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Case Analysis

Mariam Juma Alaleeli.

Building Learning Communities
Antoinette Wiseman.
September 20, 2018
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Contents:
Introduction....................................................................................................................................
Research questions ........................................................................................................................
Research process.............................................................................................................................
Findings..........................................................................................................................................
Relate the finding to United Arab Emirate (UAE) context ...........................................................
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................
References .......................................................................................................................................
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In my “Building Learning Communities” course I assigned to do cause analysis related to

family community influence in learning thus, I choose “The Impact of Parental Involvement on

Children’s Education” article to study about it. This case study was implemented in different

ethnic communities in England in 2007. The study is about the relationship exists between

parental involvement and child achievement in school. In other words, it discusses how does

parent assistance in school events and actives will influence children education level confidently.

The article document includes different aspects. The first area is evidence of the impact of

parental joining is school. The second area, the activities that a parent can apply to promote

children (in the early years) skills. Thirdly, the plan published by the Department for Children,

Schools and Families (DCSF) in 2007. Fourthly, the benefits dose children will receive through

parent participation. The purpose of this article is to increased parent awareness about

participation in their children education necessary. Another point to consider, to encourage a

parent to get involved in child school to develop children education and provided a great

opportunity for their children to promote their fundamental skills like reading, writing and

numeracy. (Education, 2008, p. 2).

In this study, I will answer the following research questions: How many parents get involved

in England in 2007? Benefits children received from parent involvement? The impact of family

learning on children’s behavior? Does parental involvement vary among different groups of

parents? (Education, 2008)

Department for children, school and family used different types of research method to

collect the date and come up with “The Impact of Parental Involvement on Children’s

Education” article so, the research methods are experiments and observation as well where they

test two experiment which is The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) project
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which is a longitudinal study of 3,000 children, of age three to observed progress of children

performance when they get support from their family in home activities (Education, 2008, p. 4,

5). The second test is applying literacy and numeracy programs where a parent can join with

their children to develop reading and numeracy to examined achievement before and after the

courses. On top of that, they used research sit method by using data and information from other.

For example, they use knowledge from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) to

understand the child success in Math and English when their parent supports them and

participate (Education, 2008, p. 5). Moreover, they applied literature review methods by Gutman

and Akerman (Education, 2008, p.,9). Furthermore, they used to survey and questionnaire

approach by asked parent different type of questions like Do parents want to get more involved?

Does parental involvement vary among different groups of parents? (Education, 2008, p. 8,9),

("Research Methods," 2009).

Based on, the result given by the Department for children, school and family indicate that

parental participation in England has increased since 2001 when 29% felt very involved. Also,

the result indicates the figure of activities that parent share it with their kids. For instance, doing

school duty (83%) reading (79%) doing physical movements (80%) and other actives (81%).

(Education, 2008, p.3) Comparing to the United Arab Emirate (UAE) I understand that Ministry

of Education in UAE attempt to raise the percentage of family involvement and try their best to

make the parent vital part in education. As an evidence, I read in Albayan news that “For the first

time Ministry of Education" organizes parents conference” (Education, 2018) which is a success

idea because as Hussein Bin Ibrahim Al-Hammadi claim that the aim of this project “contribute

to enhancing the role of parents in the development and renaissance of education in the UAE and

exchange ideas and experiences that serve the educational process in the UAE and contribute to
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building a family and community system that achieves complementarity between parents and

school” (Education, 2018). More to the point, when I was in Rashed Bin Humaid Kindergarten I

observed that teachers and school call a mother to participate in school events and competitions.

For instance, in "Global Day" teacher send message to encourage the parent to be part in this

day. In my point of view, I appreciate that because I think this is the great way to let the child

feel confidence when he\she see her\his parent with him.

Another outcome to consider, family involvement can provide a lot of benefits for their

children in multiple skills such as numeracy, reading and writing at home through applying

useful activity. A typical example of activities demonstrated by EPPE research reading with the

child teaching songs and nursery rhymes and playing with letters and numbers also, help their

children to do their homework. Link to Vygotsky “cooperative learning” theory he said,

“learning by the child occurs through social interaction” (Linda, 2005, p. 40, 41). In my personal

view, I strongly believe in this outcome because I observed in my teaching practice child learn a

lot from other. Stat to the journal article I read “The home learning environment is formative in a

child’s social development and is an essential contributing factor to educational outcomes at all

stages of the learning trajectory” (Fear & Sanders, 2012, p. 19). To illustrate it in a simple way,

home is a great place to develop children socially. For instance, the parent can establish a

suitable area to encourage their child to learn like sit a table for doing homework and provide

books to motivate a child to develop her\his reading skill. However, in UAE we can observed

that nannies assist children in everything like, dressing the child in the morning and help them in

school duty because the parent is busy According to Ayesha Almazroui he come up with the fact

of “In Dubai, for example, 94 per cent of Emirati parents and a substantial number of expatriate

families hire nannies or maids to do homework tasks and look after their children” (Almazroui,
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2014). So, this extremely bad news because I think that will affect a child in his\her language

especially, in speaking. What I want to say that when the child hears English or India language

from the nanny who spends a lot of hours with the child he\ she absolutely will get this language

thus, he\ she will not mastery of the first language (Arabic). According to the Dubai school of

government, they argue that “Language deficiency may impinge on communication and may

curtail productivity” (Al Sumait & Inspector, 2012, p. 4).

