and interests, as being very important.
It is clear from the survey that parents value communication with, and from, their child’s secondary school, with many respondents wanting to see improvements in this area. While some value attendance at school events, the desire for improved communication goes well beyond this.
Parents want to stay in touch using electronic and other forms of communication, and especially value specific information and early advice about their child’s progress and studies.
For many parents in the survey, effective engagement relates more to being able to discuss and deal with school-related issues as they arise than to their own active participation in school-based events. However several parents also commented on family tension arising out of the parental desire to be involved and the adolescent desire for increased independence.
In light of research findings that consistently show effective parent involvement/ engagement improves student academic achievement and other outcomes, the report identifies a key challenge for schooling stakeholders. This being, how to build understanding of the meaning and benefits of effective parent involvement/engagement in secondary schooling contexts when many parents are time poor, schools and teachers are stretched and students are ambivalent, embarrassed or bent on independence?
Introduction
The Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau (the Bureau) was established in 2008 by the two peak parent organisations, the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO, representing and supporting parents with children attending government schools), and the Australian Parents Council (APC, representing and supporting parents with children attending Catholic and Independent schools).
These organisations share a commitment to ensure that schools, school systems and other education stakeholders recognise parent engagement as a highly valuable, evidence-based lever for facilitating student learning and achievement, and driving school reform.
Supported by Australian Government funding to enable APC and ACSSO to use their unique expertise and networks, the Bureau works with principals’ associations, education authorities, schools, governments and community organisations to encourage and support effective family, school and community partnerships. This work includes undertaking research, creating and disseminating information, and developing resources.
This report and the underpinning survey, focussed on parents’ involvement in their children’s secondary schooling, builds on parent surveys conducted by the then Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) in 2003 and 2007. Among other findings, the results of these earlier national telephone surveys showed a substantial decline in parental involvement in schooling between primary and secondary school.
The aims of the 2010 survey were therefore to:
- determine the adequacy of support provided to children and parents in the transition from primary to secondary school
- assess the importance parents place on different types of involvement/engagement in their child’s secondary schooling[1]
- assess the adequacy of school communication with parents in relation to student activities, school decision-making and responsiveness to parental and community concerns
- identify difficulties parents face when actively seeking or otherwise wanting to be involved in their child’s secondary schooling.
The survey results provide broad insights into what is and is not working for parents in terms of their involvement in their child’s secondary schooling. In so doing, they provide a useful evidence base for schools and parent groups to consider new ways to meet parents’ desire to appropriately support their children as they move into and through secondary school.
Methodology
A questionnaire targeting parents of secondary school students to explore their experiences interacting with their child’s schools was designed by the Bureau with assistance from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). At the Bureau’s request, the Department then coordinated and managed the telephone survey to contain costs and take advantage of the Department’s technical expertise in survey implementation and analysis.
The survey was conducted by the Salmat Salesforce call centre which sourced landline phone numbers of parents with children in the target age group via a commercial list purchased by the Department and compiled from a variety of sources including catalogue subscriptions, property valuations and competition entries. The call list was representative of metropolitan and regional areas. Initially targeted to parents with children aged 12 – 17 years, the target was later refined to parents with children aged 14 – 16 years. Just over 80% of all responses subsequently gathered were from parents whose secondary school child was aged between 14 – 16 years (see Figure 1).
During pilot testing undertaken prior to the 2010 federal election, the response rate to calls was not as high as that achieved in previous surveys. Thus the Department worked with the call centre across November and December 2010 to review the survey methodology and develop strategies to secure a higher response rate. These included restricting calls to the early evening period when parents were most likely to be available.
The final number of survey responses obtained was 861, a response level sufficient to allow the results to be considered an accurate indication of the views of all Australian parents of secondary school students.
The call centre script and survey questions are contained in Appendix 1.
Figure 1: Distribution (%) of Respondents by Age (Years) of High School Aged Child.
(n= 859)
The level of accuracy of the survey is also high. Thus, for example, where respondents indicate they are 70% satisfied with an aspect of their child’s schooling, it can reasonably be inferred that the satisfaction of the broader population falls within +/- 3% of this result (i.e. 67 – 73% are satisfied[2]).
