| Responsible Partner | Stimmuli for Social Change |
| Name of the Module | Early school leaving and the role of the family |
| Introduction of the Module | While school is the basic institution for the education of young citizens worldwide, family is the first and possibly most significant ‘learning environment’ that can also determine the future development of the child. In this context, the role of parents and family for child’s cognitive and moral development is crucial. Moreover, family’s support during the school years of the child is also of outmost importance, while the background of parents appears to be a catalyst.
For instance, in a relevant longitudinal study that took place in Netherlands, findings indicated that for each additional year of parent education, the risk of the child for early school leaving decreases by approximately 7% (Traag and Van der Velden, 2011). However, it comes out that it’s not only the educational background of parents that plays a key role, but also their commitment to support their child and the parent engagement in school. The scope of this module is to highlight the importance of the family in child’s development and the crucial role parents can play in the threat of early school leaving. Moreover, a special focus will be given in the families with not a good background (domestic violence, bad economic condition) and how the school can help the children and the families who face difficulties. |
| Aim of the module | The aim of the module is to provide teachers and educators with useful methods and practices about how to develop a good collaboration between the school and families and how to support students that coming from families without a good background. |
| Learning Objectives | Upon the completion of the module, the learner will be able to:
1) Demonstrate knowledge about the important role of the families in children educational development. 2) Understand the importance of collaboration between the school and the family for the good of students. 3) Describe different ways and methods on how to support students that coming from families with a poor or violent background. |
| Content of the module | UNITS;
– Unit 1: School and the family – Unit 2: Parents’ engagement in school – Unit 3: Insufficient financial situation of the family and the role of the school – Unit 4: Domestic violence as a barrier to academic performance ACTIVITIES; – Approaches to involve families in school – Role model analysis SAMPLE CASES; – Sample Questions for Parent Satisfaction Surveys SURVEY; – Level of usability and satisfaction GOOD PRACTICE; – Home School Community Liaison – AFEV – support to fragile families through students-volunteers – POTHOLES – parental engagement initiative in Ireland |
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UNIT-1 School and the family
Unit 1 works as the introduction to the module and gives to the learner the scientific theory of family involvement in school (Epstein’s typology). Additionally, the unit presents the benefits of effective family-school communication, by giving the consequences of a good communication for students, parents and teachers.
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UNIT-2 Parents’ engagement in school
According to relevant studies “family and community involvement in education transforms educational interactions in the school, the street and the household” (Flecha and Flecha, 2015). Therefore, parents’ involvement and even better parents’ engagement in the school could be a key element in the overall pedagogical process of students. In this unit, the learner will understand the difference between parents’ involvement and parents’ engagement and why the former precedes and should be followed by the latter. Moreover, the unit also provides a methodology to measure parent engagement and is complemented with the sample case below, which offers an evaluation tool for parent engagement in school.
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UNIT-3 Insufficient financial situation of the family and the role of the school
Several academic studies indicated that financial pressure in families has a negative impact in children and adolescents, such as socioemotional problems, teenage pregnancy, bad behaviour, and lower school performance (Brody et al., 1994; Gutman, McLoyd, & Tokoyawa, 2005; McLeod & Shanahan, 1993; Mistry, Vandewater, Huston, & McLoyd, 2002; Nievar & Luster, 2006). In this context, low income is particularly linked to problems in reading recognition in middle school children and so to their respective vocabulary (Nievar & Luster, 2006). The lack of a sufficient financial situation in family often leads to less structure and organisation at home, something that is crucial for adolescent’s school achievement and engagement (Taylor & Lopez, 2005).
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UNIT-4 Domestic violence as a barrier to academic performance
Several academic studies showed that domestic violence is a factor that negatively affects the academic performance of students. According to Ward (2013), students who experience domestic violence can’t concentrate in school, while Baker (2002) argues that these students tend to absenteeism/ truancy. The latter scholar highlights also the fact that students tend to be distracted in school, because they are thinking of the problems at home. Because of domestic violence, students tend also to have sudden and/or extreme changes in their performance (Crosson-Tower, 2003), something that leads to low grades and a difficulty to ‘catch up’ with the class. Lastly, Cole et al. (2013) examined the effects on a cognitive level and reported difficulties on learning, problem solving and analyzing. Overall, domestic violence impedes students’ academic performance and, in our case, it might be one of the reasons that leads students to early school leaving.
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ACTIVITIES - ANNEX 1
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SAMPLE CASES - ANNEX 2
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SURVEY - ANNEX 3
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GOOD PRACTICES - ANNEX 4
