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PARENT-TEACHER PARTNERSHIPS FOR ENHANCING PRE-SCHOOL
CHILDREN’S EDUCATION IN UASIN GISHU DISTRICT, KENYA

BY

PETER KIBET KOECH
E83/10941/2006

A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
IN THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION,
KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

ii
DECLARATION
This thesis is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other
university
...

……………………………

Date……………………………………
...
Barbara G
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Signature
Dr
...
Kamau-Kangethe
Department of Early Childhood Studies
………………………………
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Gladwell Wambiri
Department of Early Childhood Studies

Date……………………………………
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They were the ones who laid the foundation that made the journey possible
...
Thanks a lot for your encouragement and support
...


iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I want to thank the Almighty God for His grace and power of
enabling me to complete this work
...
My special
thanks and appreciation also go to my supervisors: Dr
...
Rachael
W
...
Gladwell Wambiri for their guidance, encouragement
and their valuable time and advice as I went trough all the stages of this work
...
I also thank Dr
...
I
appreciate your comments
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Begi Nyakwara for his
constant encouragement and advice
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Sarah Mitei and Mr
...
Mr
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D Bojana deserves gratitude for editing the final work
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Many thanks also go to Teresia Wanjiru
who typed this work from the beginning to the end
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i
Declaration
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iii
Acknowledgements
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v
Table of contents
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ix
List of figures
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xiii
CHAPTER ONE:INTRODUCTION
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1 Background to the Study
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2 Statement of the Problem
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3 Purpose of the Study
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4 Research Questions
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5 Research Hypotheses
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6 Significance of the Study
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7 Scope, Delimitations and Limitations
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8 Basic Assumptions of the Study
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9 Theoretical Framework
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10 Conceptual Framework
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2
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2
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22
2
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25
2
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28
2
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32
2
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37
2
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2
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CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
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0 Introduction
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1 Research Design
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2 Study Area
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3 Study Variables
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4 Target Population
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5 Sample Size and Sampling Techniques
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6 Research Instruments
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7 Pilot Study
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7
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52
3
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2 Reliability
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8 Training of Research Assistants
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9 Data Collection Procedures
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10 Logistical and Ethical Considerations
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57
4
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57

viii
4
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57
4
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59
4
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1 Parents and Teachers Demographic Information
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2
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62
Information
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3 Levels of Involvement in Epstein’s Six Modes of Involvement
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3
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64
4
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2 Teachers’ Level of Involvement in Epstein’s Six Modes
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4 Factors Affecting Parent-Teacher Partnerships
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4
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69
4
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2 Teachers’ Level of Involvement By Their Levels Of Education
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4
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75
4
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4 Involvement and Rural-Urban Contexts
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4
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90
4
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104
4
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119
4
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126
CHAPTER FIVE:SUMMARY,CONCLUSIONS ANDRECOMMENDATIONS
5
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128
5
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5
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131
5
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135
5
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135
5
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1 Recommendation for the Ministry of Education
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4
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137
5
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3 Recommendations for Headteachers and School Managers
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4
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140
5
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5 Suggestions for Further Research
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142
Appendix i: Questionnaire for Parents
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161
Appendix iii Questionnaire for Teachers
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175
Appendix v: Questionnaire for ministry of education officials
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188

ix
LIST OF TABLES
Tables 3
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2 Sample Size for Parents and Teachers ………………………………………
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3 Sample Size of Headteachers………………………………………………
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4 Test-retest Correlation Coefficients …………………………………
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5 Internal Consistency of Sections ……………………………………………
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1 Parents’ Level of Education…………………………………………………
...
2 Teachers’ Level of Education………………………………………………
...
3 Number and Proportion of Headteachers and Ministry of
Education Officers…………………………………………………………

62

Table 4
...
5 Ministry of Education Officials’ Levels of Education………………………
...
6a Overall Parental Level of Involvement in Epstein’s Six Modes of
Involvement………………………………………………………………
...
6b Overall Parental Level of Involvement in Epstein’s Six Modes of
Involvement as Reported by Parents and Teachers…………………
Table 4
...


65
66

Table 4
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8 Mean Scores of Parental Level of Involvement by Parents’ Level of
Education……………………………………………………………………
...
9 ANOVA Computation on Parental Level of Involvement
by Parents’ Level of Education…………………………………………
...
10 Mean Scores of Teachers’ Level of Involvement by Teachers’ Level of
Education……………………………………………………………………
...
11 ANOVA Computation on Teachers’ Level of Involvement
by Teachers’ Level of Education…………………………………………
Table 4
...
13 Levels of Parental Involvement in Private and Public Schools as
Reported by Parents and Teachers…………………………………………
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14 Independent Samples t-Test on Parents’ Level of Involvement in
Private and Public Schools ………………………………………………
...
15 Overall Levels of Teachers’ Involvement in Private and Public Schools…

78
79

x
Table 4
...
17 Independent Samples t-Test on Teachers’ Level of Involvement in
Private and Public Schools ………………………………………………
...
18 Overall Level of Rural and Urban Parental Involvement
...
19 Overall Level of Parents’ Involvement in Urban and Rural Schools as
Reported by Parents and Teachers…………………………………………
...
20 Independent Samples t-Test on Parental Level of Involvement
in Rural-Urban Contexts…………………………………………………
...
21 Overall Level of Teachers’ Involvement in Rural and Urban Contexts…

87

Tables 4
...


88

Table 4
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24 Overall Level of Parental Involvement by the Sex of Persons
Reporting…………………………………………………………………
Table 4
...
26 Independent Samples t-Test on Parental Level of Involvement as
Reported by Sex …………………………………………………………

93

Table 4
...
28 Overall Level of Male and Female Teachers’ Involvement According to
Parents and Teachers by Sex
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29 Independent Samples t-Test on Teachers’ Level of Involvement
as Reported by Sex………………………………………………………
...
30 Overall Means for Parents’ Role Definition………………………………
...
31 Overall Means for Parents’ Role Definition as Reported by Parents and
Teachers……………………………………………………………………

106

Table 4
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107

Table 4
...


108

xi
Table 4
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109
Table 4
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36 Overall Means for Teachers’ Role Definition as Reported by Parents' and
Teachers'………………………………………………………………………
...
37 Independent Samples t-Test For Equality of Means of Teachers’ Role
Definition……………………………………………………………………
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38 Means Scores of Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials’
Teachers’ Role Definition …………………………………………………… 113
Table 4
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40 Means Score of Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials Strategies Used…………………………………………………
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41 ANOVA Computation on Strategies Used to Enhance Partnerships………
...
42 Frequencies of Other Strategies Used by Headteachers and Ministry
of Education Officials to Strengthen Parent-Teacher Partnership…………

123

xii

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1
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14

Figure 1
...
…… 19
Figure 4
...
This will be possible if: First, parent-teacher partnerships were enhanced
in Epstein’s six modes of involvement and partners’ roles were defined; second,
varieties of techniques were employed; and finally, factors that relate to parentteacher partnerships were appreciated and catered for
...
Local researches in Kenya reveal minimum levels of
parent-teacher partnership in primary and secondary schools
...
The purpose of this study was to explore parentteacher partnerships and strategies used to promote these relationships in preschools
...
Epstein’s Family, and
Community Partnerships theory, Dunst, Johanson, Rounds, Trivet and Hamby’s
Family Enabling Empowerment Model and Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s Model
of Parental Involvement, guided it
...
The
independent variables were rural-urban context, sex, type of school sponsorship,
level of education, role definition and strategies used
...
The target populations were parents and teachers of
preschool, pre-school and primary school Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials
...

Questionnaires and interview schedules were used for data collection
...

Means, percentages formed part of the descriptive statistics
...
05
...
There was a
significant difference between parents’ level of education and parental level of
involvement in parenting, learning at home, communications and decision-making
modes
...
Teachers in private and public
schools differed significantly in their levels of involvement in decision-making and
learning at home modes
...
Parents and teachers parents’ role definition was
found to be significantly different in volunteering and decision-making
...
Parents and teachers’ role definition was
significantly different in parenting and volunteering modes
...
The most frequent strategies used by the Headteachers and Ministry of
Education Officials were sending letters, organizing workshops on transition,
holding parents teachers meetings, holding closing term meetings and providing
information about children’s progress
...
The roles of key stakeholders included volunteering in children’s
activities, participation in school decision-making and school policies
...
It was recommended that there is
need to highlight the roles of stakeholders in the partnerships and appropriate
strategies adopted to promote partnerships for harmonius working relationship
...