The distribution of responses across the states and territories was also indicative of the distribution of the Australian population across the same (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Distribution (%) of Respondents across States and Territories.
(n= 861)
Around 10% of all respondents elected not to identify the sector of their child’s school. Of those who did, 68% had a secondary school child attending a Government school, 22% had a child attending a Catholic school and 9% an Independent school (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Distribution (%) of Respondents by Child’s High School Sector.
(n= 751)
All figures in the report depict the proportion (per cent) of responses against categories for each question in the survey questionnaire.
The total number of responses recorded for each question varies as respondents did not necessarily answer all questions in the survey.
The number of responses recorded for each question typically appears immediately below the figure corresponding to that question, with the maximum number of possible responses for any question being n = 861.
Results and Analysis
The transition from primary to high school
As can be seen from Figure 4, the majority of respondents reported that both the primary and secondary school provided support as their child made the transition, with that provided by secondary schools recording a slightly higher positive response (85%) compared with that for primary schools (81%).
Further to this, Figure 5 shows that the majority of respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied overall with the level of support provided by their children’s schools (87% for secondary and 88% for primary).
Figure 4: Proportion (%) of Respondents Whose Child’s Primary and Secondary Schools Provided Assistance in the Transition.
(n= 861: primary| n= 850: secondary)
Figure 5: Respondent Satisfaction with Transition Assistance Provided by Their Child’s Primary and Secondary Schools (%).
(n= 698: primary| n= 722 secondary)
Satisfaction with secondary school
Respondents generally reported high levels of satisfaction with various aspects of their interaction with their child’s secondary school, ranging from a high of 75% who reported they were satisfied/very satisfied with the ways in which the school welcomed parent volunteers to a low of 62% who reported they were satisfied/very satisfied with the ways in which the school communicated with them about school decision-making.
The results indicate in this respect that respondents were more satisfied with the ways in which secondary schools welcomed parental involvement than they were with school communications overall (refer Table 1 and Figures 6 – 7).
Table 1: Proportion (%) of Respondents Satisfied Overall with Aspects of School Communications and Welcoming of Parents.
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|
Dissatisfied |
Satisfied |
|
Communications with parents about: |
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School activities |
14% |
72% |
|
School decision-making |
19% |
62% |
|
Parental concerns |
16% |
70% |
|
|
||
|
Welcoming parents: |
||
|
As volunteers |
6% |
75% |
|
Involvement with teachers to support child |
11% |
74% |
Notes:
- Dissatisfied = sum of proportion indicating dissatisfied/very dissatisfied.
- Satisfied = sum of proportion indicating satisfied/very satisfied.
- Proportion of respondents indicating they were neither dissatisfied nor satisfied is not shown.
Figure 6: Respondent Satisfaction with School Communications about School Activities, School Decision-Making and Parental Concerns (%).
(n= 861)
Figure 7: Respondent Satisfaction with School Welcoming of Parent Volunteers and Parent Involvement in Communicating and Working with Teachers to Support Child’s Learning (%).
(n= 854: volunteering| n=855: working with teachers)
Importance of different aspects of parent involvement in schooling
Respondents were provided with a three point importance scale to assess the importance of various aspects of parent involvement in schooling. While in retrospect a five point scale may have enabled better separation of variation in respondents’ views, as the results stand, respondents tended to assign relatively high levels of importance to all aspects of parental involvement surveyed (as measured by the aggregate of the categories ‘very important’ and ‘moderately important’).
Given the high level of importance generally accorded by respondents, the analysis below focuses on the split between ‘very important’ and ‘moderately important’ as an indicator of respondent priorities.
Different aspects of parent involvement in schooling are listed below in order of importance to respondents:
- knowledge of their child’s academic progress and performance (98% ‘very important’)
- support and assist child with school studies and interests (89% ‘very important’)
- communicate and work with teachers to support their child (89% ‘very important’)
- knowledge of their child’s friendships, interests and concerns at secondary school (85% ‘very important’)
- parent participation in committees, volunteering and school events (45% ‘very important’).
Figure 8: Respondents by Importance of Various Aspects of Parent Involvement (%).
