Table 1. Showing the Level of Parental Involvement among Tribal Students
The aim of the present study is to assess the status of parental involvement among secondary school tribal students and compare to their gender and types of school. The study comprised of 174 tribal students by employing descriptive survey method. The sample of the study was drawn from the secondary schools of Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh state, India, by using stratified random sampling. The data for the study were collected by using The Parental Involvement Scale (TPIS) developed by Vijay Laxmi Chouhan and Gunjan Arora (2009) and analyzed by using percentage, Bar diagram, Pie chart, and t-test. The findings revealed that the parental involvement is not found optimum among tribal students as most of the tribal students have low (24.7%), moderate (26.4%), and high level (24.7%) of parental involvement but a few of students have very low (6.3%) or very high (17.8%) level of parental involvement. The result supports that there is significant difference in the level of parental involvement between male and female tribal students, and the difference is found in favor of female tribal students. The result also shows that there is significant difference in the level of parental involvement between government and private school tribal students where the difference is found in the favor of private school tribal students.
Education is a means of devolution of culture, gathered knowledge, and experience to the society. It is also the tool for economic betterment and social change. India is a country, with large diversity, reflected in the multitude of cultures, religions, languages, and racial stocks. The Indian population includes different castes, communities, and social groups. The scheduled tribe population in India represents one of the most economically impoverished and marginalized groups. With a population of more than 10.2 crores, India has a largest tribal population in the world. The scheduled tribe constitutes 8.6% of the total population of the country (Census of India, 2011). Education is a means not only for economic development of tribes, but also for inner strength of the tribal communities which helps them in solving the new challenges of life. Parents have a central role in the education of their children. Parenting is a global phenomenon and parents' rear children all over the world. It is also a social practice historically estabilished (Skeekanth, 2010). Activities like helping children in reading, encouraging them to do their homework independently, monitoring their activities inside and outside the four walls of their house, and providing tutoring services for improving their learning in different subjects may be included in parental involvement (Fan & Williams, 2010). There are various types of parental involvement in education as ranging from encouraging, volunteering in home-based learning activities, and funding for fortifying links between schools and parents (Epstein, 2001). It is determined by such variables as; family, school, society, and motivation factors (Aremu, 2000). Parental participation in decision-making is considered as a comprehensive program by involving parents in learning support activities as well, is associated with better student's outcomes. Community and parental involvement in decision-making may also help make schools to be more accountable to the respective community (Epstein, 2001). There are many reasons for increasing family and community involvement in school. Parental involvement improves student's emotional wellbeing (Epstein, 2005). They can improve school programs and environment; provide family amenities and support; increase social skills and leadership; connect families with others in the school and community; and help teachers with their work (Epstein, 1995).
Mwalongo (2018) conducted a study with the aim to examine the contribution of parents on guidance and career choice for the child's future development. The finding revealed that most of the parents do not guide their children on their career choice and do not have reasons for their career choice.
Samons and Kumar (2018) conducted the study with the aim to assess the level of parental involvement among rural and urban adolescents and found that there is significant difference in the level of parental involvement among boys and girls with respect to locality.
Aslam and Bhat (2017) conducted a study with objective to study the parental involvement and scholastic achievement of higher secondary school students in relation to their gender and urban/rural dichotomy and found significant differences between rural and urban higher secondary school students on parental involvement.
Freund, Schaedel, Azaiza, Boehm, and Lazarowitz (2017) has reported the cultural differences towards motivational factors of parents to become involved in their children's education.
Jaiswal and Choudhuri (2017), in their study found that authoritative parenting style is positively associated with academic performance at all the level of school, although the finding of the study is not consistent across ethnicity, culture, and socio-economic status. Parental home based and school-based involvements have also been positive relationship to their academic performance with some inconsistency.
Orturk, Yilgin, Peksayilir, and Ozturk (2017) conducted a study on attitudes of parents to children participation in physical education classes with the dimensions: perception, function, support and importance. The result revealed there is meaningful differences in the attitudes of parents towards the physical education lesson according to the sporting situations and education status of parents.
Singh and Vyast (2015), in their study found that the parental involvement is positively related to academic achievement, regardless of the definition on parental involvement.
