Politics of Participation: Parental Support for Children’s Learning and School Governance in Burundi, Malawi, Senegal, and Uganda

This 40-page report discusses the findings and recommendations from the Improving Learning Outcomes in Primary Schools (ILOPS) Project, a collaborative research study to explore the role of parents and teachers in improving children's learning in primary schools in Burundi, Malawi, Senegal, and Uganda. The ILOPS Project was supported by William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and brought together key stakeholders – parents, teachers, teachers' unions, education coalitions, research institutes, and Ministry officials - to conduct the research.

The ILOPS research explores the different ways in which parents participate in school, including their interaction with teachers and within communities. Research teams also examined how parents support children's learning at home. In turn, the teams set out to understand more about teachers' and pupils' views on parental involvement in school and to what extent recruitment and training policies actually encourage or support parents in actively improving the quality of education. The overall cross-national findings show that only a small minority of parents actively participate in schools. Factors that influence parental participation include: parents' own attitudes towards schools and education, the cultural differences between home and schools, and the cultural and emotional politics of teacher-parent interactions.

Some of the key findings include the following.

• Confidence in one's ability influences levels of interaction: The literature review revealed that parents' personal perceptions of their own efficacy regarding their ability to support their children or engage in schools play a significant part in determining the level or extent of their involvement both within schools and at home. Parental confidence in their ability to contribute was highlighted as one of the underlying reasons behind parental motivation and any eventual decision to participate in their children's education.
• Clarifying roles and encouraging other stakeholders enhances participation: Parental lack of awareness of the roles expected of them, and their obligations towards education, can be attributed to weak policy frameworks and poor communication of these expectations. The research literature highlights that social networks associated with schools and the wider community are important influences that can either limit or encourage parental participation. The literature also shows that teachers have the largest effect on parental involvement at home, in school, and in parent-teacher associations.
• Influence of parental participation on children's learning outcomes: Research generally supports the positive correlation between parental involvement and children's learning outcomes. However, many of the positive associations found in the studies are purely correlational, and causal links cannot be assumed. Some studies show positive associations between parental involvement and support for children's academic achievement both at school and within the home.

The research explored current national policy and the trends and patterns in parental participation within and across each country and found:

• Parental awareness of policies and mandated roles: Across all four countries, parents demonstrated a consistent lack of awareness of the full content of education policies. While parents are aware of education being free and mandatory, they remain unaware of the roles and responsibilities that the policies formally ascribe to them with respect to school-level engagement and governance issues. The value of parental engagement in governance is more likely to be recognised and accepted if stakeholders are made aware of their mandated roles and are actively encouraged to participate as representatives of their peers. Based on the ILOPS data, the notion of "free education" was found to be a misnomer within the local context of schools.
• Policy vision for parental involvement in education: If the policies are ill-constructed or not well communicated to parents, they provide little incentive or opportunity for parents to engage. In other words, parents do not participate because they are unaware or misinformed of their mandated roles and also because the spaces for this type of dialogue are rarely accessible to individual parents. The ambiguity of parental roles in decision-making raises the underlying question: Do governments genuinely want parents to take part in decision making? Within the four ILOPS countries, the policy infrastructure tends to deny parents the legal responsibility to fulfil their legitimate role in education. In Senegal, the government's vision of parental participation is not so much a partnership where each stakeholder has a role to play, but rather a functional or instrumental one. The evidence collected across the four countries clearly supports the need for formal opportunities to be created in which individual parents, and groups, from the different regions in each country, can explain their experiences, inform policy, and challenge governments to improve education policy and clarify roles and responsibilities.

In terms of parental participation in schools, the report shows the following:

• The importance of school-level encouragement: The research team in Malawi found that the frequency of parental school visits hinges on how parents perceive the type of relationships that exist between the school and its community. If the relationship is viewed as good and the school is seen to encourage participation, parents feel free to speak to teachers about school matters. There is an added complexity in Burundi, where parents are reluctant to raise their concerns with teachers in case they are misunderstood and their interaction results in negative consequences for their children in the classroom. The achievement rates of children also seem to impact parents' motivation to engage in school. Parents of poorly performing children seem to lose what little commitment they have to stay involved in their children's education. Across all four countries, parents express their deep-rooted concern about the narrow focus on literacy and numeracy, as well as the emphasis on mass testing.