1
...
This partnership is characterized by mutual trust and respect,
two-way collaboration and support in relationship
...
Partnerships therefore
imply active and committed involvement between parents and teachers where they
share responsibility for a joint activity (Aronowitz & Giroux, 1985)
...
According to Epstein (2000) when parents and teachers
partner in children’s education, parents will feel more confident in assisting and
supporting learning in class and at home, support teachers by enforcing rules and
expectations, turn to teachers as resource persons for solving problems and
encourage cooperative attitudes and behaviours among their children
...
In addition to children’s
improvement academically, their behaviour and school attendance also improve

2
(Epstein 2003)
...


Increased partnership has also been shown to lead to greater teacher satisfaction,
improved parental understanding and parent-child communication and more
successful and effective school programs (Russell & Reece 2000)
...
Parents and teachers therefore
require broad understanding to achieve workable parent-teacher partnerships
...


Governments of the world recognize the significance of these partnerships
...
The Convention states that partnership is important
among all stakeholders such as educators, government and non-governmental
organizations, private sectors, local communities, religious groups, and families
(Bray, 1999)
...
The Kenyan Government has a
policy of partnership at all tiers of education that supports partnership between
parents and teachers (GoK, 2006)
...
In
reference to Kenyan pre-school education, the parents are the most important
partners as they start and manage over seventy-five percent of the pre-schools in the
country
...


There are some evidence of partnerships and parent-teacher collaboration in Kenya
...

However, recent research (Ndani, 2008) suggests that parent-teacher partnerships at
the pre-school level may not be extensive
...
These studies documented aspects of partnerships but they
did not focus their investigation on partnership as an active and committed
involvement
...
Epstein (2003) identifies six types of involvement in her model that
are relevant in understanding partnership in the Kenyan context
...
These are: parenting skills, volunteering, learning at home,
decision-making, collaboration with communities, and communication
...
In addition, parental involvement in Kenyan
pre-schools appears to be concentrated in activities that community members were
invited for such as contributing finances and matters related to children’s discipline
(Ndani, 2008)
...

What was not known was whether these findings could be generalized to other
communities in Kenya
...

One may ask, what are the levels of parent-teacher partnerships in Epstein’s six
modes of involvement in Uasin Gishu District? This was a critical concern for this
study
...
Reviewed literature has shown that the main factors affecting parentteacher partnerships are parents and teachers’ level of education, type of school
sponsorships, sex and rural-urban contexts (Christenson, 2004; Keyes, 1995;
Wawire, 2006; Katerina, 2001; Teklemariam, 1996; Mwoma, 2009)
...
The question that
one may pause is, what factors affect parent-teacher partnerships in preschools in
Uasin Gishu District? It was necessary to investigate and establish whether the said
factors affect partnerships in Uasin Gishu District
...
Katz (1984) asserts that stakeholders may hold
conflicting perceptions about their roles and the roles of other stakeholders
...
Wambiri (2006) and Ngugi (2000) suggest that parents were not aware
of their roles in stimulating young children and believed they are teachers who are
solely responsible for children’s academic development
...
Reviewed literatures
have shown that parents' and teachers' and other ECD stakeholders may have
conflicting views about parents and teachers roles
...
The question that one may ask is,
how do parents, teachers, Headteachers and MOE officials define parents' and
teachers’ roles in children’s education? Thus, research was important to be
conducted in this area to unearth how roles are defined
...

Strategies are therefore needed to support the development of these partnerships
...
These
include home visits, conferences, and involvement in classroom, participatory
decision-making and home-learning activities, among others
...
In their theoretical model, Dunst,
Johanson, Rounds, Trivet & Hamby (1992) recommend that schools and Ministry
officials should design strategies of strengthening parent-teacher partnerships
...

The impacts of this programme have not been evaluated and one wonders if
Headteachers are using the strategies suggested in these manuals
...
The impact of this
initiative and the reasons for the collapse had not been established
...
The
investigation of strategies used to support parent’s efforts in partnerships was
therefore very vital
...
2 Statement of the Problem
As illustrated in the background, the need for parent-teacher partnerships that
enhances children’s holistic development is appreciated both locally and globally
...
According to Epstein (2000) parentteacher partnerships help make parents feel more confident in assisting and
supporting learning in class and at home, support teachers by enforcing rules and
expectations, turn to teachers as resource persons and encourage cooperative
attitudes and behaviours among children
...

Improved partnership has also been found to lead to greater teacher satisfaction,
parental understanding and greater parent-child communication (Russell & Reece,
2000)
...
These studies show that the
roles of the community and parents seem to be restricted to the provision of finances
and facilities (Juma, Waudo, Kamau, Mwirotsi & Harriet 1999)
...
In
addition, research findings in Kenya explicitly show that the main factors affecting
parent-teacher partnerships are parents and teachers’ level of education, type of
school sponsorships, sex and rural-urban contexts (Ndani, 2008; Wawire, 2006;
Mwoma, 2009)
...
Moreover, other research findings also show that the
Government of Kenya has put in place measures to train primary school
Headteachers on how to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships in primary schools
through School Empowerment programme (SEP, 2004)
...
What is known is that the Uasin Gishu District Education Office
Initiative (UGDEOI, 2002) programme that started in 2002 to strengthen the parentteacher partnerships in the district had collapsed at its impact and reasons for the
collapse have not been established
...
It was also not known whether
Ndani’s findings could be generalized to other communities in Kenya
...
In addition, the role that parents, teachers,
Headteachers and MOE officials would ascribe to parents and teachers in the parentteacher partnerships was unknown
...
Thus, little was
known about the strategies the Ministry of Education Officials at the district and

9
national level use to promote parent-teacher partnerships at pre-school level and
also the strategies that are used at the school level
...
This study was undertaken to fill these research gaps and provide
recommendations that will promote these partnerships at the pre-school level
...
3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to explore parent-teacher partnerships in pre-school
and strategies used to support partnerships for the enhancement of children’s
holistic development
...
4 Research Questions
1
...
What factors affect parent-teacher partnerships in preschools in Uasin Gishu
District?
3
...
What strategies do Headteachers and MOE officials at the district and
national level use to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships?

1
...

H2: Teachers with different levels of education differ in their levels of involvement
in parent-teacher partnership
...

H4: Teachers in different types of school sponsorship differ in their levels of
involvement in parent-teacher partnership
...

H6: Teachers in rural and urban contexts differ in their levels of involvement in
parent-teacher partnerships
...

H8: Male and female teachers differ in their levels of involvement in parent-teacher
partnership
...

H10: Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials at the district and national
levels differ in their role definitions for parents’
...

H12: Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials at the district and national
levels differ in their role definitions for teachers’
...


11
1
...
The study findings are expected to
contribute to early childhood education in several ways
...
The study findings may also highlight appropriate
strategies that could be adopted to promote partnerships
...
It may suggest issues that need to be addressed to develop policies that
strongly support parent-teacher partnership to ensure quality early childhood
education
...
This
may lead to more active involvement and better relationship with educators
...
These findings may become a basis for developing
community mobilization curriculum packages for capacity building
...
This
may provide the basis for further research in partnership
...
7 Scope, Delimitations and Limitations
The study was conducted in Uasin Gishu District in Kenya
...

The study focused only on parent-teacher partnership from the points of view of the
pre-school teachers, Headteachers, District Education Officers and Ministry of
Education Officials at the national level
...
The study focused on parent-teacher partnerships and not the role of
the community in partnerships, which was studied by Ndani (2008)
...


The following adjustments were made in view of the post-election violence that
rocked the Uasin Gishu District at the beginning of 2008
...


1
...
In the first
place, it was assumed that there is some extent of parent-teacher partnership in preschool education in Uasin Gishu District
...
These were parenting,
volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, community collaboration and
communication
...
These were strategies employed to increase parental involvement

13
in the school setting
...


1
...
Epstein’s School,
Family and Community Partnerships theory focuses on the six aspects of
involvement, which was the basis of partnership
...
These two
models were used to enhance some aspects of the Epstein theory
...
She uses the term partnership to mean responsibilities that the teachers,
parents and communities should share in children’s education
...
This theory focuses on the roles of parents, teachers and the
community in children’s education
...
Partnership activities that teachers, parents and children engage
in, guide, energize, and motivate children so that they realize their own successes
...
At the level of
the institutions (schools), parents and teachers provide opportunities and resources
to help the child
...


