Date
5-2020
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education in Curriculum & Instruction (EdD)
Chair
Russell Yocum
Keywords
Parental-Involvement, Christian School, Academic Achievement, Teacher, Community
Disciplines
Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
Recommended Citation
Minix-Fuller, Deborah Ann, "Parental Involvement in Children’s Education at a Christian School: A Transcendental Phenomenological Approach" (2020). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 2464.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/2464
Abstract
Parents share collective experiences of either involving themselves or not in their child’s education. This transcendental phenomenological study’s rationale was to explore the views, experiences, beliefs, and motivations of parents who are involved in their children’s education. Eleven participants who engaged in this research are from a small-sized Christian school in Kentucky. The theory guiding this study is Urie Bronfenbrenner’s theory (1979), the Ecological System (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem). The data collected from interviews, a focus group, and two surveys. NVivo12 plus Qualitative Data Analysis Software (Q-DAS) implemented to analyze the qualitative data collected. Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological seven steps guided the data analysis. The phenomenological analysis identified common themes in this research. The results of the study identified several themes from a central research question: What are the experiences of parents who are involved in their children’s education? The three subsequent research questions are: (a) How are parents encouraged to move from merely monitoring to becoming more actively involved in their children’s education? (b) What do parents perceive to be obstacles that hinder their active involvement with children’s school activities? (c) What roles do the administration and teachers occupy in parental involvement? These questions drew attention to the gaps in parental involvement through literature by the investigation. More research regarding diverse parental involvement needs addressing outside of the teachers who were involved in this research. The administration needs to reach out to parents, which could significantly influence parents’ experiences.
