Broadening the concept of parent involvement: Homeschool families as a pattern for traditional school parent involvement

Abstract

Parental Involvement (PI) research indicates that PI is positively associated with academic success and that for the past forty years researchers, teachers, and administrators have encouraged greater levels of parental involvement in schools to improve overall student achievement. This research reviews at home learning activities conducted by homeschool families that traditional school families can adopt as PI. Our analysis of homeschool families’ PI that could be adopted by traditional families led to several conclusions discussed within this review. The expanded view of PI could potentially challenge the preeminent role of schools in education and result in conflict between parents and schools, either serving as a barrier to productive PI or serving to motivate some parents to abandon traditional schools in favor of homeschooling.

Keywords

• parental involvement in school
• homeschool
• parent engagement in academics