According to Epstein, schools were responsible for designing comprehensive
strategies for partnerships between the parents and teachers
...


Epstein notes that school programmes of partnerships should include all aspects of
these types and their use is not represented hierarchically
...
The theory is framed
in terms of what educators can do and ways that they can be involved parents in
various types of involvements
...


Figure 1
...
Parents, teachers and the

15
community can collaborate in these six key roles to foster a caring community that
children need to maximize their potential in school and in later life
...
It also suggested strategies
that help promote partnership between parents and teachers
...
This theory allows for a holistic analysis
of the obstacles and facilitating factors associated with school-family partnership
and the significant role played by the actors involved in childhood education
throughout the life-cycle
...
The
models below supplemented this theory in that they clarified areas not detailed
within Epstein’s theory
...


The Family Empowerment Model and Parental Involvement Model
The Family Empowerment Model by Dunst, Johanson, Rounds, Trivet & Hamby’s
(1992) and Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler’s (1995) Model of Parental Involvement
supports and enhances aspects of Epstein theory
...
Empowerment in Dunst et al
model refers to utilizing of each person’s resources and competencies, while

16
enabling refers to parents’ ability to define their roles and to determine the nature of
their collaboration with the teachers
...
A partnership approach must necessarily
take into account each partner’s expectations and point of view (Dunst, 1992;
Pourtois & Desmet, 1997)
...
Thus, parents as well as teachers manifest strengths that
complement those of the other partners
...
The enabling and empowerment model emphasizes the use of knowledge
and experience to develop an individual’s resources
...
This model was also used as it
compares the strategies schools and Ministry of Education might be using to
strengthen the relationships
...
These perceptions were explored in this study in
reference to the role definitions
...
The model
explains that parents decide to participate when they understand that collaboration is
part of their role as parents, when they believe they can positively affect their
child’s education and when they perceive that the child and the school wish them to
be involved
...
The model suggests that parents’
decision to become involved in their child’s education varies according to their
construction of the parental role, their sense of efficacy for helping their child
succeed, and the invitations, demands and opportunities for involvement presented
by the child and the school
...
It is affected by their understanding of the parental
role and their views on child development, child-rearing and home-support roles
...


The rationale for selecting this model was because it provides insight on factors that
affect parent-teacher involvement in the partnerships and role definition of parents
and teachers
...
10 Conceptual Framework
The ultimate goal for Early Childhood Education is to enhance children’s holistic
development
...
To do this, parents and teachers'’ need to recognize their
roles and how and to what extent each should participate in their learning
...
All these factors may affect either positively or

18
negatively the six modes of participation in pre-school
...
The relationship between these variables is illustrated in Figure 1
...


19
Fig 1
...
Strategies to enhance
sharing of knowledge
2
...
Strategies to enhance
sharing of experiences
4
...
Strategies to enhance
exchange of information
6
...
10 Operational Definition of Terms
Communication:
Defined as frequency of parents’ and teachers’ behaviours in activities relating to
providing effective school-to home and home-to school links in the promotion of
schools learning and children’s progress
...

Decision Making:
Defined as frequency of parents’ and teachers’ behaviours in activities that relates to
managerial roles, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO, school councils and
committees
...
5 in the likert scale
...

Low scores:
Refers to figures below the mean scores of 2
...

Parent and Teacher Partnerships:
Is defined as the frequency of parents’ and teachers’ behaviours relating to
parenting skills, learning at home, volunteering, decision-making, communication
and community collaboration
...

Role definition for parents and teachers:
A score of parents’ and teachers’ corresponding to a level of understanding of the
specific activities that parents and teachers are supposed to be playing in parentteacher partnerships to support children’s learning at home or in school
...

Stakeholders:
Partners who are directly or indirectly involved in Early Childhood Education such
as parents’, teachers’ and Ministry of Education Officials at the District and
National levels
...


22
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2
...
1 Parent-Teacher Partnerships and Involvement
Parents and teachers involvement is most successful when it is viewed, practised,
and promoted as a partnership between the home and school (Elcholtz, 1984)
...
Sheldon (2004) defined partnership as a
cooperative relationship between people or groups who agree to share responsibility
for achieving some specific goal
...
In addition, Kreider (1999) defined educational involvement
as activities that parents conduct at home and in early childhood settings to directly
or indirectly support their children's learning
...

Partnerships imply more active and committed

23
involvement
...
In this study, partnership refers to parentteacher active and committed involvement in Epstein’s six components of
involvement supported by other stakeholders
...
If parents are to work with
teachers as co-partners in the education of their children, schools must provide them
with the opportunities and support they need to become involved
...
Developing
effective partnerships with parents requires that all school staff (administrators,
teachers, and support staff) create a school environment that welcomes parents and
encourages them to raise questions and voice their concerns as well as to participate
appropriately in decision-making
...


Schools that are most successful in engaging parents and other family members in
support of their children's learning look beyond traditional definitions of parental
involvement like participating in a parent-teacher organization or signing quarterly
report cards to a broader conception of parents as full partners in the education of
their children (Purkey & Degen, 1985)
...
Schools that have developed successful partnerships with parents view
student achievement as a shared responsibility, and all stakeholders including

24
parents, administrators, teachers, and community leaders play important roles in
supporting children's learning (Bronfenbrenner's 1996 & Huira 1996)
...


According to Epstein (2003) parents, teachers and the community can collaborate in
six key modes to foster caring parent-teacher partnerships that children need to
maximize their potential in school and in later life
...
Parenting skills: Children spend 70% of their hours including weekends and
holiday outside school therefore there is need to promote and foster parental skills to
develop a home environment that supports learners
...
The quality of
home environments strongly correlates academic achievement with the school
performance
...
Effective pre-school teachers can assist parents with
parenting and child-rearing skills, knowledge on child development, and in creating
home conditions that support children learning
...
Communication: Communication means designing effective, regular and
meaningful two–way communication between home and school
...
When school community
creates welcoming activities for parents, they feel empowered members of the
school community
...
Volunteering: Epstein (2003) points out that parent volunteering can have a

25
significant impact on children’s achievement in mathematics, reading and
languages
...

4
...
Epstein indicates that when teachers work together with parents to
support learning, children tend to succeed not just in school but also throughout
their lives
...

5
...
These will make parents play roles
as teachers, supporters, advocates, and decision makers
...

6
...

This will enable the schools to identify and use community resources and services to
strengthen school, parents, and children learning and development
...


2
...
According to
Christenson (2004) when parents were involved in their children's education, the

26
children perform better academically
...
Not only
did children improve academically, but their behaviours and attendance also
improve with more parental support (Epstein & Sheldon, 2000)
...


Parent-teacher partnerships can unite stakeholders to a common goal
...


In Kenya, there is also evidence of the positive effects of partnerships on academic
performance
...
The programme
showed that the project had achieved far-reaching findings and that much of the
success could be attributed to improved linkages between schools and communities
...
This means that improved examination results can be realized through
positive parent-teacher partnerships
...
According to Bos, Nahmias, and Urban's (1999) studies,
working together to make decisions, solve problems, and implement strategies help
the rest of the school year run more smoothly and create a positive experience for all
involved
...


In addition, research suggests that there is a relationship between parent-teacher
partnerships and children absenteeism
...
A study by Epstein and Sheldon (2002) indicates that
home-school communication efforts can reduce both daily and chronic absence
...


Partnership also appears to relate to children’s motivation
...
For example, providing a place for educational activities, asking a
child about school, and reading to a child above and beyond aspects of the home
school relationship, is related to children's motivation to learn, attention, task
persistence, and receptive vocabulary and fewer conduct problems
...


Partnerships can lead to better understanding of children’s education
...
That is, it
improves children's educational outcomes, especially literacy, and improves parental
commitment to schooling
...
This view is supported by Hughes & MacNaughton (2002) who
argue that parent’s knowledge of their specific children is as valuable as the
teacher’s professional and expert knowledge of children
...


2
...
By the time when the African-Persian and the Europeans
explorers entered Kenya about AD 700 and in the mid 19th century respectively,
indigenous education had been successfully managed and passed on to the youth
such as societal beliefs and moral values
...
At the advent of Western education, African parents and the local
communities never became passive recipients of education but continued
participating in the education process in various ways like providing land and other
physical facilities (Achoka, 2003)
...