In addition, family participation has dramatically effect in children attitude at school. To

paraphrasing, students have better social skills and positive behavior when their mother and

father join at school. Link to Ministry of Education, Guyana claim “Studies have also shown that

kids are less likely to skip school, less disruptive in class, and more likely to do their homework

when their parents are involved” (Education, 2017). A similarity to UAE study, Gulf News state

that “pupils with parents who are involved with their school tend to have fewer behavior issues”

(Masudi & Reporter, 2017). From what I observed, I can tell that if the mother takes her child

every day to school the child will attend the class and will be less absent.

On top of that, in England, the result indicates that there is different of parent responding to

their children school. I learned in my course, that blended family assistance less because of

father divorce or death maybe. According to their England survey in 2007, indicate that there is a

“difference of the level of parental involvement” (Education, 2008. On another hand, in UAE we

can see a parent who has special need child are all more likely to follow child education. The

reason why, because special need kids need more support and care than other kids, therefore, a

parent should work with the teacher to develop child skills in certain domains such as social,

cognitive and physical. Link to Gulf News Dubai Autism Centre and Al Noor School for Special

Needs claim that “We are in the process of developing a website, updating the latest information
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available so that parents [of children with special needs] arriving in Dubai will have a

comprehensive list of other help available” (Thekkepat & Magazine, 2017). To precis, we can

understand that there is the different average of participating in UAE as well as in England.

Overall, the article I do my case analysis in it illustrates the role of parents collaborate in

school will have benefits to improve their child academic performance. According to Importance

of Early Childhood Education: Family Involvement article I read it’s "When schools and families

work together, children have a much better chance for success, not just in school, but throughout

life"(Driscoll & Nagel, 2008, pp. 194, 196). Consequently, I would recommend family to share

home activities with their children, help children to do their homework as well. Also, to join in

school activity because that will have an effective impact on children self-esteem.
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References:

Almazroui, A. (2014, April 13). Parents must be more involved in children’s lives. Retrieved

from https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/parents-must-be-more-involved-in-

children-s-lives-1.606188

Al Sumait, R., & Inspector, B. (2012). Parental involvement in the education of their children in

Dubai. Dubai School of Government Policy Brief, 1-8. Retrieved from

https://khda.gov.ae/CMS/WebParts/TextEditor/Documents/Parental_Involvement_in_the

_Education.pdf

Driscoll, A., & Nagel, N.G. (2008). Family involvement. Importance of Early Childhood

Education: 194-196. Retrieved from https://mylearn.hct.ac.ae/bbcswebdav/pid-

10645104-dt-content-rid-

16669696_1/courses/201810_13692/2%29%20Article%201%20-

%20New%20Thinking%20About%20Family%20Involvement.pdf

Education, D. F. (2008). The impact of parental involvement on children’s education. Parental

Involvement, 1-11. Retrieved from

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120504214534/https://www.education.gov.u

k/publications/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-Parental_Involvement.pdf

Education, M. O. (2017). Five reasons for parents to get involved in their child's education.

Retrieved from https://education.gov.gy/web/index.php/parenting-tips/item/904-five-

reasons-for-parents-to-get-involved-in-their-child-s-education

Education, M. O. (2018, September 12). Ministry of education news. Albayan News, Education.

Retrieved from https://www.albayan.ae/across-the-uae/education/2018-09-12-1.3355533

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Fear, L. E., & Sanders, S. F. (2012). Parental engagement in learning and schooling: Lessons

from research. Family- School & Community Partnership Bureau, 1-60. Retrieved from

https://www.aracy.org.au/publications-

resources/command/download_file/id/7/filename/Parental_engagement_in_learning_and

_schooling_Lessons_from_research_BUREAU_ARACY_August_2012.pdf

Masudi, F., & Reporter, S. (2017, September 20). Study: Few parents show interest in children’s

education. Gulf News, Education. Retrieved from

https://gulfnews.com/news/uae/education/study-few-parents-show-interest-in-children-s-

education-1.2093088

Research methods. (2009, August 21). Retrieved from https://www.alzheimer-

europe.org/Research/Understanding-dementia-research/Types-of-research/Research-

methods

Shirley, A., & Peter, G. (2011). Albert Bandura: Vol. 53. How children learn: Thinking on
special educational needs and inclusion. Practical Pre-School Books.
Thekkepat, S. K., & Magazine, F. (2017, September 9). Helping parents of children with special

needs Gulf News. Retrieved from https://gulfnews.com/culture/education/helping-

parents-of-children-with-special-needs-1.862078