(n value ranged from 860 – 857)
Parental involvement and barriers to engagement
While the majority of respondents agreed that parents, as a whole, tend to be less involved in their children’s secondary schooling than primary schooling, they expressed satisfaction with their own level of involvement. Thus while Figure 9 highlights that 81% of respondents believe parents are generally less involved, Figure 10 shows that 72% are satisfied overall with their own level of involvement in their child’s secondary schooling.
Figure 10 also shows that just over one in 10 respondents (12%) are dissatisfied overall with their personal level of involvement. The reasons this subset of respondents most frequently cited for not being more involved were work commitments (42%) and lack of time (11%).
Figure 9: Level of Agreement That Parents Tend to be Less Involved in Children’s Secondary Schooling than in Primary Schooling (%).
(n=859)
Figure 10: Satisfaction with Own Level of Involvement in Child’s Secondary Schooling (%).
(n=849)
Figure 11: Reasons Dissatisfied/Very Dissatisfied Respondents are Not More Involved (%).
(n=103)
Further to this, 80% of respondents agreed that it is more difficult for parents to be involved in their child’s schooling as their child gets older (see Figure 12) and 49% considered adolescent children do not keep their parents sufficiently informed about school activities and rules, social issues and their studies (see Figure 13).
Figure 12: Level of Agreement – It is More Difficult for Parents to be Involved in their Child’s Schooling as the Child gets Older.
(n=857)
Figure 13: Level of Agreement – Adolescent Children Keep Their Parents Informed about School Activities and Rules, Social Issues and Their Studies.
(n=860)
Ideas to improve parent involvement
In two free texts questions where no response categories were provided, survey respondents were first invited to offer ideas about what could be done to increase or further support parents’ involvement in their child’s secondary schooling, and to then provide any further comments. The commentary below focuses primarily on responses to the question about ideas to increase parental involvement which were provided by a total of 44% of all respondents.
The majority (48%) of such comments highlighted the need for schools to improve their communications, with a further 7% pointing to a need for schools to be more welcoming of parental involvement. The focus on schools taking action was somewhat counterbalanced by comments (11%) suggesting that parents could do more to engage in their child’s schooling. The remaining comments (34%) could not be further categorised and are identified in Figure 14 below as ‘other’.
Figure 14: Proportion (%) of Free Text Comments by Comment Type
(n=377)
Comments relating to the need to improve school communications were further categorised as follows:
- more communication (74 responses)
- more or improved electronic communication (54 responses)
- more direct communication with child’s teachers (47 responses)
- better quality communication (eight responses).
Addressing work barriers
Bearing in mind that work commitments and to a lesser extent, lack of time, were most frequently cited as key obstacles by parents who were dissatisfied overall with their personal level of involvement in their child’s secondary schooling, the following individual comments – made by respondents in this cohort and others, have resonance:
Parents spend a lot more time working and finding the time becomes difficult …
Schools tend to be less willing to involve parents due to work commitment restrictions …
As a single mum, it becomes very difficult to juggle work and school involvement, very difficult to follow through with school activities … it [would] be better for school activities to be on the week-end so parents do not need to take time off. The number of parents helping out during the day is decreasing because they are working. But we need them not only as officials and chaperones but also in a supportive capacity. Grandparents should also be involved as they have a lot of knowledge and often have more spare time than parents …
Children at Catholic schools may suffer as a result of their parents’ need to work in order to afford the higher fees; contact between parents and the school is less frequent as a result …
Perhaps more consideration for working parents – often not enough notice is given for meetings and so on, so it’s difficult for parents to organise …
Most things take place during the day, meaning time off work …
More days off for parents …
[It would be good to have] greater income support so you can have time to attend school events (instead of working) …
Make it so that parents don’t have to work so much so that they can be more involved (i.e. live off a single income and take part in schooling …
Reduce … school costs in general in exchange for volunteering …
School activities should be organised within the localities from where kids come from, especially if they travel a far distance to get to school …
Improving communication
In support of the case for more communication per se, as well as better quality communication, the following comments provide a broad brush picture of parents’ interests around such matters as course and curriculum requirements, academic progress and performance, student engagement in schooling/ learning and social development:
More feedback from school; I get the feeling that schools tend to provide more support for, and show more interest in, the children that are enthusiastic rather than the ones who aren’t and those children then get left behind …
Feedback is important; used to receive feedback for assignments and tests but now it appears not to be the case …
Parents should be informed as soon as possible if their child’s grades start dropping, as opposed to only finding out when report cards are due …
More parent/teacher nights so parents can meet teachers and talk about the children …
Maintaining good relationships between parents, teachers and principals is key to maintaining good relationships with children …
Interaction with parents and kids in after school classes about issues with school and social issues …
Course outline for the term; more regular meetings with the parents …
Having knowledge of the curriculum in advance …
Offer exam timetables earlier to ensure I can assist with [my] child’s study …
More observations on developing personalities, not just academic performance …
If parents are made aware of the curriculum (and) if they’re made aware of more support earlier on in the child’s life. Parents don’t know how the [child’s] academic career is going throughout their life.
