Promoting Parental Involvement and Students Success in School: What Teachers Can Do

Abstract

Parents’ active involvement in their children’s education strongly correlates with student success in school (Abel, 2012; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997; Zhan, 2005). Despite the benefits of parent involvement (PI), a variety of factors limit and discourage parents from taking an active role in their child’s education. This analytic literature review examine 1) what factors hinder parent involvement and 2) to research methods that teachers can take to promote PI. This review suggests that a variety of factors, ranging from teacher expectations and biases to parents’ beliefs and specific life contexts, can hinder PI (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 2005). That said, teachers can do much to promote PI including but not limited to promoting positive interactions with parents, practicing culturally responsive teaching and empowering parents (Christianakis, 2011; Gillanders, McKinney, & Ritchie, 2012). In the end, further research is needed regarding the specific strategies that teachers can use to promote PI, as well as helping teachers learn how to effectively work with students whose background greatly differ from the teachers’ (Sewell, 2012).