Date of Graduation

2003

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Numerous studies conclude that parent involvement in education benefits student achievement and improves the overall quality of schools. However, limited descriptive evidence exists that beginning teachers are being acculturated to parent involvement. The voice of the beginning teacher is relatively silent in the parent involvement literature. Such information could provide school leaders with deeper insight into the impact of parent involvement experiences on beginning teachers and the apparent gulf that exists between preservice training and parent involvement skills required of beginning teachers. The case study approach was used to provide a description of how three beginning, elementary classroom teachers experienced and were acculturated to parent involvement in a public school district in Northern Virginia. Interviews with the three participants were the chief data sources. Interview questions were designed to elicit responses across the four types of parent involvement examined in this study: communicating, learning at home, parenting, and volunteering. Data were analyzed with the constant comparative method as described by Maykut and Morehouse (1994). The results of this study could be used: (1) to give school administrators an informed view of how teachers experience the involvement of parents in their schools and classrooms, (2) to provide information that will influence school administrators and staff development coordinators to incorporate current research into the acculturation process for beginning teachers, and (3) to provide information about beginning teachers' attitudes toward parent involvement that may be helpful to staff development specialists interested in developing programs to address the issue. Findings suggest that principals, mentors, and staff development specialists provided these beginning teachers with useful assistance related to communicating and volunteering, but little assistance was given in the areas of learning at home and parenting. Certain veteran teachers chose to vilify parents unnecessarily while other, well-meaning teachers relieved their young colleagues of crucial job responsibilities. Respect for the knowledge parents possess about their children was an important component in establishing positive parent-teacher relationships. The tendency for involvement to decrease as students progress through grade levels was examined.

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