Various directives have also played a role in education in Kenya and supported
development of parent-school partnerships
...
The Kamunge Report of 1979 urged every school in Kenya
to had a Parents Teachers Association with the following responsibilities: to create
closer relations between teachers and parents; provide a forum for discussions for all
aspects concerning the school and its activities; provide opportunities for exchange
of views among teachers, parents, and Board of Governors; to further parents’
interests in their children’s education; and provide funds for development and
management (Maranga, 1998, as cited by Achoka)
...


The Ministry of Education assumed the responsibility for coordinating Early
Childhood Education and Early Childhood Education Development with
formulation of a partnership policy guideline in 1980 titled ‘Policy Guidelines for
Early Childhood Development’ (GoK, 1996)
...
6 and National
Development Plans (1989/93, 1994/96)
...
1 of 2005 on Policy Framework for
Education, Training and Research, the provision of Early Childhood Development
and Education (ECDE) in Kenya involved households, community and Government
efforts in the integrated development of children from the time of conception
...


The Kenya government has continued the policy of partnership at all levels of
education
...
This policy framework suggests that partnership, advocacy,
and interface between parents, communities and other agencies, the government in
collaboration with other partners shall define the roles of different partners at all
levels that include families and communities to enhance the coordination and the
provision of quality services and equitable distribution and access to services to
children especially in education and health (KIE, 2006)
...
The policy
framework in its current form does not say how parent-teacher partnerships should
be enhanced
...
This study had sought to establish the extent of this

31
partnership in Kenya that is intended to promote children’s learning and overall
development and also to identify which strategies are used to enhance these
partnerships
...
Since there is usually no pre-school board to oversee its
operations in pre-schools, parents of pre-school may not be involved in school
activities
...
Although preschools are becoming part of basic
education in 2010, perceived roles of parents by teachers and education officials
will shape interactions in these new partnerships
...


Although the government supports partnering, research suggests that current
partnerships in Kenyan schools appear to be weak or limited in scope
...
In reference to Early Childhood
Education, Wawire (2006) and Ndani (2008) found a similar trend
...


Ndani’s (2008) study in Thika District established that there was low community
participation in Kenyan pre-schools and the participation was concentrated in

32
activities that community members were invited for except on matters related to
discipline
...
Ndani
(2008) established that there was low participation of the community in activities at
pre-schools in communication, volunteering, decision-making, and collaboration
...
Understanding of parental participation in children’s
education would have remained incomplete without investigation of these two
components
...
Moreover, Ndani’s study focused on one community
...


Research findings show that parents get involved in children’s activities at home
...
According to this study, there were specific things parents are
not doing with their children at the family level such as reading books and making
drawings
...
Thus, this implied that parents have some forms of involvements to play at
the home that can be promoted through promotion of Epstein six modes of parental
involvement
...


2
...
Christenson (2004)

33
reports that educators need to be sensitive to issues such as socio-economic status,
amount of parental education and family dynamics
...


Keyes (1995) also gives six factors that can affect parent-teacher relationships
...
Occasionally, these can interfere with social interactions
...
Parents and
educators must make a commitment to communicate with one another
...


It also appears that teachers may not have knowledge and strategies for developing
partnerships
...

A study conducted by Williams (1992) in USA, where teachers, teacher educators,
and principals were surveyed found that 73 to 83% of them felt that there should be
a required course-work for teacher trainees in developing effective teacher-parent
relations
...
The study found that most school districts did not provide
effective in-service training for teachers on parental relations and so teachers had to
learn on their own and some never learned at all
...


34
He notes that this is because many had ethical concerns, while others just lack
knowledge, skills, and strategies to do it
...
The study also
noted very little in-service training was being done to remedy the situation
...
Studies throughout this review found teachers lacked the training and
subsequent knowledge of how to work with today’s diverse student population and
their families
...

Ashby (2006) found that a parent’s lack of education or skills (academically or
socially) could greatly affect their willingness to participate in family-school
partnerships
...
They
found that many educational staff were reluctant to encourage the participation and
input from family members who, despite good intentions, may lack knowledge on
partnerships relations
...
Also, they may feel the partnership makes them look inadequate
alongside well-educated teachers
...
Parents who had more formal education were more likely to
report being involved with their teens learning at home than were parents who had
less formal education
...
Keith (2002) in her
study also found that many parents with higher educational attainment and more
income volunteer and support school events more
...
As teachers think about their work with
parents and families, they often had mixed feelings
...
Epstein (1998) contends that the teacher’s invitation of parents
to participate in school activities is a critical factor in promoting more extensive
parents involvement
...
The study by Wawire (2006) in Thika and Machakos districts of
Kenya found that the factors that affect the quality and relevance of early childhood
education included rural-urban settings, type of school sponsorship, sex, poverty,
and parent and teachers academic qualifications
...
Ndani (2007) study in Thika District found lack of
encouragement and invitation, parents’ academic qualifications, rural-urban settings,
poverty, and lack of awareness as affecting community participation, pre-school
teacher motivation and physical learning environment
...


Rural and urban contexts are strong factors influencing parent-teacher partnerships
...

According to Ndani (2008), there is a significant difference in the level of
participation at pre-school between rural and urban communities
...


Wambiri (2007) attempted to find out the factors influencing caregiver’s
involvement in children’s emergent reading development in Thika District
...
Wambiri found caregivers’ role definition for parents and teachers to
be an important determinant of caregiver’s involvement
...
It was necessary to establish the factors influencing
parent-teacher partnerships and parents and teacher’s role definitions in other parts
of the country
...
Keyes (1995) also identified sex as a factor
affecting parent-teacher partnerships
...
Females and males may differ in the way they view parentteacher partnerships
...
There
was need to investigate and document the factors that affect parent-teacher
partnerships in Uasin Gishu District
...
The reason why
these factors were selected is because the theories and models used and reviewed
literature indicates that these factors are the most cited as affecting parent-teacher
partnerships
...
5 Parents' and Teachers' Roles in Parent-Teacher Partnerships
Role definition appears to be crucial in parent-teacher partnership
...
The roles
that focus on family involvement in school and classroom activities include
nurturance, supporting, guiding and decision-making
...


Wambiri (2007) found caregivers’ defined roles for parents and teachers to be an
important determinant of caregiver’s involvement
...
Katz (1984) asserts that stakeholders may hold conflicting perceptions about
their roles and the roles of other stakeholders
...
Siu and Lo (1987) in their
study in Hong Kong Technical Teachers College established that students, parents,
teachers and education officials had different perception of teachers’ roles in
education
...
According to Katz (1984), there
have been changes on how parents and teachers have viewed each other
...
Confusion often comes about when teachers
and parental roles become ambiguous
...
This means that if each partner clearly
understands his or her roles, then partnerships can be more fruitful
...


2
...
These techniques should
range from teachers disseminating information to parents, to teachers working
collaboratively with parents in decision-making processes concerning educational
practices
...
According to Fantuzzo &
McWayne (2002) traditional strategies of involving parents, such as inviting parents

39
to meetings and school events, did not promote genuine interaction between home
and school
...

Mueller (1997) identified the strategies that can be used to strengthen partnerships
...
Similarly, Swick (1991) says
that strategies that could be used include home visits, conferences, involvement in
the classroom, participatory decision-making, home learning activities, and familyschool networking
...

According to these programme, parents, schools and government Officials should
come up with various strategies to strengthen parent-teacher partnership
...
This and other strategies being used also needed documentation in
order to help educators, administrators and school managers’ deal with the
challenges of collaboration
...
7 Summary of the Literature Review
This chapter has reviewed literature related to the study
...
The literature shows that there is a relationship
between parent-teacher partnerships and children’s academic success and holistic
development
...
Literature reviewed
have also shown that the extent of parent-teacher partnerships may be low in
preschools especially on community participation in school activities
...

Reviewed literatures have also shown that several factors affect teacher-parents
partnerships
...

