The Lack of Parental Involvement with Pre-Kindergarten Students’ Education

The Lack of Parental Involvement with Pre-Kindergarten Students’ Education

Introduction

Lack of parent involvement in their Pre-Kindergarten students’ education significantly affects their academic performance. The increasing achievement gap between students and their peers is majorly associated with the lack of parent involvement in their students’ education (Lampkin, 2022). Parental involvement in a child’s education is an effective strategy for propelling students’ academic success since parents are the first teachers of a student. Parents engaged in a student’s learning process help them connect between home and school, supporting a friendly learning environment to learn and acquire new academic knowledge. Parental involvement with pre-kindergarten students takes different forms, including parenting, effective communication, learning at home, decision-making, and community collaboration (McDowell et al., 2018). Parents clearly understand the type of education their children require, making parental involvement an obligation to all parents and caregivers to support students learning and academic development. Parents’ participation in their Pre-Kindergarten children’s education promotes effective partnership strategies between schools, families, and the community, steering students’ learning and development. Despite extensive research on parent involvement in education, little research has been done to evaluate the impact of parental involvement in pre-kindergarten. However, the narrow research shows a positive correlation between parental involvement and students’ academic achievements. This study aims to assess how parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education affects students ‘ development and learning, as well as the factors that limit parental involvement.

Problem Statement

Recently, most parents and caregivers have undermined the significance and value of education. Most parents no longer prioritize or give significant attention to their children’s education, negatively affecting students’ academic performance. Critically, lack of parental involvement in their children’s pre-kindergarten education hampers their ability to connect their school activities and home engagement, which affects the learning process. It is a conscious choice for some parents not to be involved in their children’s education, while some parents have genuine reasons that prevent their participation in children’s education. Despite the lack of parental involvement in their children’s education, there need to be changed in parents’ participation in the learning process of their students to promote an effective learning environment. Parents need to reclaim their support and dedication towards their children’s education. Parents’ involvement in their children’s education, especially the pre-kindergarten students, fosters a positive attitude toward education and the learning process among students, enhancing their academic performance. Parents should prioritize their children’s education by acknowledging their struggles in active participation, which will help them strategize and plan to help achieve their children’s education goals.

Lack of parent involvement in preschool learning has been attributed to poor children’s development. Promoting family involvement and engagement in pre-kindergarten education encourages students to participate and collaborate with their peers, positively influencing their socioemotional growth, which improves their academic performance. Parents should acknowledge their influence on their student’s education, which prompts their commitment and collaboration with teachers to address the learning needs of the children. Parental involvement mostly occurs in home-based education rather than school engagement. Home-based learning activities benefit the students, promoting positive educational outcomes and child development. Parents should take effective measures to mitigate the effects of their lack of involvement in children’s education.

Failure to improve parental involvement in preschool impacts children’s academic performance, which may hinder their welfare and future. Parents need to familiarize themselves with their children’s school calendars to be acquainted with important dates in the school schedule that require their participation. Understanding recommended dates for parent engagement helps them plan and schedule their time to attend the event or activity, which steers teacher-parent collaboration. Parents must devote their time and attention to their children’s education work by creating time to help the students with their homework and help them review the concepts learned during the day. Parents must also develop effective communication strategies with their children and the teachers. The parents should consult with the children on their educational experiences and support them to achieve their academic goals. Furthermore, the students should communicate with the teachers regularly to follow up on their progress and inquire about ways to improve students’ performances. Incorporating these parent involvement strategies will help to improve student academic performance.

Hypothesis/Research Questions

Parental involvement with pre-kindergarten students correlates with the student’s learning and academic development. Parental involvement in the learning activity propels a supportive learning environment, which motivates students’ interest in education and encourages them to be stewards of their nourishment and development through the parents’ and teachers’ aspirations for excellence. Parental involvement in pre-kindergarten students’ education inspires their devotion to their academic development due to driving and supporting force from their parents and teachers to achieve their educational goals. High parental involvement in children’s education contributes to better academic performance. This literature review addresses the following research questions to help understand the impact of parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education.

