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Teachers are increasingly being required to collaborate with parents in the pursuitof the academic achievement of all students. Because teachers are being held accountable for,not only the academic success of their students, but also for collaborative measures incommunicating about these, they must be aware of their professional obligations to this‘partnership’ with parents. In this study, I examined and qualitatively analyzed the attitudes andpractices of rural high school teachers in a particular high school to determine potential barriersthat might inhibit or prevent the involvement of parents.Data was collected in three forms: school documents to contextualize the researchenvironment, and an online survey and interviews to capture participants' expressed attitudes andpractices. Seven assertions emerged from the data and were used to answer the most significantresearch question: How might these expressed practices and attitudes inhibit or prevent parentalinvolvement?The findings revealed four barriers including: teachers’ feelings of competence or self-confidencein involving parents, lack of teacher training for involving parents, lack ofunderstanding of parents’ attitudes and abilities for being involved, and lack of administrativesupport. Though the results of this study cannot be generalized to any other setting based on thesmall size of the participant population, the results are worthy of consideration by otherresearchers who may wish to explore potential barriers to involving parents of high school-agedstudents in rural schools. |
