Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2228
The departments within the College of Education were reorganized and renamed as of July 1, 2011. This department incorporates the former departments of Curriculum & Instruction, Education Policy Studies, and Organizational Leadership & Policy Studies.
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Item KOREAN IMMIGRANT MOTHERS’ EDUCATIONAL BELIEFS AND PRACTICES: A TRANSNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE(2015) Kim, Ji Hyun; Wiseman, Donna L; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study analyzed the parental involvement experiences of four first-generation Korean immigrant mothers living in a Mid-Atlantic state to expand the research base and knowledge of traditional parental involvement paradigms. The study was guided by two overarching research questions: 1) How do four Korean immigrant mothers understand and perform their roles in the educational experiences of their children?; and 2) How do contexts (i.e. micro, meso, macro, and transnational) influence the mothers’ understandings and performance of their roles in the educational experiences of their children? Multiple concepts and frameworks related to parent involvement and immigrant experiences informed the conceptual framework of this study. They include the parent role construction of Hoover-Dempsey et al. (2005); the minority parent role construction of Auerbach (2007); Cultural Ecological Theory (Ogbu & Simons, 1998); and transnationalism (Itzigsohn & Giorguli-Saucedo, 2005; Portes, 2003). Despite a certain level of variability among the participants’ educational beliefs and practices, they commonly regarded private supplementary education (e.g. hagwon, or Korean style afterschool programs, and private tutoring) as an effective means to give a competitive edge to their children academically, which is largely practiced in Korea. Also, not all mothers placed priority on school-based involvement including school visits and Parent Teacher Association membership. The findings suggest that the mothers’ current perceptions, expectations, and behaviors related to their children’s education are influenced by their upbringing and educational experiences in Korea, continuing transnational interactions with people and culture in Korea, and their racial and ethnic minority status in the U.S. The findings also suggest that a traditional school-centered conceptualization of parent involvement may be limited in capturing immigrant parents’ strong commitment of their children’s education, which may not be congruent with conventional norms of school involvement. As U.S. federal government and local school districts continue to emphasize parents as partners in education, teachers and administrators will benefit from this analysis of one growing population which demonstrates high achievement in the school system. Furthermore, this research challenges and expands a stereotypical and monolithic understanding of Korean immigrants as “model minority” through a detailed case study of one group of mothers.Item EXPLORINGTHE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN PARENT INVOLVEMENT PRIORITIRES, POLICIES, PROGRAMS, AND PRACTICES(2014) Harris, Daman; Croninger, Robert; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Research connects parent involvement in education and student development, including achievement. However, less is known about how school staff determines programmatic priorities and practices about parent involvement. This study used a case study design to explore the development of parent involvement policy priorities, programs, and practices at an elementary school with a disproportionate amount of low-income students. The primary data sources are interviews conducted during the 2011-2012 school year; other data include an observation of an involvement activity and reviews of relevant documents. The data indicate that school staff implemented parent involvement structures dictated by the school district's central office, and staff supplemented those formal policies with their own unstructured activities. However, insufficient resources were dedicated to monitoring and analyzing parent involvement practices. This study describes the ways that school tradition, staff nostalgia, expectations about parent initiative, and staff's perceived lack of agency might contribute to weak parent involvement outcomes. It also questions some of the assumptions about the purpose of parent involvement policies, especially in a high-stakes accountability environment.Item Perspectives on Parent Involvement: How Elementary Teachers Use Relationships with Parents to Improve Their Practice(2008-11-20) Jacobs, Bryce Anne; Lareau, Annette; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)One of the most important areas of research in education is the role of parents in student achievement. Studies indicate that parents working as volunteers, homework helpers, and participants in school activities influence student success, but we do not know exactly how that happens or how teachers perceive of their relationships with parents. Although researchers state that the parent teacher relationship is important, they have not systematically unpacked how parent involvement is related to the instructional decision making of teachers. This study uses in depth interview data from 21 elementary school teachers who teach grades one through four. The study also includes participant observation in one private school. My findings suggest that teachers, in a variety of kinds of schools, use information about students' home lives and outside interests to make their teaching more effective. They report doing this by being able to motivate students, by being sensitive to a student's mood and by being able to make changes to their curriculum based on student needs. Much of what a teacher, especially in the elementary grades knows about his/her students is gleaned from the students' parents. It is this information that affects teacher practice in the classroom. This leads to teachers not treating all forms of parent involvement equally; they value communication and they use what they learn from communications with parents to customize their curricula for individual students. The literature to date has not examined communication patterns between parents and teachers fully. When examined closely, it seems that teachers try to manage and negotiate their relationships with parents through setting boundaries and through their communication patterns. It has been reported that teachers do not learn about parent involvement in their teacher education courses. This study affirms that assertion and increases our understanding of what teachers are influenced by: their mentor teachers, their colleagues, the school administration and their own parents. This study will add to the parent involvement research by examining teachers' views on their relationships with parents and will help educators and policy makers better understand how parents contribute to classroom instruction.