Schools could have more programs to help [students] leave school with parental input …
Need more parent to parent socialising to create a better community …
A single point of contact would be helpful …
As well, several comments point to the potential value of schools encouraging children to understand and appreciate the importance of parental involvement/engagement in their schools and schooling:
Telling children that it’s okay for parents to be involved in their studying …
If children don’t want their parents hanging around then it’s harder to get involved. Re-education of the children could help …
Children often do not wish for their parents to be involved. Getting the children excited about parental involvement would help …
Children need to be educated to involve their parents more actively in their schooling …
Trying to get kids to talk about things that go on at school to their parents …
While more frequent communication with parents may be labour intensive for teachers there could be benefits for school staff, as indicated by the comment ‘parents should be informed about when their child is disciplined so that teachers do not shoulder all the burden’.
In addition, several respondents proffered the view that additional human resources were critical to more effective communication and relationship building:
More money in schools, so schools could employ someone to act in the roll of mediator between the school and the parents …
It’s primarily more teachers we need so that teachers can have more personal contact with the kids and parents; more knowledge of the children having difficulty in school and more reaction from teachers …
I don’t think teachers have a very easy job. Unfortunately they have to deal with thirty separate personalities in each class and, in high school, hormonal personalities. At the end of the day, there should be more one on one time between teacher and student in order for them to connect …
[There] should be a department specifically to investigate complaints made by parents at non-school events between children at the same school …
The presence of social workers and counsellors really assists children, especially those who may have problems at home …
As noted above, the more specific need for increased and/or improved electronic communication attracted a deal of attention and, here, it is worth noting that although some respondents clearly appreciated their school’s endeavours in this domain, others were just as clearly frustrated.
The perceived over reliance on website technology was a particular focus for comment:
[I] don’t like that everything is on the internet now. Technology can be useful but sometimes the old fashioned newsletter that comes home is much more accessible than over the internet …
Giving information via the internet or just notes are (sic) not good enough …
Not all parents are computer literate/ well-educated; it could be unfair that some schools rely on the internet/ email to communicate with parents …
I cannot access the internet at home and feel that stops me from communicating with the school to the fullest extent I can. The school does not hand out hard copy newsletters etc. to go home with children …
It’s really important that parents are given the option between using computers and technology to support their children and using paper, text etc. [So] that – or giving parents the most user-friendly technology, websites and software to work with …
Taking ownership
Recalling that 7% of the free text comments pointed to the need for schools to be more welcoming, and a further 11% for parents to do more, respondents’ views on who – if anyone – should take the lead in encouraging and achieving more parent involvement are insightful:
It’s down to the children to take an interest and stay involved, and involve their parents in what they do …
Parents shouldn’t be too involved. Children should remain independent …
[It is] up to the individual parent of (sic) what they can and can’t do …
Mainly at home is where the parental support should come … schools don’t necessarily need parental involvement at the school itself …
Parental involvement can come from the home as well …
[It] depends on the parents’ level of education and commitment. Better resourcing [is needed] …
It’s all individual; different family traits and values determine how they approach education …
It’s an individual thing – parents will only be as involved as they want to be.