Koskei (2014) on his study found that parental involvement in education did not significantly influence students' academic performance in Kuressoi district.
Parental involvement has a greater importance in the present context where education is a passage to development and desire to edge out others and get ahead is keen. The involvement of parents is more significant than from any other source, because parents are key figures in a child's life, and they are his/her immediate providers and protectors. There are so many reasons for developing family and community to partnerships with school. The evidence from studies support family involvement improves facets of children's education, such as daily attendance, student achievement, behaviour, and motivation (Simon, 2000). They can improve school programs and school environment; provide family amenities and support; increase social skills and leadership; connect families with others in the school and in the community; and help teachers with their work (Epstein, 1995). But the problem ages are from 13 to 18 years, is the onset of adolescence. Adolescents wants autonomy to do their work without any interventions. However, current knowledge regarding the nature and magnitude of the effects of parental involvement in secondary education is inconsistent and limited in scope (Singh et al., 1995). Most of the existing research has investigated parental involvement at the primary and upper primary level and very few of has studied about successful parental involvement at the secondary level schools. So, the present investigation targeted to the secondary school students. It is also observed that the involvement may be different from culture to culture, society to society, and school to school. So, the present study focused on only tribal students. The study may benefit school managers seeking to enhance parental involvement in the education of their children. Also, this study assumes to add knowledge and guidance to all concerned parents, teachers and counselors in order to avoid rearing a generation that is beset with behavioral and learning problems to make full use of children's learning potential.
The descriptive survey method was used in the study. The population of the study comprised of secondary and senior secondary tribal students between the age group 13-18 years studying in government and private school of Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh, India.
The sample of the study has been drawn by using Stratified Random Sampling method. The sample of the study comprised of 174 tribal students, in which 84 male and 90 female students. In the study, 99 students are taken from three government schools and 75 students are taken from two private schools.
The data were collected by using The Parental Involvement Scale (TPIS) developed Vijaya Laxmi Chouhan and Gujan Ganotra Arora (2009). The scale is divided into three areas of parent-child relationship viz. connection, monitoring, and psychological autonomy. In the scale, level of parental involvement is grouped into five levels viz. - Very low, Low, Moderate, High, and Very high. The reliability and validity of the tool are 0.92 and 0.85 respectively. In the study percentage, Bar diagram, Pie chart, and t-test is applied for data analysis.
To find out the status of parental involvement among tribal students studying at secondary level.
In order to find out the status of parental involvement among tribal students the responses from the total number of 174 students were analyzed. As indicated in Table 1 out of 174 students, 11 students have very low level of parental involvement, 43 students have low level of parental involvement, 46 students have moderate level of parental involvement, 43 students have high level of parental involvement, and 31 students have very high level of parental involvement.
Table 1 depicts in percentage that 6.3% students have very low, 24.7% students have low, 26.4% students have moderate, 24.7% students have high, and 17.8% students have very high level of parental involvement. It is graphically shown in Figure 1.
Table 1. Showing the Level of Parental Involvement among Tribal Students
Figure 1. Level of Parental Involvement among Tribal Pupils in Percentage (%)
The result indicates that most of the students have low, moderate, and high level of parental involvement and a few students have very low and very high level of parental. Therefore, it is concluded that tribal students have near to average level of parental involvement but not at very low or very high level.
To compare the level of parental involvement between male and female tribal students studying at secondary level.
The total number of male and female tribal students were 84 and 90 respectively as indicated by Table 2. Figure 2 represents that in very low and low level of parental involvement, the percentage of male tribal students is more than the female tribal students, but at moderate, high, and very high level of parental involvement, the percentage of male tribal students is less than the female tribal students. It is also indicated by Table 2, as the mean parental involvement score of male and female tribal students are 2.93 and 3.51 respectively and their standard deviation are 1.83 and 1.31 respectively. The result shows that the mean parental involvement score of female tribal students is more than the mean parental involvement score of male tribal students.
Table 2. Comparison of Parental Involvement between Male and Female Tribal Students
Figure 2. Showing Comparison of Parental Involvement between Male and Female Tribal Students
There is no significant difference in the level of parental involvement between male and female tribal students studying at secondary level.
