Title

Expert Teachers' Personal Constructs on Effective Parental Involvement for Adolescent Students

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Year of Completion

2017

First Advisor

R.H. Red Owl

Abstract

Parental roles and societal definitions of the concept of “parent” have changed over the history of U.S. public education. Concomitantly, there has been a marked debate among experts about the importance and effectiveness of parental involvement in education. In addressing this issue, research has concentrated on both the focus (what) and locus (where) of parental involvement but has seldom addressed the conjunction of focus and locus. This expert judgment study on parental involvement in adolescent education expands on the contemporary context of the parental role and offers a framework that demonstrates this multifaceted, contemporary view. This hypothesis-generating, two-phase study relied on Repertory Grid technique to develop a set of social construals shared by 22 individual case study participants, teacher experts who teach adolescent students (Grades 7 through 12) on Long Island. The second phase used an anonymous, online survey asking a larger sample of teacher experts (n = 238) to determine which social construct poles best describe ideal and typical parental behaviors in terms of effective parental involvement. Latent class analysis revealed heterogeneity in teachers’ experiences with typical parents but a shared, homogenous view of ideal parental behaviors. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed systematic patterns in degree level and school type to predict class membership in the latent classes describing typical parental involvement behaviors. This detailed analysis of the expert judgments and conceptions of teachers about effective parental involvement in adolescent education concluded with implications for educational theory, research, policy, and future practice.

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