Schools need to be more open to parental suggestions [as] to how to keep their children engaged at school …
[It] depends on the school and their need to get parents involved …
[It] depends on the structure and the vision and moral issues in the school …
More parental involvement initiated by the school …
Individual schools could send out individual surveys to monitor parents’ involvement and ideas …
The school asking parents for their involvement, not just at committee meetings. Committees don’t suit everybody; other options would be preferred …
Equally, acknowledgement of shared responsibility is evident in the following comments:
Contact the school if there are problems; more updates about academic progress of the child …
Teachers should create more programs which parents can involve themselves in; parents should make sure they can always communicate with their children no matter what …
Finally, two comments that have salience in the context of the researched benefits of parental engagement in children’s learning – including at the secondary school level – are:
Parents often don’t know what can be done …
More promotion of the things that parents can do to assist – even if these things are at home …
Final comments
Based on experience with previous surveys it appears respondents will generally report a higher level of satisfaction with narrow or specific aspects of a broad service than they do with the service as a whole. This is most likely because more general questions tend to lead respondents to take into account all their experiences with a service and hence the likelihood of taking into account difficult experiences increases. In some cases, these difficult experiences are relevant to the service, and in others they are not.
Taking the nature of satisfaction surveys into account, then, it is not surprising that respondents were more satisfied with the assistance provided by schools in the transition from primary to secondary schooling (averaging around 80% satisfied) than they were with general aspects of secondary school communications and welcoming of parents (averaging around 70% satisfied).
The lower level of respondent satisfaction with school communications overall, and in particular with communications relating to school decision-making, is certainly worth considering in more detail. However, this should not be pursued to the exclusion of the findings relating to the welcoming of parents as volunteers and as partners in their children’s learning. The free text comments in the report highlight widely differing understandings about the meaning of, and scope for, parental involvement/engagement in secondary school contexts and the locus of responsibility for the same.
In the face of research findings that consistently show parent involvement/engagement – including at the secondary school level – improves student academic achievement and other outcomes, the following findings collectively present a considerable challenge to schooling stakeholders:
- Respondents assigned a relatively low level of importance to parent participation in committees, volunteering and school events (only 45% indicated it was very important)
- Respondents were firmly of the view that parents tend to be less involved in their child’s secondary school than in their primary school (level of agreement was 81%)
- Respondents strongly agreed that it is more difficult for parents to be involved in their child’s schooling as their child gets older (level of agreement was 80%)
- Close to half (49%) of all respondents believed that adolescent children don’t keep their parents sufficiently informed about school activities and rules, social issues and their studies (another 12% were unsure).
The challenge?
How to build understanding of the meaning and benefits of effective parent involvement/ engagement in secondary schooling contexts when many parents are time poor, schools and teachers are stretched and students are ambivalent, embarrassed or bent on independence?
Appendix 1: The Survey Questionnaire
|
Introduction Hello, my name is …., I’m ringing on behalf of the Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau. I’m calling as part of an Australian Government national study. Are you a parent or guardian of a child attending secondary school?
In most states and territories secondary school covers Yrs 7-12, except in Queensland which includes Yrs 8-12 only If ‘no’ or child is home-schooled Thank you very much for your time. If ‘yes’ I’d like to ask you some questions about barriers to parental involvement in schools. The information you provide will be used to target the work of the Family and Schools Community Partnerships Bureau to the needs of parents. The survey will take approximately ten minutes to complete, the information I collect will only be used for the purpose of this study and your responses will be kept confidential and anonymous. Are you willing to participate, either now or at another time convenient to you? If ‘yes’ and now is convenient proceed to Question 1. If ‘yes’ but now is not convenient arrange an alternative time. If ‘no’ Thank you very much for your time. |
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Question |
Response options |
Comments for further guidance for interviewer |
|
|
1 |
How old is your (oldest) child who attends secondary school? All the questions in the survey will relate to this child. |
Age |
Where the respondent has more than one child at secondary school, the following questions pertain only to the eldest child. |
|
2 |
Is the child attending a Government, Catholic or other Non-Government school? |
Government Catholic Other Non-Government school |
Government aka Public or State schools Non-Government aka Private or Independent schools (e.g. Anglican, Christian, Islamic, Steiner.) |
|
3 |
Did your child’s primary school provide assistance in preparing your family for your child’s transition from primary to high school? If ‘yes’, proceed to next question. If ‘no’ or ‘unsure’, skip the next question and proceed to question 5. |
Yes No Unsure
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4 |
How satisfied were you with the assistance provided by your child’s primary school? I will read 5 options, select the option which best represents your satisfaction level Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied |
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5 |
Did your child’s secondary school provide assistance in preparing your family for your child’s transition from primary to high school?
