Leading educationalists such as Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves, Alma Harris and John Hattie
(among others) are frequent visitors to Australia presenting at conferences, lecturing and providing
professional learning for school administrators and classroom teachers. Each of these researchers
has an interest in the evidence supporting school improvement strategies and the effects on student achievement and other outcomes.
Much of the focus has been placed on what these researchers say about the importance of quality teaching and this, without a doubt, is critical. Less attention, however, has been given to what they say about out-of-school influences and/or strategies to support student achievement, for example the home environment.
The evidence is clear that quality teaching and leadership, while vitally important, are best seen as part of repertoire of important strategies to support student achievement. These researchers cite the urgent need for both the culture of schooling (including how parents are perceived) and parents’ perceptions of themselves in relation to their role in their children’s education to evolve and change.
Hargreaves and Shirley
Andy Hargreaves is an influential academic in the area of educational change. He is the Thomas More Brennan Chair at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College. Together with Dennis Shirley he has authored The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change.
Hargreaves and Shirley describe the waves of educational reform over the period from World War II to the present. In looking to the future they have devised a set of principles and directions that constitute a new Fourth Way forward. The Fourth Way is characterised by what they term Inspiration, Innovation, Social Justice and Sustainability and driven by a renewed sense of teacher professionalism and active participatory democracy involving parents and the broader community in schooling.
While Hargreaves and Shirley emphasis that schools need to recognise the the role of parents and that often the “greater proportion of effects on student achievement comes from outside the school” (2009a, p30; 2009b, p79) they also argue that parents need to take more responsibility for their role in their children’s education. Governments and policy-makers too, they argue, need to challenge parents (not just schools) about their practices and responsibilities for their children’s learning and development.
They also argue that in the coming decade we will need to “learn and commit to the idea that the strongest and most effective schools are the schools that work with and affect the communities that affect them...This will signal the end to the misdirected assumption that all responsibility for improvement falls exclusively on the shoulders of teachers and their schools” (2009a, p30).
In the Fourth Way parents and the broader public are involved as “highly engaged partners” with schools (2009b, p107) and teachers’ autonomy from them is therefore reduced.
Some Key Messages:
- Schools do make an important difference to the outcomes of children - just not all the difference (2009b, p79).
- Parents must take greater responsibility and ‘step up to the plate’ to be more actively involved in their children’s learning and development. Many parents are already know this, yet others will need be be supported in this role.
- Policy must be holistic in the sense that it supports children in their families and communities as well as in their schools
- Schools must be become more open to and engaged with parents and communities.
- Teachers must learn to engage with and benefit from the active involvement of parents as a “core part of their professional calling and identity” (2009b, p78).
John Hattie
John Hattie is Professor of Education and Director of the Visible Learning Labs, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Hattie’s most recent book Visible Learning provides a analysis of over 800 studies relating to student achievement. In order to determine the relative effectiveness of different influences (teaching methods, school reforms etc) on student achievement he has developed a ‘barometer of influence’ and each influence is given an ‘effect size’ rating. For example, the typical effects of teachers alone on student achievement fall within a range of 0.15 to 0.40 on a scale of -0.02 to 1.20. On this barometer 0.40 becomes the ‘hinge point’ at which all other influences are compared. He is particularly interested in those influences above or below the hinge-point, that is those influences that have greater or lesser impact than typical or normal teacher influences.
His argument is that around 95% of the things we do (or can do) to children have a positive affect on achievement but some things have more of an effect than others. With limited time and resources it is useful then to pay particular attention to those things that are likely to have the greatest effect - that is those influences with an effect size of above at least 0.40 on the barometer.
In relation to the types of influences on achievement he has grouped them into six key areas: the child; the home; the school; the curricula; the teacher; and the approaches to teaching. The two key influences from the home on student learning include:
- parental expectations and aspirations for their child
- parental knowledge of the language of schooling
The home can be a nurturing place for the achievement of children or it can have an undermining effect on achievement through low expectations and lack of encouragement. Hattie acknowledges that most parents begin with high aspirations but his own research has shown that these aspirations can decline as the child progresses through school (see Clinton, Hattie & Dixon: 2007) as the parent becomes more disconnected from the learning process as schools take over and language barriers are erected.