These factors and teacher training and academic level of parents point to the areas or
variables that could be useful in understanding parent-teacher partnerships in preschool education
...
There was need therefore to
establish the factors including role definitions that affect partnerships in Uasin
Gishu District
...
Research reviewed identified various strategies
that could strengthen partnerships
...
Thus, it was imperative to establish the strategies stakeholders use to
strengthen partnerships
...
0 Introduction
The chapter covers the research design, study area, target population, sampling
techniques, research instruments and data collection procedures and ethical and
logical considerations
...
1 Research Design
The study employed an Ex-Post Facto design
...
An ‘Ex-post facto’ research design is used when
the researcher does not have direct control of independent variables because their
manifestation have already occurred (Best, 1981)
...


3
...
Uasin Gishu is one of
the fourteen districts in the Rift Valley Province
...
The total urban population is 285,635 according to population estimates of
2002
...
Majority of parents in the rural areas of the
district were farmers and they derive their livelihood by growing crops and keeping
dairy cows
...


42
The area was selected because it had both urban and rural settings
...


Furthermore, the Uasin Gishu District Education Office Initiative (UGDEOI, 2002)
programme that was started in 2002 to strengthen the relationship of parents and
teachers in children’s education had collapsed
...
Therefore, there was need for an
in-depth study that looks at the levels of partnerships in the education activities in
the district and strategies used and their effects
...
The district
was also found to provide different types of sponsorship, which were public and
private schools, which provided a good comparison
...
The most affected divisions and
divisions were not picked for the study
...


3
...

Independent Variables
There were six independent variables
...
This was

43
according to levels of education such as none, primary but not to certificate
level, primary with certificate, secondary but not to certificate level, secondary
with certificate, College/ University but not with diploma or degree certificate
and college/University with diploma or degree certificate
...

iii Rural-urban context: A categorical classification of rural and urban settings
...

v Role definition: Parents and teachers' role definition was examined in six
perspectives:
•

Teachers’ Role Definition (TRD): This was a score corresponding to
teachers’ perceptions about their roles and parents’ roles in supporting
children’s education
...


•

Headteachers’ Role Definition of Parents’ (HPRD) This was a score
corresponding to Headteachers’ perceptions about the roles of parents in
supporting children’s education
...


•

Ministry Officials’ Role Definition of Parents’ (MPRD): This was a
score corresponding to Ministry official’s perceptions about the role of
parents in supporting children’s education
...


iv Strategies used: A composite score of Headteacher’s Strategies (HS) score,
DICECE Strategies (DS) score, and Ministry Strategies (MS) score
corresponding to frequency of activities undertaken in the last six months to
enhance parent-teacher partnership
...


Dependent Variable
The dependent variable was parent-teacher partnership: It was examined in two
dimensions of involvement
...


•

Teachers’ Involvement Score (TI): Frequency of reported Teachers
Behaviours (TB), frequency of Learning at Home Behaviours (LH), frequency
of Decision-making Behaviours (DM), frequency of Volunteering Behaviours
(VB), frequency of Communications Behaviours (CB), and frequency of
Collaboration by the Community Behaviours (CLB) and overall mean score of
Teachers Involvement (TI) were obtained
...
4 Target Population
The population for this study comprised of parents of pre-school children, preschool
teachers and Headteachers in Kapseret Division and Kapsoya Division in Eldoret
Municipality and Ministry of Education Officials at the district and national level
...
Kapsoya
Division has 66 pre-schools (51 private and 5 public schools)
...
The target
population also included DICECE officers at the district level and Ministry of
Education officials in charge of early childhood education
...
These six
Officials were based at the Ministry of Education headquarters ECD section in
Nairobi
...
5 Sample Size and Sampling Techniques
The sample size consisted of 135 parents, 60 pre-school teachers, 10 Headteachers,
5 Ministry of Education Officials at the district level and 4 at the national level
...
1 show the selected schools from which the sample was drawn for the
study
...
1 Schools from Which Sample Was Drawn

Areas of study

Total no
...
of selected schools

66 private

5

13 public

5

Pre-schools in Kapsoya

51 private

5

Division

5 public

5

Total

145

20

Pre-schools in Kapseret
Division

46
Table 3
...


Table 3
...
3 shows the sample size for Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials
...
3: Sample Size of Headteachers and MOE Officials’
Division

Number of head teachers in 20

Sample size

schools
Kapseret

10

5

Kapsoya

10

5

Total

20

10

Level

MOE Officials

District

7

5

National

6

4

Total

13

9

Multi-stage sampling techniques were employed to select the sample
...
Stage one: Selection of the study area:
Uasin Gishu District was purposively selected for the study
...
Reviewed studies show that most of the
studies have been done in Nairobi and its environs, hence creating the need to
conduct a study in other provinces and districts
...
In addition, there was sex disparity in the participation in pre-school
education in the district
...
Stage two: Selection of Division:
Purposive sampling was used to select Kapseret Division and Kapsoya Division
...

Kapseret Division provided rural characteristics whereas Kapsoya provided urban
characteristics
...
Stage three: Selection of schools:
Stratified random sampling was used to select 10 preschools in Kapseret and 10
preschools in Kapsoya
...
In Kapsoya, there were 51 private and 5 public schools
...

iv
...

Parents of 450 children formed the sample
...
There were 190 female teachers
...
There were twenty male teachers in
the two divisions
...
Tables
3
...
3 presents the sample for the study
...
Stage five: Selection of Ministry of Education officials:
There were seven Ministry of Education Officials at the district level and six at the
national level
...


3
...


Questionnaires for Parents, Teachers, Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials
The questionnaires were adopted from School Family, and Community Partnerships
Survey Findings, Johns Hopkins University (Epstein, 2000)
...
In the
Johns Hopkins survey, the instrument was initially designed for parental
participation, but in this study they were used for parents, teachers, Headteachers
and Ministry of Education Officials
...
Specifically, items were rephrased, and those that did not have
relevant information were dropped
...
In Section A, parents
and teachers were asked to provide background information
...
Note:
There were three parents who were unable to read English properly
...


The questionnaires for Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials also had
three sections
...
In Section B, items measured the role definition

49
for parents and teachers and in Section C; items measured the strategies used in
strengthening parent-teacher partnership (See Appendix III and IV)
...
Parents and teachers were asked to choose from five responses:
Never (N), Rarely (R), Sometimes (S), Often (O) Very Frequently (VF)
...


Each of the six components had four items each
...
A total mean score of Parent
Involvement (PI) was obtained by adding all the scores and finding the average
...
A total mean score of Teacher Involvement (TI) was obtained by adding
all the scores and finding the average
...
Parents and teachers were asked to choose from five
responses: Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Not Sure (NS), Agree (A), and

50
Strongly Agree (SA)
...
Parents
and teachers scores on these items were added and a means score calculated to give
Parents’ Role Definition (PRD) score and Teacher’s Role Definition (TRD) score
...
These were scores
corresponding Headteachers’ perceptions about the roles of parents and teachers in
supporting children’s education
...
This was a score corresponding to Ministry official’s
perceptions about the role of parents and teachers in supporting children’s
education
...


To obtain the scores for existing strategies used to strengthen partnerships,
frequency rankings were obtained
...
A Headteacher’s Strategies (HS)
score, DICECE Strategies (DS) score, and Ministry Strategies (MS) score
corresponding to frequency of activities undertaken in the past six months that were
intended to achieve the goal of enhancing parent-teacher partnership were calculated
and mean scores obtained
...
This method calls for direct contact between the researcher and
the study subject (Kothari, 2004)
...
The question asked was: What other strategies have you used in the
last 12 months to strengthen parent -teacher partnerships?

Scoring of the Interview Schedules
Frequency scores for other strategies used were obtained to find out the frequencies
of other strategies that were frequently used
...
Frequency
tables were used
...


3
...
These were Kapseret and Kapsoiya
Divisions
...
These schools were not used
in the study to avoid influencing the findings
...
The main purpose of the
piloting was to determine validity and reliability of the research instruments
...
Findings were analysed and some items were modified
...


52

3
...
1 Validity
Validity refers to whether an instrument measures what it is intended to measure
...
Content validity is a
measure of the degree to which data collected represent a domain of indicators of a
particular concept (Mugenda & Mugenda, 1999)
...
The researcher also conducted item-analysis with the help of peer
reviewers in the Department of Early Childhood Studies to check if the items in the
instruments were valid to collect the intended data
...
The researcher also backchecked the essence of each component and the items specific to that component
...
7
...
Reliability refers to whether the instrument is
consistent in producing similar findings on different but comparable occasion
s
...
Test-retest also helped the researcher to assess
time taken to complete the items in order to make adjustments
...
Table
3
...


