Is parental awareness of children's academic potential a good predictor of children's learning outcomes in Early Year's settings? Findings from two provinces in Pakistan and India

Abstract

Awareness and knowledge form the basis of parental involvement in children's education. There is very little known about parental awareness of children's learning in the Early Years setting, especially in global south countries. This study presents findings of a large-scale parental survey which focuses on awareness as a predictor of children's learning. The study carried out learning assessments of 1023 children aged 4–8 years and surveyed 873 parents in two provinces in India and Pakistan. To determine the association patterns, the children's learning assessments were linked with parental education, parental awareness of children's learning, school attendance status, and household socioeconomic indicators. The descriptive analysis shows moderate to low positive associations between parental awareness of children's learning and children's actual outcomes in literacy, numeracy, and social emotional learning. Parental awareness is more positively associated with literacy than numeracy and it is slightly negative for non-cognitive outcomes. In the linear regression model children's age, urban-rural differences and parental awareness remain important predictors of children's learning outcomes. However, parents attending school (or not) does not explain variation in children's learning outcomes. Parental awareness is a better predictor of children's learning outcomes than parental school education. This means children's learning can be supported by parents regardless of their own education. The implications call for a development and evaluation of interventions for the improvement of parental awareness. This could lead to changes in parental involvement in education and subsequently impact on learning outcomes.

Keywords

• Parental awareness
• Early years
• Learning outcomes