Another component of the ILOPS research involved understanding how well school management committees (SMCs), parent teacher associations (PTAs), and parent's associations or councils (PAs) offer a means for parents to engage with school. According to the ILOPS researchers in the Kalangala and Masindi Districts of Uganda, the SMCs are largely closed, elite structures that are very reticent to involve parents in school management. Only the elected few tend to participate, with the large majority of parents being involved only when invited to meetings.

Across the four countries, the ILOPS researchers visited students' homes to interview both parents/guardians and children in order to find out whether or not children have enabling and supportive environments conducive to learning:

• Parental attitudes or expectations for children's educational outcomes: The findings generally show that they encourage their children to like school and do their best to limit absence. In Burundi, many parents said they advise children not to "indulge in immoral activities" and not to play at school. Some said they especially try not to disappoint their children before they go to school so they are not affected psychologically. Others said they provide "incentives" to children who perform well at school.
• Parental support of homework: The ILOPS data show that there are parents in every school who support their children's homework, and that parental desire to help their children achieve by supporting their homework is high. For example, in Burundi, 100% of the parents in Bururi District and 83% in Karusi feel they should help improve learning outcomes, but what they actually are able to do in practice depends on how confident they feel about their own knowledge and skills. In Uganda's Kalangala District, 44% of parents think they should provide more time at home for studies. Another 32% of parents agree that correcting mistakes and providing general academic guidance is important. However, in practice, only 25% of parents are actually able to provide time for their children to do homework. Of the parents interviewed, in reality 75% do not supervise homework.
• Literacy levels of parents: Across the four countries, few parents in the ILOPS districts attended school themselves, and their resulting lack of confidence and, at times, knowledge now makes them unsure of how to support their children's learning. The literacy rate for adults in Burundi is only 59% (52% for women). In Senegal, it is 42% (33% for women) and in Uganda, 74% (66% for women). In Malawi, the national literacy rate is 72% (65% for women). These findings point to several key opportunities to support parents. Perhaps, most importantly, there is a need to offer adult literacy training, while building parents' confidence and capacity to use other skills and tools to monitor children's learning effectively, assess if their education is of good quality, and discuss school matters with their children.
• Poverty and livelihoods: Parents' livelihood activities also dictate how consistently they can support their children's education. Poverty and the need for children to supplement family income by working on farms and in small businesses is one main reason parents pull children out of school. Some parents express doubts about the importance and relevance of schooling for their children, who are expected to move along with the household and later become fishermen.

The ILOPS research shows that children respond positively to high parental support and engagement - even if parents cannot help with homework - citing a feeling of importance and motivation to do better. When parents support children in their homework, students reported feeling secure and more competent in their abilities to succeed.

The study findings highlight the following recommendations in terms of education in these countries:

• The ILOPS research clearly demonstrates that parents must be seen as both people with the right to be educated and as educators themselves. There is a need for open discussion around policy, expectations, and perceived parental roles with all stakeholders, including government. In order for this dialogue to be equal and democratic, additional support to parents and pupils, especially women and girls, may be required. "Reflect" and other participatory approaches can be utilised to create space for and facilitate this type of critical reflection on the limitations of all actors. Participatory approaches to adult learning training are practically a prerequisite for building parental confidence and developing their abilities to better support learning.
• There is a need to enhance parent-teacher interactions and support teachers to involve parents, as well as to engage parents in children's education by defining which learning outcomes go beyond tests and partaking in surveys.
• It is important to engage parents in school governance to build parental capacity and have them participate in PTAs as well as to establish district, zonal, and national PTA/SMCs.
• There is also a need for advocacy vis-à-vis government so that it participates with coalitions, advocates on how to improve learning outcome and quality of education, monitors resources and how they are being used, and advocates against recruitment of teachers by politicians and powerful leaders without any examination or control of academic qualifications or aptitudes.
• Greater support is needed from communities, as is leadership from community leaders in education. Promoting links between stakeholders is of importance. There needs to be support for parental engagement in school and at home. A forum of education actors needs to be put together in order to discuss the quality of education which will lead to community charter of quality.

According to the report, the process of engaging parents in the ILOPS research, both as researchers and participants, has already led to some changes. In Uganda, parents who participated in the research are visiting schools more frequently and showing a growing interest in their children's learning. They are making regular visits to school construction sites, raising valid concerns with community leaders and administrators, and engaging head teachers in discussions on school attendance. Parents are clearer now about their roles in school governance and how they can improve learning. They have since been involved in crucial decisions pertaining to school management and are showing a deeper sense of ownership of schools.