What are the benefits of parental involvement in pre-kindergarten children’s academic performance?

What are the barriers to parental involvement with pre-kindergarten students’ education?

How can parents be more involved in their children’s pre-kindergarten education?

The research questions will guide this paper to evaluate the qualitative data from secondary data on the significance of parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education and how it influences children’s academic performance. Answering these questions will provide a better understanding of the importance of parent engagement and ways to mitigate barriers that hinder parental involvement in their children’s education.

Review of the Literature

Benefits of Parental Involvement

Most studies depict the existence of parental involvement in education. However, limited research has been conducted to examine parental participation with students at the pre-kindergarten level. The limited studies demonstrate the need for more research to understand the effect of parental involvement in pre-kindergarten on students’ academic performance and achievement. Mc Dowell et al. (2018) illustrate the connection between parent involvement and children’s educational performance, although the long-term effects of the findings are inadequate. The authors state that parental involvement with pre-kindergarten students occurs through home-based education, where the parents help them to complete the homework. Apart from home-based learning activities, parents should be involved in school activities to help pre-kindergarten students connect with the home and school environment since parents are regarded as the first teachers to their children. Parents understand their children’s learning needs, which makes them essential tools in helping teachers incorporate the best teaching strategies to enhance knowledge development. Parents may engage students in home-based games associated with numbers, which promote the students’ mathematical knowledge. Researchers focus on examining parental involvement in school-based learning, which overlooks their participation in home education and interactions, limiting the research findings on the effectiveness of parental involvement at the pre-kindergarten level. Parental involvement at the pre-kindergarten level is the basis for improved academic success in higher education. Pre-kindergarten is the first learning level for elementary education, where students interact with their peers and connect with the learning environment to enhance their education performance.

Researchers Dereli and Turk-Kurtca (2022) depict that parent engagement in pre-kindergarten education benefits the students, teachers, and parents. The Ministry of Education has made parent involvement mandatory in preschool since their devotion to supporting their children in early childhood education influences their success and academic development in the subsequent years. Parents play a vital role in ensuring pre-kindergarten students attain quality, effective, and continuous support in educational development. The home environment establishes the primary basis of a child development process, where the parents teach the children basic skills and provide greater opportunities to learn more that can be offered in a school setting. Pre-kindergarten education provides the secondary basis for development, whether students are empowered with more academic skills to improve their development. Collaboration between teachers and parents helps students reach their full potential (Knoche et al., 2012). Lack of parent involvement leads to failure of teaching interventions since the teacher has little effect on a child’s learning process. Parent-teacher cooperation and parent involvement in early childhood education strengthen a child’s academic development and promote successful educational outcomes.

Parent engagement plays an essential role in a child’s early childhood education. Therefore, parents and children should be treated as an inseparable unit in a child’s early education and development. Feng and Tan (2022) outline the significance of parental involvement in preschool through home-based learning activities and effective home-school communication strategies. The researchers state that parental involvement in preschool promotes children’s language development. However, it is uncertain how parent involvement contributes to children’s language abilities. Parents and teachers collaborate to promote a positive and interactive learning environment where pre-kindergarten children learn better. An effective learning environment encourages improved students’ language ability, which moulds their future reading potential and cognitive development. The students acquire relevant skills necessary for social interaction and promoting self-emotional management. Parental involvement has different subtypes, including home-based involvement, school-based involvement, and home-school communication, which play a crucial role in developing children’s education and language (Feng & Tan, 2022). Home-school communications strategies help parents approach teachers to evaluate children’s progress and affect students’ language abilities. However, Feng and Tan (2022) outline home-school communication’s drawbacks in influencing academic performance. Delayed communication timing prompts parents to only contact the school when the children are involved in problematic behaviour or lower performance, making parental involvement an unsustainable tool to foster academic performance. Parental involvement steers children’s language development primarily through home-based involvement, where the parents engage in reading activities with their children.

