Parental Involvement In School Life and the Effects on Students’ Citizenship Education Michela Freddano – INVALSI

HYPOTHESIS

SAMPLE RESULTS

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

REFERENCES

To deepen the concept of “parental involvement in school life” from the stakeholder standpoints

To examine the partnership among home, school and community from a micro- point of view

To study the effect of parental involvement on citizenship education

Does parent participation in school life positively affect citizenship education at

school?

15 classrooms of 5th grade and 13 classrooms of 8th grade from primary and middle schools of the Municipality of Genova

614 students and their parents

520 parents’ questionnaires; percentage of no response equal to 14,7%

The estimation of the coefficients of hierarchical linear model

Result-variable: students’ skills of active citizenship

Amadeo, J.A., Scwille, J., e Torney-Purta, J. (2010). IEA Study in Civic Education. International Encyclopedia of Education, 4, Elsevier, Ltd., 656-662. Castelli, S., Addimando, L., Pieri, M., & Pepe, A. (2011). (a cura di) Current Issues in Home-School-Community Partnership. Bologna: EMIL. Donati, P. (1983). Terzo rapporto sulla famiglia in Italia. Milano: San Paolo. Epstein, J.L. (1995). School, family, community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Deltha Kappan, 76(9), 701-712. European Commission – Directorate General for Education and Culture (2007). Active Citizenship Education Study, Bruxelles: EU. Eurydice (2004). Il ruolo dei genitori nelle scuole in Europa. Bollettino di informazione internazionale, 2 Fan, X., & Chen, M. (2001). Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13(1), 1–22. Hill, N.E., & Tyson, D.F. (2009). Parental Involvement in Middle School: A Meta-Analytic Assessment of the Strategies That Promote Achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45 (3), 740–763. Ho, S., & Willms, J.D. (1996). Effects of parental involvement on eight-grade achievement. Sociology of Education, 96(2), 126-141. MIUR (2009). Legalità, responsabilità e cittadinanza. Annali della Pubblica Istruzione 1-2. Milano: Le Monnier. OECD (1997). Parents as Partners in Schooling. Paris: OECD. OIDEL (2009). Comment mesurer la participation des parents? Genève : OIDEL. Shulz W., Ainley J., Fraillon J., Kerr D., Losito B. (2010). ICCS 2009 International Report: Civic knowledge, attitudes, and engagement among lower-secondary school students in 38 countries, International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Weiss, H., Lopez, M.E., & Kreider, H. (2003). Family–school partnerships.

Students from primary school have more positive attitudes towards citizenship education than students from middle school

school governance is a key aspect to improve citizenship education in school life

a shared project within a democratic learning environments

high percentages of no responses from parents’ questionnaires so that it's necessary to develop new approaches of research.

CONCLUSIONS

To be informed by the school

To be consulted

by the school

Bottom up assemblies

Volunteering

at school

To be member of a

parents’ association

Non formal and informal participation of parents at school

The involvement of parents in school life allows school to know students’ need and to promote students’ achievement (Castelli et al., 2011)

in a society that is characterized by complexity, multiculturalism and globalization,

where citizenship education is a curricular key literacy for lifelong learning (MIUR, 2009).

The Italian schools granted autonomy and the policy decision-making was decentralized

changing school responsibilities

introducing innovative strategies that promoted more frequent and direct involvement of stakeholders, the parents in particular.

AIMS “… school autonomy changed the school quality and the meaning of

parental participation. However parental participation in

school life had been fossilized into collegial boards and

progressively transformed in formal bureaucracy” (previous

school head).

For further information michela.freddano@invalsi.it

1. Aims and hypothesis

2. Pilot research to study intensively and extensively the semantic space of “parental involvement in school life” and of “citizenship education”

Secondary data analysis, to select the sample of schools (and classrooms)

3. Data collection:

• Reasoned multistage sampling

• Organization of tools of research (and pre-testing)

• Administration of the following tools of research: 1. Face-to-face one-to-many questionnaire on

citizenship education among students

2. Self-administered questionnaire on involvement in school life among parents

3. Information about the involved classrooms by interviewing their teachers of citizenship education

4. Information about the involved schools from the school manager

METHOD Percentage of parents per

parental activity in school life

Exploratory factor analysis