1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The purpose of the exploratory study is to describe and comprehend, for one Québec secondary public school, parents’, teachers’ and administrators’ conceptions of school-based parental educational responsibility. » (p. 32)

Questions/Hypothèses :
« The research question is« How do parents, teachers and administrators conceive of the phenomenon of school-based parental educational responsibility? » This question is subdivided in three subquestion sections. A first subquestion section seeks interviewees’ conceptions of parenthood through contemplating their personal past as to their own experience of their parent(s) and how they conceive they gained useful knowledge for their own parenting responsibilities, relating particularly to school-based experience. Interviewees are also asked how they think parenting responsibilities have changed their personal lives. A second subquestion section requests interviewee responses to their present school-based parental educational responsibilities. For this section interviewees are requested to express what they think are their school-based parental educational experiences, in what ways they are involved, possible instances of school-based parental educational irresponsibilities, school-based parental educational responsabilities they do not enjoy, fell possibly inadequate about or even try to avoid. Questions also ask interviewees to discuss how they conceive of their present parenting responsibilities and present research-site-school policies and practices regarding interrelationships among parents, children/students and school personnel. The third and last subquestion section requests interviewee responses to possible helpful future changes or developments of school-based parental educational responsibilities and research-site-school policies and practices regarding helpful interrelationships among parents, children/students and school personnel. » (pp. 69-70)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« Subjects who were approached and were also interviewees were the school principal, a single female teacher having no children at her residence, a married male teacher with two children, mothers and fathers of two households, a married mother with children and a divorced mother of a secondary school student. » (p. 76)

Instruments :
Guide d’entretien semi-directif, se déroulant à domicile pour les parents, et à l’école pour les membres du personnel.

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

« Widespread approbation exists for quantitative and qualitative increase of school-based parental involvement or participation. The larger picture of development and/or continuation and/or evaluation of a school’s policies and practices effecting meaningful or significant interrelationships among parents, children/students and school personnel lacks investigation, for one school, of parents’, teachers’ and administrators’ conceptions of school-based parental educational responsibilities. » (p. 18)
« A key result of this exploratory study may be a perceived usefulness for more open recognition of mutual school-based needs and wants of both parents and school personnel. Knowledge of mutual needs and wants would help development, sustenance and evaluation of helpful school policies and practices regarding interrelationship among parents, children/students and school personnel. Ease of verbal expression of such ideas may not hide a reality of immense challenges facing useful investigation of aforementioned mutual educational needs and wants. Limitations of time, funds, human energy and other resources required constrict many possibly interesting, useful and helpful social projects. Thought, however, seems required as a result of the present study, as to how school personnel may at least gain sufficient grasp of parental concepts of their (parents’) school-based parental educational responsibilities as a kind of foundation on which appropriately helpful school policies and practices regarding interrelationships among parents, children/students and school personnel may be designed and implemented. Helpful links regarding useful education work for both parents and school personnel involves recognition of value and kinds of values offered by respective educational efforts of parents and school personnel. From mutual value recognition, school personnel may find more focussed parental support for school-based aims, even if much formation and implementation of measures to achieve such aims rests primarily with organized public education system personnel because of ready presence of pertinent organizational factors. Knowledge of how stakeholders of a school community perceive school-based parental educational responsibilities may encourage improving helpfulness of what parents educationally strive to achieve and helpful recognition of mutual school personnel and parental needs in taking steps to achieve respective educational aims. School personnel may find out, in particular, what kind of comprehension of school programmes and goals is actually held by school parents, to help measure realistic educational expectations held by stakeholders of a school community. Such knowledge can help greatly in how school personnel and students try to achieve aims of a given school programme. In particular, both parents and school personnel can learn how respective school-based educationnal efforts may complement each other and kinds of complementary school-based educational responsibility components likely to be experienced in a school community. » (pp. 207-208)