Family engagement is an essential component of early childhood education. Premo et al. (2023) illustrate that teachers’ family engagement in pre-kindergarten encourages inclusion and diversity in education. Parental involvement promotes early learning and students’ attendance, especially among English Language Learners. Teachers’ family engagement prompts educators to support inclusive learning of English Language Learners (ELL) students, while teachers promote the use of different languages to accommodate all students and help to address their learning needs. Learning institutions also foster parent-focus programs to enlighten parents on their contribution to supporting ELL students, which allows for students’ socioemotional skills.

Premo et al. (2023) outlined that low ELL families in the classroom lead to challenges connecting with other families, hindering the effectiveness of building effective relationships and a sense of community that encourages students’ learning. The authors advocate for a stabilized learning environment, including ELL students and parents, to boost teachers’ participation in enhancing their social and academic development. Family involvement promotes children’s development by influencing the teaching methods and practices to support ELL students for better academic performances. Parents would provide effective ideas that would influence teachers teaching strategies to help accommodate and address the needs of all students to achieve intended educational outcomes. Parental involvement benefits the pre-kindergarten students and teachers and is also a beneficial factor among parents (Larocque et al. 2011). Parents who engage in their children’s learning process gather information on their children’s educational needs, support effective parent-teacher relationships to enhance communication in assessing students’ progress and encourage the parents to seek better educational opportunities to help improve students’ academic skills.

Barriers to Parental Involvement

Lack of parental involvement with pre-kindergarten students’ education has been attributed to specific barriers associated with some parents’ inconsistency in monitoring their child’s educational progress and performance. Hornaby and Blackwell (2018) state that effective parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education is subject to different barriers, including family-associated factors, child factors, societal issues, and parent-teacher factors. Parents’ attitudes towards school and educators may hamper the devotion associated with their children’s learning activities. Teachers may also have poor attitudes towards parents, affecting their commitment to render the best teaching strategies that meet the needs of all students. Some parents may also be unaware of the significance of their engagement in the education of their children, which devalues the quality of education offered to them. Parents play a vital role in deciding their children’s educational needs. Apart from the mentioned barriers above, parental involvement may be hampered by time constraints due to demanding work schedules, ineffective teacher-parent communication, and language barriers among students and parents from different cultural backgrounds (Lampkin, 2022). Learning institutions have devoted efforts to support parents’ needs to encourage their students’ engagement in the learning process (Hornby & Blackwell, 2018). Through efforts to address family needs by the schools, parents increase their willingness to be involved in their pre-kindergarten students’ education.

Berry (2019) demonstrates that work schedules are the most significant hindering factors to parental involvement in early childhood education. Parents and educators advocate for parental involvement in school activities to foster effective student learning. Students’ academic performance is influenced by the experience from the connection enabled in their learning environment. Parents express a great concern about the fixed work schedules, which hinder their involvement in school activities. Students whose parents work have no time to attend school activities and meetings scheduled to develop effective teaching strategies to support the educational needs of the students.

On the contrary, parents who are not committed to any work schedule demonstrate challenges in the lack of financial resources to cater for the commuting expenses to attend school activities. Also, time conflicts pose challenges in attending school activities as a parent may have two scheduled school meetings for their children in different learning institutions, which prompts them to participate in one school and forego the other. Furthermore, educators believe that a lack of parental involvement would result from parents’ past experiences during their education journey (Baker et al., 2016). Parents who were poor performers might feel intimidated to attend school activities to discuss ways to support their children. Parents who were high school dropouts may feel less qualified to mentor their children, which prompts them to stay away from school engagements, expecting teachers to be the right mentors for their children. Learning institutions should foster a sense of openness to welcome all parents in school involvement regardless of past experiences. Also, schools should schedule school activities and meetings on weekends to accommodate all parents, including the working population. Further, communication barriers can be addressed by improving parent-teacher communication strategies, where the teacher helps parents understand their role in a child’s educational development process and welcomes them to parent programs to enhance their skills in supporting the students. In addition, parents should be devoted to following up on their children’s achievements and learning progress rather than waiting to be contacted only due to behavioural issues.