If ‘yes’, proceed to next question. If ‘no’ or ‘unsure’, skip the next question and proceed to question 7. |
Yes No Unsure |
|
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6 |
How satisfied were you with the assistance provided by your child’s secondary school? Select one of the following five options: Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied |
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The following questions refer to the secondary school your child is currently attending. |
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7 |
How satisfied are you with the way in which your child’s school communicates with you about school activities? Select one of the following five options : Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied |
School activities include classes, excursions, sporting and music events.
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8 |
How satisfied are you with the way in which your child’s school communicates with you about school decision-making? Select one of the following five options : Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied |
School decision-making includes school policies on mobile phones, dress codes and bullying. |
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9 |
How satisfied are you with the way in which your child’s school communicates with you about parental concerns? Select one of the following five options : Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied |
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10 |
In your experience how important do you think it is that parents have knowledge of their child’s academic progress and performance? Select one of the following three options: Very important Moderately important Unimportant |
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11 |
In your experience how important do you think it is that parents have knowledge of their child’s friendships, interests and concerns at secondary school? Select one of the following three options: Very important Moderately important Unimportant |
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12 |
In your experience how important do you think it is that parents support and assist their children with school studies and interests (such as sport and music)? Select one of the following three options: Very important Moderately important Unimportant |
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13 |
In your experience how important do you think it is that parents communicate and work with teachers to support their child? Select one of the following three options: Very important Moderately important Unimportant |
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14 |
In your experience how important do you think it is that parents participate in committees, volunteering and school events? Select one of the following three options: Very important Moderately important Unimportant |
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15 |
How satisfied are you that your child’s school welcomes parent volunteers? Select one of the following five options : Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied |
On formal committees, at sporting events, fundraising etc. |
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16 |
How satisfied are you that your child’s school welcomes parent involvement in communicating and working with teachers to monitor and support your child? Select one of the following five options : Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied |
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17 |
How satisfied you are with your level of involvement in your child’s schooling? Select one of the following five options : Very dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neither dissatisfied or satisfied Satisfied Very Satisfied If respondent answers 1 to 2 (dissatisfied or very dissatisfied) go to question 18. If respondent answers 3 to 5 go to question 19. |
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18 |
You indicated you are not satisfied with your level of involvement in your child’s schooling. What prevents you from being involved in the way you would like?
The respondent will be given the opportunity to respond freely, and the call centre will allocate the response to one of the six categories listed. |
1= Lack of time 2= Work commitments 3= Busy with other children 4= I am not sure how I could be involved 5= My child doesn’t want me to be involved at the school 6= Other (Specify in a free text column) |
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19 |
Do you agree with the following statements. You may indicate ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘unsure’:
|
Yes/No/Unsure
Yes/No/Unsure
Yes/No/Unsure |
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20 |
Do you have any ideas about things that could be done to increase or support parents’ involvement in their child’s schooling? |
Free text |
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21 |
Do you have anything else to add?
This is the end of the survey. Thank you for participating. |
Free text |
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[1] The terms ‘parental involvement’ and ‘parental engagement’ are often used interchangeably. American academic and author Dr. Joyce Epstein has specified six types of involvement including parenting, communicating, volunteering and learning at home. British academics and authors Prof. Alma Harris and Dr. Janet Goodall explicitly suggest a distinction, observing that parents need to be involved in schools and engaged in their children’s learning.
[2] Calculated using the National Statistical Service sample size calculator, available online at www.nss.gov.au/nss/home.nsf/pages/Sample+Size+Calculator+Description?OpenDocument
Publication Notes
Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau. 2011.
Survey of Australian Parents
Parent perspectives on their children’s secondary schooling context
Prepared for the Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau by Caz Bosch and research staff from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
ISBN: 978-0-9872370-3-3
The Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau is assisted by funding from the Australian Government through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations – Quality Outcomes Programme. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.
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