53
Table 3
...
893

...
944

...
862

...
738

...
757
894

...
986

...
732

Table 3
...
701 to
...
This shows
that the test items were highly correlated
...
70
...
Cronbach’s Alpha is a method of internal
consistency (repeatability) based on the average inter-item correlation
...
Findings of Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient computed from the data

54
collected during the pilot study of the two administrations of the instruments are
shown in Table 3
...


Table 3
...
865

2nd Adm

...
907


...
944


...
738


...
880


...
835


...
739


...
750


...
755


...
877


...
701


...
984


...
668


...
724


...
5 shows internal reliability within each instrument at each time of
administration
...


3
...
The assistants
administered questionnaires only to the parents and teachers
...
The research assistants
were trained for two weeks on how to use the instruments
...
After two weeks of
training, assistants were tested orally to ascertain whether they had grasped the
concepts
...
9 Data Collection Procedures
This was done in three stages as follows:
I
...
This exercise took one
month
...
The researcher and research assistants administered questionnaires to parents in
the two divisions and collected them on a date that was agreed upon by the
respondents and research assistants
...

III
...
The administration of questionnaires and interviewing took one month
...
After three weeks, the meetings were done after every two
weeks to ensure that they administered questionnaires as expected
...


3
...
A research permit was obtained from

56
the Ministry of Education
...
This was
done to ensure proper coordination of the research and also to reduce the suspicion
among the respondents
...
No respondent was forced to participate in the study
or to engage in Behaviour he or she raised objections about
...
0 Introduction
The study was to investigate parent-teacher involvement in the partnerships because
they impact on children’s holistic development and thus academic performance
...


4
...
Descriptive
statistics used included the following: frequencies, means, standard deviations and
percentages
...
The inferential statistics were t-Test for
Independent Samples and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
...

Kothari (2004) state that One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) enables the
researcher to test for the significance of the difference between more than two
samples
...
05
...
One-way ANOVA was used to determine
the levels of significance
...
One-way ANOVA was used to determine
the levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used
to determine levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used
to determine levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used to
determine levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used
to determine levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used to
determine levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used to
determine levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used to determine
levels of significance
...
One-way ANOVA was used to
determine the levels of significance
...
The t-Test for Independent Samples was used to determine
levels of significance
...
One-way ANOVA was used to
determine the levels of significance
...
One-way ANOVA was used to
determine the levels of significance
...
First, demographic
characteristics of parents, teachers, Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials were presented
...


4
...


4
...
1 Parents and Teachers Demographic Information
A total of 135 parents were sampled from Kapseret Division and Kapsoiya Division
...
A total
of 66 parents were sampled in Kapseret Division and 67 in Kapsoiya Division,
which formed 49
...
4% of the sample, respectively
...
4% and 49
...
The percentages for private
and public schools were 48
...
1%, respectively
...
6% and 50
...


A total of 60 teachers were sampled, out of whom 26 teachers were from Kapseret
Division and 34 from Kapsoiya Division
...
3% and those from Kapsoiya Division were 56
...


The male and female

teachers sampled were 38
...
7%, respectively, twenty-five teachers were
sampled from private schools and 35 from public schools, constituting 41
...
3%, respectively
...
Figure 4
...


61
Figure 4
...
1 shows the distribution of parents by their highest level of education
...
1: Parents’ Level of Education
Education levels

Frequency

Percent

Unschooled

3

2
...
8

Primary with certificate

16

12
...
3

Secondary with certificate

29

21
...
3

College/University with diploma or degree certificate

34

25
...
0

The table shows that only three (2
...
8% of the parents had attained primary level of education
...
1% of the parents had secondary

62
education while 45
...

Table 4
...


Table 4
...
7

Secondary but not with secondary certificate

2

3
...
3

College/university but not with diploma or degree certificate

7

11
...
0

Total

60

100
...
The table also shows that 6
...
6% of the teachers had attained secondary level of
education
...
6% of the teachers had at least some
college/university education level of education
...
2
...
3 shows the number of Headteachers and Ministry of Education in the
sampled population
...
3: Number and Proportion of Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officers
Position

Sampled number

%

Headteachers

10

55

DICECE officers

5

55
...
4

A total of 10 Headteachers were sampled from Kapseret Division and Kapsoiya

63
Division
...
Five Ministry of Education Officials
were also sampled at the district level and four at the national office
...
6% and 44
...


Table 4
...


Table 4
...
of Headteachers

Percentage

3

27
...
7

10

100
...
3 had attained secondary education
...
7% had attained college /university education
...

Table 4
...


Table 4
...
of Officials

Percentage

1

11
...
9

9

100
...


64
4
...

The study aimed at finding out how often parents and teachers interacted and
worked together to improve pre-school children’s education
...
To establish their level of
involvement, parents and teachers mean scores were calculated
...


4
...
1 Parents Level Of Involvement in Epstein’s Six Modes
Table 4
...
Specifically, the overall and mean scores for each mode of
involvement were calculated and are shown on the table 4
...


Table 4
...
46
1
...
19
2
...
42
3
...
57

Std
...


...
65
1
...
1

...
0

According to Table 4
...
57
...
Involvement was reported as ‘often’ in communication and learning at

65
home modes while involvement was reported as ‘rarely’ in volunteering
...
60 and were most heterogeneous in decision-making with
standard deviation of 1
...
This means that parents’ views on volunteering mode of
involvement were similar but they differed more in their reported involvement in
decision-making mode
...
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
Dev
2
...
92
1
...
56
3
...
04
2
...
06

Reports by Teachers
N
60
60
60
60

Mean
2
...
91
3
...
98

Std
...

0
...
73
0
...
87

132

2
...
93

60

2
...
86

132

3
...
07

60

3
...
88

2
...
83

These overall mean scores indicate that teacher’s rated parent involvement higher
than the parents themselves did
...
45 while the teachers report parent involvement as 2
...
This difference
in means of reported parental involvement ranged from
...
80
...
They all said volunteering was low
...


4
...
2 Teachers’ Level of Involvement in Epstein’s Six Modes
To understand the other side of parent-teacher partnership, the teachers’ level of
involvement was analysed
...
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
97
1
...
10
2
...
62
3
...
80

Std
...

1
...
89

...
93
1
...
92

According to Table 4
...
80
...
It can also be
noted that involvement was also reported to be highest in communication and
learning at home and lowest in volunteering
...
In the various modes, involvement reportedly ranged
from ‘low’ in volunteering to ‘often’ in communication and learning at home
...


67
Figure 4
...


Table 4
...
Dev
133
2
...
1
133
1
...
78
133
2
...
89
133
2
...
78

N
60
60
60
60

Mean
3
...
47
3
...
37

Std
...


...
88

...
89

133

2
...
89

60

3
...
9

133

3
...
89

60

3
...
83

2
...
50

The overall mean scores indicated that teachers rated their involvement higher than
the parents’ ratings
...
The greatest difference between parents’ reports and teachers’ reports was
noted in community collaboration followed by parenting
...
Some parents said teachers involvement in parenting
was low while others said ‘sometimes’ and a few said it was ‘often’
...
This is because the levels
of involvement in Epstein six modes of involvement were low
...

This was followed by parenting, community collaboration, decision-making and

68
learning at home modes
...
There
was lowest involvement in volunteering mode ay indicate that parents and teachers
did not agree on the stated activities in this mode
...
There was highest involvement in
communication and this may be due to the fact that teachers were using many
varieties of communication modes that include included newsletters, sms, phone
calls, report cards, conference schedules, and diaries to communicate
...
Christie ranks
attendance at school conferences and activities the next lowest on her ladder of
importance followed by participation on committees, tutoring and reading one-onone
...
She found that community members’ participation in school activities was
low
...
She found that community members were most involved in
volunteering followed by communication, community collaboration and decisionmaking
...
The difference could be because the activities she stated in her study
were quite different from the activities of this study
...
The ultimate goal

69
of partnerships in these six modes is to create an effective cooperative relationship
between parents' and teachers' in which each partner would be able to see the
strengths, needs and uniqueness in each other
...


4
...