Types of Parental Involvement

Parental involvement directly relates to students’ academic achievement since parents are the first teachers to understand their children’s learning needs. Parents’ involvement comprises home-based and school-based involvement, positively affecting students’ academic achievement (Boonk et al., 2018). In home-based involvement, parents foster an enabling learning environment to support their children’s learning process. The parents can engage their students in reading activities and attend to their homework, which promotes children’s academic excellence. Parents also support high academic expectations for their children to encourage their commitment and focus in schooling. Students recognize and respect their parents’ contribution to their academic performance. Educators also appreciate parents’ efforts and strength in promoting students’ academic development and understand student diversity. Parental involvement can also be reinforced through effective home-to-school and school-to-home communications. Parents and educators should have effective forms of communication to help them share information that improves students’ academic communication. Parental involvement calls for a two-way communication strategy, where parties can contact each other at any time to convey their concerns and opinions. Parents can regularly monitor and assess their children’s academic progress and inquire about their role in improving students’ performance.

Parents engage in volunteer school activities to support a friendly learning environment for students. Schools should develop volunteer programs encouraging collaboration with parents, teachers, and students, promoting a sense of community and belonging for all parties involved in a child’s learning process (Boonk et al., 2018). Parents’ volunteering programs increase awareness that the school values and respects parents’ contribution toward a child’s learning process. The programs also inform the parents of their roles in a child’s development and create and understand what is expected from the teachers to achieve students’ academic excellence. Collaboration with the students in the volunteer programs helps them develop their talents and acquire specific skills related to their volunteer work. Parents further engage in school activities through the decision-making process. Parent-teacher collaboration promotes developing and implementing effective decisions that propel an effective learning environment and help students achieve their academic goals. Parents act as the bridge between the school and the community. Hence, parents play a vital role in connecting the community to the school setting, prompting educators to teach good ethical conduct to help students bind with the community’s expectations. Teacher-parent collaboration also helps mentor students to become productive community figures. Parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education helps mould holistic students who understand and adhere to the best values.

Proposed Methodology

Study Design

The research proposal examines whether greater parental involvement with pre-kindergarten students’ education contributes to better students’ academic performance. The research will explore the benefits, barriers to parental involvement in their children’s education, and ways of involvement. The study will use a qualitative approach using secondary data to assess the impact of parental involvement on student’s academic performance. 

Sample Selection

The sample size will be selected using a simple random sampling method. Consistently, the researcher will gather numerous scholarly journal articles addressing parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education. From the collected material, random articles will be selected to evaluate the authors’ findings and opinions on how parental involvement and the lack of parental involvement affect student performance. Ten journal articles will be used to respond to the research questions. 

Data Collection Techniques

The qualitative data will be collected from secondary sources, especially scholarly articles published recently by professionals from different fields. Using currently published articles will help derive relevant and updated information. The sources will also provide information free from biases since the authors publish evidence-based information.

Analysis

Collected data will be sorted, analyzed, and evaluated to draw effective conclusions that answer the research problems and examine whether the findings are in support of or against the hypothesis. If the result shows a correlation between parental involvement and academic performance, it will advocate the need to foster parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education to promote better educational outcomes. On the contrary, if parental involvement does not affect students’ performance, it will be concluded that the level of parental involvement does not influence students’ academic performance. Apart from the qualitative approach to test the hypothesis on the relationship between parental involvement and academic performance, the research can use a quantitative approach. The quantitative approach utilizes numeric data to test the hypothesis. The study can use quantitative data from the secondary source by documenting the numeric presentation of the student’s grades associated with parental involvement practices. The data can be analyzed using different tools, including Microsoft Excel, to determine the mean and mode of the average performance of the students. The author preferred using the qualitative research method over quantitative research since it provides detailed, well-rich data on the study participants. Qualitative data is unique and subjective and provides a wide range of answers, such as the what, why, and how certain behaviour affects the study subjects. On the contrary, quantitative data is fixed and only provides numeric data about the study elements. Qualitative data helps the researcher to derive in-depth insights by exploring and analyzing the context. Further, qualitative research provides a predictive aspect of continuous data, which supports future research on the findings to achieve more verified information.