The results mentioned in Table 2 indicated that there is difference in the level of parental between male and female tribal students studying at secondary level. For, the analysis of testing this hypothesis, is t-test used in the study. As mentioned in Table 2, the calculated t-value is 3.32 and p-value is 0.014 (< 0.05), which is found to be significant at 0.05 level of significant. This shows that there is significant difference in the level of parental between male and female tribal students studying at secondary level. Therefore, it revealed that female tribal students have significantly more parental involvement than male tribal students.
To compare the level of parental involvement between government and private school tribal students studying at secondary level.
The total number of government and private school tribal students were 99 and 75 respectively as indicated by Table 3. Figure 3 represents that the level of parental involvement at very low, low, and moderate level; percentage of government school tribal students is more than the private school tribal students, but at high and very high level of parental involvement; percentage of private school students is more than the government school students. It is also indicated by Table 3, as the mean parental involvement score of government and private school tribal students are 2.84 and 3.75 respectively and their standard deviation are 1.30 and 1.71, respectively. The result shows that the mean parental involvement score of private school tribal students is more than the mean parental involvement score of government school tribal students.
Table 3. Comparison of Parental Involvement between Government and Private School Tribal Students
Figure 3. Comparing Parental Involvement between Government and Private School Tribal Students
There is no significant difference in the level of parental involvement between government and private school tribal students studying at secondary level.
The results mentioned in Table 3 indicated that there is difference in the level of parental involvement between government and private school tribal students studying at secondary level. For, the analysis of testing this hypothesis, t-test is used in the study. As mentioned in Table 3, the calculated t-value is 5.37 and p-value is 0.007 (< 0.05),which is found to be significance at 0.05 level of significant. Therefore, the null hypothesis for the third objective is rejected at 0.05 level of significance. This shows that private school tribal students have significantly more parental involvement than government school tribal students.
The accumulated evidence supports that tribal students have near to average of low or high level of parental involvement but not at very low or very high level. It is also found that female tribal students have more parental involvement and private school students have more involvement than government school students. This study is in resemblance with the previous study conducted by Aslam and Bhat (2017), which predicted that most of the students have low, moderate, and high level of parental involvement and a few students have very low and very high level of parental. The Findings are in the same direction on a study on parental involvement in secondary education from the perspective of ethnically diverse parents (Hill, Witherspoon, & Bartz, 2018). Freund et al. (2017) has reported the cultural differences towards motivational factors of parents to become involved in their children's education. Aslam and Bhat (2017); Talluri and Suneela (2017) also reported that the female students of higher secondary schools received high level of involvement compared to male students and the parents of female students are more concerned in their education and personal issues. Similar systems were described by Samons and Kumar (2018); Singh and Sharma (2017) as that of the present study found.
Parents have a greater importance in their children's education. Generally, parental involvement is associated with children's higher achievements, enrolment in more challenging programs, greater academic persistence, better behavior, better social skills, adaptation to school, better attendance, and lower drop-out rates (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). In the present study, the parental involvement is not found optimum as expected in these tribal zones and major attempts must be made to enhance various factors to be fruitful academically. The coordination between the parents and school must be focused to enable the parents to have broader understanding about their involvement towards their kids.
The aim of the study is to find out the status of parental involvement among tribal students. The results of the study showed that the Parental Involvement in the tribal children is not at optimum level at this time, which is not beneficial for educational outcomes. So, the further research is recommended to determine the barriers to the Parental involvement among tribal students. Results also showed that government school students got less parental involvement than that of private school student. So, it is also recommended for the further study to analysis the government school framework with respect to parental involvement. The impact of the parental involvement may also analyze in various perspectives of educational outcomes.
The finding of the study will benefit school managers, administrators and policy makers to enhance parental involvement in the tribal children. Parents will also benefit from the results because they will have a better understanding of the importance of their involvement in the education of their children. Also, this study will add knowledge in the use of guidance to all concerned stakeholders viz. parents, teachers, and counselors in order to avoid rearing a generation that is beset with behavioral and learning problems to make full use of children's learning potential.