Parental interest in and motives for studying the educational process

The purpose of this study was to determine feelings of parents about their role in the process of public school education.

A questionnaire was developed by the researcher and administered to the parents in the study. Responses were statistically analyzed by computer. Averages, frequencies, percents, and rank order were methods used for analyzing data, Hypotheses were accepted that parents will:

1. Think they should have a significant voice in many aspects of public education.

2. Think their knowledge of the process of education is inadequate.

3. Know little about what goes on in various schools and systems.

4. Be interested in increasing their knowledge and participation in public school education.

5. Be motivated to learn more about public school education to better help their child.

6. Have time to become involved in activities to better help their child.

7. Be willing to participate in a study group to learn more about public education.

8. Be more motivated to learn about areas related to curriculum than they are areas related to politics.

The hypothesis was not accepted that white parents will be more motivated than black parents to learn about the process of education. Insufficient data in this study resulted in no conclusion on this variable. However, the hypothesis that parents with more education and income will be more highly motivated to study education was accepted. The hypothesis was not accepted that urban parents will be more highly motivated to study education than rural parents. The opposite was found to be true. Rural parents in this study were more motivated to learn more about the process of public school education.

The hypothesis was accepted that mothers are more highly motivated than fathers to learn more about the process of education.

The following recommendations were drawn from the study:

1. School superintendents, central office personnel, principals, and teachers should each provide appropriate levels of parent education.

2. Further research is needed to survey what many schools are doing in parent education and to develop better questionnaires and samples.

3. School personnel should involve parents in education decision-making.

4. A program of parent education should be provided by an independent individual to provide a check and balance on other programs.