Family matters

Trends and Audiences

Family matters in the 21st Century     

Education begins at home!  The first simple word a parent speaks to an infant opens the world of language to the child and sets the child on the path of discovery.  When formal schooling begins, many parents believe that their role as educators has ended. But education is a shared responsibility of parents, schools, and students. 

The structure of families has changed substantially over the past decades and this has created several new challenges for education.  Education plays a significant role in supporting these modern families as well as traditional ones, and ensuring learning needs are met for all. 

Do our education systems offer the necessary support for children growing up in these modern families?

Good quality education can be an important tool to reduce inequality and narrow the gap between low and high and low income students. There is a difficult debate about the rights and responsibilities of parents and the schools, and worries about schools and education systems being asked to take on responsibilities that should be those of parents and families. Trends shaping education (2016).  Without a sound relationship between home and school successes will be harder to achieve. 

What to do?

The rise in household expenditure due to the higher cost of living is affecting families worldwide. Parents are forced into full time employment.  Parents work long hours and valuable time is lost for quality family time where norms and values are taught.  In many families’ grandparents are taking over the role as primary caregivers.  Intergenerational learning is an important vehicle for knowledge transfer, however parents should see this advantageous to the child not them.  Children sometimes find themselves in a confusing situation where rules, norms and values are different from school, parents, and other significant caregivers. 

Many children grow up in single- parent families.  Parental divorce might affect children and indeed parents negatively.  Unfortunately, research suggests there is an achievement gap between children who live with single parent and those residing with two parents.  Juggling work, family, and other commitments as a single parent does not leave much time for helping with homework, reading with children and many other activities which are linked to student achievement. 

Parent factor

On average parents across the OECD are older, more educated and have fewer children than before.  As a result, they have more time and resources to invest in participating in their children’s education (OECD,2006; Hooge et al,2012).  There are many ways at my school in which parents can influence and change the schools that educate their children.  Joining School boards, PTA, or even take part in classroom or extra-curricular activities are some ways of getting involved. Parents should keep it simple- read with your child, play together, spend the little TIME available together.  

Most of my reading thus far has a worldwide focus. What about closer to home?  The Parents, Families and Whanau team was established to work with whanau, which includes parents, aunts, and uncles and grandparents, in target communities to help them become actively engaged in their children’s education.  The PWF team provides whanau with information about the benefits of early childhood education, how to support children in the core curriculum areas and how to support their learning. 

For the future…

Effective education at the school level relies on good home-school relations.  Does the growing diversity of family structures affect the nature of these relationships?  
Im left with a sense of worry after writing this blog and Im hoping by communicating with like minded people on the community page I will be able to collect ideas and ways of addressing this issue at my school.

References 

Trends shaping education (2016).  

Hooge et al,2012)