Schools, according to Hattie have “an important role in helping parents to learn the language of schooling so that parents can provide every possible assistance to their children in terms of developing the child’s learning and love of learning, and in creating the highest possible shared expectations for learning” (2009, p 33).
Socioeconomic Status (SES) - Parental Backgrounds
SES, in the context of education, often relates to the resources available in the home to support children. Resources such as parental income, parental education and parental occupation are the three main indicators of SES. The focus of policy is often on supporting children and families in low SES circumstances.
The effect of SES on an individual student’s outcomes is significant (0.57) but the combination of children’s SES at the school level is even more important (0.73). A key implication of this, according to Hattie, relates to how schools are funded to support greater equity and ameliorate some the negative effects of low SES. He suggests that supporting families to bridge the divide between home and school, to understand the culture and language of schooling and building parent capacity and self-learning can be important innovations to overcome the effects of poverty on children’s learning outcomes (2009, p 61-63).
Home Environment
The home environment refers to such things as the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviours of parents towards to learning and school and the intellectual stimulation that they offer their children. Hattie’s research highlights that the home environment parents create has an important effect on children’s achievement at school ( 0.57). Some researchers have found that it has a greater effect on achievement than a family’s SES profile - that is low SES families’ attitudes, expectations and encouragement of their children can have a greater positive effect on their children than access to material resources alone. The things that seem to make the most difference to achievement are mothers’ involvement, variety and play materials in the home learning environment (2009, p 67).
Parental Involvement in Learning
The type of parental involvement in learning matters. There are negative or lower positive effects associated with some types of involvement such as surveillance approaches to parenting and homework, controlling and disciplining parenting styles, external rewards, negative control and restrictions for unsatisfactory achievement at school. The most positive types of involvement related to supportive parenting, having high aspirations for children and active participation in children’s learning (2009, p69-70)
Some Key Messages
- Parents have major effects in terms of the encouragement and expectations that they transmit to their children (p70).
- Parents’ positive attitudes and beliefs about learning and their aspirations and hopes for their children matter immensely when it comes to fostering positive attitudes to learning in their children
- Many parents need support to learn the culture and language of learning and school. Children whose parents are alienated from school life are disadvantaged by this.
- Schools need to work in partnership with parents to develop shared high expectations of young people and a shared language of learning.
Alma Harris
Professor Alma Harris is Pro-Director (Leadership) and Professor of Educational Leadership London Centre for Leadership in Learning, Institute of Education, University of London.
Alma Harris is one of the authors of an influential research project commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (2007) in England - Engaging Parents in Raising Achievement: Do Parents Know They Matter? [Harris, A., Goodal, J. (2007) Final Report DCSF RW004] and the more recent book Do Parents Know They Matter?: Raising Achievement Through Parental Engagement (2009) with Kirtsy Andrew-Power and Janet Goodall.
The initial research project focused on the relationship between parental engagement and raising achievement. A particular focus of the research was the issue of engaging ‘hard to reach’ parents. The data showed that there was a positive relationship between increased parental engagement, particularly in the case of ‘hard to reach parents’, and positive learning outcomes.
Some Key Messages
- Many parents continue to be unaware of the importance they play in their child’s education and have a limited understanding of their role in their children’s learning.
- Parents are a “crucial and vital component in reversing the pervasive influence of SES on achievement” (2009)
- Schools that succeed in engaging diverse families share three key practices:
- focus on building trusting collaborative relationships and teachers, families and communities
- recognize, respect and address families’ needs as well as class and cultural difference
- embrace a philosophy of partnership where power and responsibility are shared.
- School communication with parents should focus on student successes (not just problems and behaviour issues) and ways families can help their children become more effective learners.
The support of parents for learning and achievement is the “single most important contributory factor to increased student achievement. In terms of raising school performance, parents matter significantly” (Harris et al: 2009).