4
...
1 Parental Level of Involvement by Parents’ Level of Education
The following section shows parental involvement reported by parents’ levels of
education
...
8 shows overall mean scores per mode in Epstein’s six modes of
involvement by parents’ level of education
...
8: Mean Scores of Parental Level of Involvement by Parents’ Level of
Education
Modes

None

Primary

Secondary

College/

of involvement

University
N

Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community
collaboration
Communication
Overall Means

Mean

SD

N

Mean

SD

N

Mean

SD

N

3
3
3
3

1
...
41
2
...
25


...
39

...
25

25
25
25
25

2
...
31
3
...
17


...
49
1
...
2

44
44
44
44

2
...
53
3
...
13


...
54
1
...
1

61
61
61
61

2
...
49
3
...
25


...
61

...
0

3

2
...
63

25

1
...
94

44

2
...
89

60

2
...
95

3

2
...
66

25

3
...
0

44

3
...
0

60

3
...
2

2
...
29

2
...
54

The table shows that parents of all levels of education ‘sometimes’ involved
themselves in the partnerships
...


Results have shown that involvement is less consistent in the individual modes
...
Parents with
primary education and above were heterogeneous in learning at home and decisionmaking while they are inconsistent patterns in the others
...

One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypothesis
...
9
below presents the findings on the ANOVA computation of the significant
differences between means
...
9: ANOVA Computation on Parental level of Involvement
by Parents’ Level of Education

Parenting

Volunteering

Learning at Home

Decision-making

Community
collaboration
Communication

Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total

Sum of
Squares
11
...
551
111
...
268
39
...
619
14
...
841
142
...
440
129
...
191
8
...
157

df
7
125
132
7
125
132
7
125
132
7
125
132
7
124

113
...
475
126
...
976

7
124
131

Mean
Score
1
...
796

F
2
...


...
324

...
029


...
132
1
...
085


...
777
1
...
675


...
262

...
488


...
354
1
...
287


...
05
As can be seen in the table, the levels of significance for parenting was
...
414, learning at home
...
177,
communication 0
...
013
...
There was no significant difference in the parent
involvement scores (PI) with different educational levels in volunteering and
collaboration
...
05
levels of significance was therefore accepted in volunteering and collaboration and
rejected in parenting, learning at home, decision-making and communication modes
...
However, it was
also concluded that the level of involvement of parents with different education
levels was not significantly different in volunteering and community collaboration
...
The findings show that there were a
significant difference between parents with college/university education but with no
diploma or degree and parents with college/University with diploma or degree
certificate
...
As a result of this
post hoc analysis, it was concluded that parents with no education and those with
college degrees/diplomas differed significantly in their level of involvement in
parenting, learning at home, decision-making, and communication modes
...
4
...
Table
4
...


73
Table 4
...
06
1
...
00
2
...
37
3
...
55

...
54

...
63

...
92
2
...
80
3
...
25
3
...
65

...
93
1
...
75

...
67

3
...
86
2
...
88
3
...
53
4
...
74

...
65

...
78

...
60

The findings show that the average involvement score for teachers with primary
education was 2
...
The overall mean scores for teachers’ with secondary education
was 3
...
60
...
Teachers’ involvement
consistently increases in every mode with teachers’ education except in parenting
...


Based on the study questions, the study wanted to establish whether there was a
statistically significant difference in teachers’ involvement
...


Table 4
...


74
Table 4
...
751
21
...
936
9
...
418
44
...
081
22
...
183
5
...
203
46
...
797
149
...
640

59

7
...
131
40
...
950

...
971

Sig
...
001*

1
...
656

2
...
022*

2
...
409

4
...
001*

1
...
763

1
...
202

11
...
775

4
...
004*

1
...
614

2
...
042*

* Significance at p<0
...
001, volunteering

...
001, collaboration
...
042, and decisionmaking
...
The findings show that there was a significant difference in the teacher
involvement scores among teachers with different education levels in five of six
Epstein’s modes
...
05
level of significance was therefore accepted in decision-making and rejected in the
other five modes
...
However, it was concluded that there was a significant difference between
teacher’s levels involvement in parenting, volunteering, learning at home,

75
community collaboration and communication because of their education levels
...
The
findings show that that there was a significant difference between teachers with
primary school certificate and those with college/university with diploma or degree
certificate
...


4
...
3 Involvement and Type of School Sponsorship
The levels of involvement of parents and teachers from private and public schools
are described below
...
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
Dev
90
2
...
94
90
1
...
64
90
3
...
99
90
2
...
1
90
2
...
92
90
3
...
1
2
...
39
1
...
08
2
...
45
3
...
Dev
...
91

...
0
1
...
95

...
54

The findings show that the overall mean in private schools was 2
...
54
...
The finding shows that there was no major difference between parental
involvement in both private and public schools
...


Table 4
...


Table 4
...
Dev
N
Mean
Std
...

Parenting
65
2
...
89
68
2
...
95
Volunteering
65
1
...
59
68
1
...
54
Learning at Home
65
3
...
98
68
3
...
2
Decision-making
65
2
...
0
68
2
...
1
Community
65
2
...
88
67
2
...
98
collaboration
Communication
65
3
...
1
67
3
...
2
Overall levels of
2
...
45
parents involvement
Teacher Reports of Parents’ Levels of Involvement
Public schools
Private schools
Modes of Involvement
N
Mean
Std
...
Dev
...
87

...
42

...
92

...
90

...
54
1
...
99

...
09

...
90

...
68

...
75

...
88

...
27

...
99
2
...
45
...
99 and 2
...
According to the parents

77
and also the teachers, the majority of parents in private and public schools involved
themselves ‘sometimes’ in parent-teacher partnerships
...
Teachers in private
schools reported higher levels of parental involvement than the teachers in public
schools
...


Private and public school teachers and parents were most in agreement in the
reported level of involvement of parents in the volunteering mode as seen by the
standard deviation
...


Based on the study questions, the study wanted to establish whether there was a
statistically significant effect in parental involvement between parents in private and
public schools
...


A t-Test for Independent Samples was used to find out whether the difference in the
parent involvement among parents in private and public schools was significant
...
14 below presents the means and t-Test findings
...
14: Independent Samples t-Test on Parents’ Level of Involvement in
Private and Public Schools

Modes of Involvement
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community
collaboration
Communication

t-Test for Equality of Means
Sig
...
837

...
442

...
522

...
317
-
...
Error
Difference

...
097

...
184

t

...
772

...
003

Df
131
131
131
131

-
...
932

-
...
163

-
...
770

-
...
186

* Significance at p<0
...
It was concluded that
parental level of involvement in this population was not affected by the type of the
school sponsorship
...
05 level
of significance, was therefore accepted for all modes of involvement
...


The study also wanted to find out whether there was a difference between the type
of school sponsorship and levels of teacher involvement in parent-teacher
partnerships
...
15 shows the overall mean scores of teachers’ involvement in
private and public schools
...
15 Overall Levels of Teachers’ Involvement in Private and Public
Schools
Modes of Involvement
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community
collaboration
Communication
Overall levels of
teachers’ involvement

Teachers In Private
Schools
N
Mean
Std
...
02
1
...
89

...
31

...
57

...
53

1
...
70

1
...
61


...
40


...
90

Teachers In Public
Schools
Mean
Std
...

2
...
1
1
...
96
3
...
96
2
...
99

2
...
90 whereas the
mean scores in public schools was 2
...
The findings revealed that there was a
slight difference between teachers’ level of involvement in private and public
schools with teachers’ involvement in private schools being slightly higher than in
public schools
...
16 shows the overall mean scores of teachers’ level of involvement as
reported by the teachers and parents in private and public schools
...
16 Level of Teachers’ Involvement in Public and Private Schools as
Reported by parents and Teachers
Parent Reports of Teachers’ Levels of Involvement
Teachers in Public Schools
Teachers in Private Schools
Modes of Involvement
N
Mean
Std
...
Dev
...
65
1
...
52
1
...
67

...
67

...
91

...
68

...
44

...
39

...
17

...
15

...
42

...
20

...
54
2
...
Dev
N
Mean
Std
...

Parenting
25
4
...
72
35
3
...
71
Volunteering
25
2
...
48
35
2
...
1
Learning at Home
25
3
...
69
35
3
...
75
Decision-making
25
2
...
94
35
3
...
71
Community
25
3
...
73
35
3
...
4
collaboration
Communication
25
4
...
74
35
3
...
88
Overall levels of
3
...
53
teachers’ involvement

Table 4
...
54 and 2
...
The overall
mean scores show that parents with children in private schools rated teacher’
involvement higher than those parents in public schools and both groups reported
teachers were ‘sometimes’ involved in partnering
...
47 and 3
...
This shows that teachers in private and
public schools reported being involved ‘often’ in the partnerships
...
However, the difference between the scores was
small
...