Conclusion

Parental involvement in pre-kindergarten students’ education directly influences the student’s academic performance. Parents are the first teachers and mentors to their children; hence, parent-teacher cooperation helps students to connect their home and school environment, fostering a supportive learning environment. The lack of parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education negatively affects teaching strategies since students may be exposed to unfamiliar teaching techniques that do not align with their educational needs. Parents understand their children’s academic and learning needs and recognize the best teaching styles that help address the student’s needs. Teacher-parent collaborations allow them to share ideas on implementing the best teaching method that steers better performance. The learning environment should foster a sense of belonging where students can freely interact and participate in the learning activities to help them acquire knowledge from practical-based learning. Parents engage in various types of involvement, including home-based and school-based involvements. In home-based involvements, the parents support an effective learning atmosphere at home where they engage their children in learning activities such as reading storybooks and completing their homework. Also, the parents foster effective home-school communication by regularly contacting teachers to assess their children’s performance. On the other hand, school-based involvement involves participating in volunteer programs to build effective teacher-parent relationships, which propels students’ talent and skills development in the specific volunteer work. However, parental involvement encounters barriers, including bad parents’ attitudes towards educators, poor communication strategies, work schedule conflicts, and financial constraints. Therefore, schools should collaborate with parents to help address these barriers, which helps to improve parental involvement in pre-kindergarten education and promote better academic outcomes.

References

Baker, T. L., Wise, J., Kelley, G., & Skiba, R. J. (2016). Identifying barriers: Creating solutions to improve family engagement. School Community Journal, 26(2), 161-184.

Berry, Emily J. (2019). “Barriers to Parental Involvement” M.A.Ed. in Early Childhood Research Projects. 44. https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/ech_projects/44

Boonk, L., Gijselaers, H. J., Ritzen, H., & Brand-Gruwel, S. (2018). A review of the relationship between parental involvement indicators and academic achievement. Educational Research Review, 24, 10-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2018.02.001

Dereli, F., & Türk-Kurtça, T. (2022). Parent engagement in early childhood education: Pandemic period. Southeast Asia Early Childhood Journal, 11(1), 35-48. https://doi.org/10.37134/saecj.vol11.1.3.2022

Feng, L., & Tan, Y. (2022). Understanding the impact of parental involvement subtypes on Chinese preschool children’s language ability. Current Psychology, 1-14. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-04176-7

Hornby, G., & Blackwell, I. (2018). Barriers to parental involvement in education: An update. Educational Review, 70(1), 109-119. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2018.1388612

Knoche, L. L., Cline, K. D., & Marvin, C. A. (2012). Fostering collaborative partnerships between early childhood professionals and the parents of young children. Handbook of early childhood education, 370-392.

Lampkin, L. (2022, September 9). Lack of parent involvement in education. Chicago Defender. Retrieved from https://chicagodefender.com/lack-of-parent-involvement-in-education/

LaRocque, M., Kleiman, I., & Darling, S. M. (2011). Parental involvement: The missing link in school achievement. Preventing school failure, 55(3), 115-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/10459880903472876

McDowell, K., Jack, A., & Compton, M. (2018). Parent involvement in Pre-Kindergarten and the effects on student achievement. The Advocate, 23(6), 5. https://doi.org/10.4148/2637-4552.1004

Premo, E., Pilarz, A. R., & Lin, Y. C. (2023). Pre-kindergarten teachers’ family engagement practices and English Language Learners’ attendance and early learning skills: Exploring the role of the linguistic context. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 63, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/

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