It can be noted that the major difference in public and private school teachers and
the parents was in decision-making
...


To determine whether there was a statistically significant difference in teacher
involvement scores in different type of school sponsorships, the following
hypothesis was tested:

H04: There is no significant difference in Teachers Involvement (TI) scores for
teachers in public and private schools
...

Table 4
...


82
Table 4
...

Mean
Df
(2-tailed)
Difference

Std
...
563

58

0
...
292

0
...
199

58

0
...
272

0
...
870

58

0
...
354

0
...
571

58

0
...
761

0
...
565

58

0
...
277

0
...
355

58

0
...
292

0
...
05
Table 4
...
The mean difference for
the private and urban schools in decision-making was -
...
001 level of
significance (2tailed)
...


The null hypothesis, which stated thus: There is no significant difference in the
Teacher Involvement (TI) scores for teachers in public and private schools at
...
These findings
suggest that teachers differed significantly in their level of involvement due to the
type of school sponsorship they were in decision-making and learning at home
...
The null
hypothesis was accepted in parenting, volunteering, learning at home, community

83
collaboration and communication modes
...


4
...
4 Involvement and Rural-Urban Contexts
The levels of involvement of rural and urban parents and teachers are presented in
the following sections
...
Table 4
...


Tables 4
...
Dev
...
19
1
...
95
2
...

Dev

...
58

...
1

103
103
103
103

2
...
68
3
...
55


...
70
1
...
1

90

2
...
87

102

2
...
97

90

3
...
0

102

3
...
0

N
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community
collaboration
Communication
Overall levels of
parents involvement

Parents In Urban
Schools

Mean

90
90
90
90

2
...
70

Table 4
...
41 and 2
...
This means that parents
in rural and urban areas are reported as involving themselves ‘sometimes’ in parentteacher partnerships
...
This might be because
urban schools demand that parents get more involved in their children’s education

84
than in rural schools
...


Results show that parents in both settings were homogeneous in volunteering mode
as shown by the standard deviation and were less so in decision-making
...
19 presents findings on parental level of involvement in rural and urban
contexts reported by parents and teachers
...
19 Level of Parents’ Involvement in Urban and Rural Schools as
Reported by Parents' and Teachers'
Parent Reports of Parents’ Levels of Involvement
Parents in Urban schools
Parents in Rural schools
Modes of Involvement
Std
...
Dev
N
Mean
Dev
...
12

...
66

...
39

...
55

...
03

...
32
1
...
04
1
...
30
1
...
17

...
40
1
...
19
1
...
19
1
...
32
2
...

N
Mean Std
...

Parenting
24
2
...
94
36
2
...
90
Volunteering
24
1
...
75
36
1
...
74
Learning at Home
24
2
...
87
36
3
...
86
Decision-making
24
2
...
95
36
3
...
84
Community collaboration
24
2
...
92
36
2
...
82
Communication
24
3
...
94
36
3
...
84
Overall levels of parents
2
...
95
involvement

Table 4
...
32 and 2
...
The findings reveal that parents
living in urban areas were reported to be more involved in the partnership more than

85
their counterparts in the rural areas
...
64 and 2
...

This means that teachers reported that parents ‘sometimes’ involved themselves in
the parent-teacher partnerships
...
Teachers also reported that parents living in urban areas involved
themselves in parent-teacher partnerships more than parents in rural areas
...


Parents' and teachers' in rural and urban schools were most in agreement in the
reported levels of involvement of parents in the volunteering mode as seen in the
standard deviation
...


Based on the study questions, the study sought to establish whether there was
statistically significant difference in rural and urban contexts in parents’ level of
involvement in preschools
...


Table 4
...


86
Table 4
...

Mean
Std
...
501

131


...
535


...
623

131


...
157


...
606

131


...
288


...
418

131


...
260


...
452

130


...
234


...
000

130

1
...
000


...
05
The findings show that there was a significant difference between rural and urban
parents in parenting mode of involvement
...
535 with 0
...
There was no
significant mean difference in all the other modes of involvement
...
05 level of
significance was therefore accepted in volunteering, learning at home, decisionmaking, community collaboration and communication modes
...
It was concluded that rural and urban level of involvement in
parenting is significantly different but parents’ level of involvement were not
significantly different in any other modes of involvement
...
21 shows the overall mean scores per mode in Epstein’s six modes of
involvement by teachers’ in rural and urban areas
...
21 Overall Level of Teachers’ Involvement by Rural and
Urban Context
Modes of Involvement
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community
collaboration
Communication
Overall levels of
Teachers’
involvement

Teachers In Rural
Schools
N
Mean Std
...
79
1
...
72

...
90

...
59

...
13
2
...
27
2
...
Dev
...
1

...
98

...
50

1
...
73

1
...
42


...
57


...
65

2
...
65 and 2
...
This means that teachers in both
contexts 'sometimes’ involved themselves in parent-teacher partnerships
...
Based on these findings,
this might be because urban teachers were more positive than rural teachers about
factors contributing to success in their respective schools
...
In the other modes there was less
disagreement in the reports on either rural or urban teacher involvement
...
22 presents findings on teacher’s level of involvement in Epstein’s six
modes of involvement reported by parents and teachers in rural and urban contexts
...
22 Overall Level of Teachers’ Involvement as Reported by
Parents and Teachers in Rural and Urban Contexts
Parent Reports of Teachers’ Levels Involvement
Teachers in Urban schools
Teachers in Rural Schools

Modes of Involvement

N
66
66
66
66
66
66

Mean
2
...
47
2
...
26
1
...
31

Std
...
0

...
79

...
84

...
77
1
...
95
2
...
35
3
...
Dev
...
1

...
96

...
89

...
34
2
...
Dev
N
Mean
Std
...

Parenting
24
3
...
61
36
3
...
80
Volunteering
24
2
...
87
36
2
...
88
Learning at Home
24
3
...
75
36
3
...
73
Decision-making
24
3
...
92
36
3
...
88
Community collaboration
24
3
...
8
36
3
...
87
Communication
24
3
...
92
36
4
...
75
Overall levels of
3
...
51
Teachers’ involvement

Table 4
...
34 while teachers’ level of involvement reported by
parents in urban areas was 2
...
These findings reveal that parents in both contexts
reported that teachers ‘sometimes’ involved themselves in the partnerships
...
It was also observed that the overall means of teachers’ level of
involvement reported by teachers in rural and urban areas were higher at 3
...
5, respectively
...


There was no major difference between teachers’ level of involvement in rural and
urban areas as reported by teachers
...
The parents were more homogeneous on this topic
...
The following hypothesis was tested:

H06: There is no significant difference in Teachers Involvement (TI) for teachers in
rural and urban contexts
...
23 presents the findings on the t-Test computation of the significance level
between means
...
23: Independent Samples t-Test on Teachers’ Level of Involvement
in Rural-Urban Context
Modes
of Involvement

t

Parenting

1
...

Mean
Std
...
277

...
75

...
102


...
525

49
...
601

Learning at home


...
564

1
...
09


...
132


...
840

48
...
405

Community collaboration

1
...
313

1
...
09


...
623


...
62

42
...
110

Significance at p<0
...
23 shows the mean differences of teacher’s levels of involvement among
teachers in rural and urban contexts
...
05 level of significance was therefore accepted in all the modes
of involvement
...
It was also concluded that rural urban contexts did not affect teacher’s
levels of involvement
...
4
...
Parents’
involvement was explained from reports of fathers and mothers and teachers
...
24 shows parents’ involvement as reported by males and females
...
24: Overall Level of Parental Involvement by the Sex of Persons
Reporting
Modes of Involvement
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community collaboration
Communication
Overall levels of parents
involvement

N
90
90
90
90
90
90

Male reports
Mean Std
...
34

...
56

...
04
1
...
32
1
...
34

...
19
1
...
47

Females reports
N
103
103
103
103
102*
102*

Mean
2
...
64
3
...
51
2
...
39

Std
...


...
59

...
95

...
93

2
...
24 shows that the overall means score reported by males was 2
...
The
overall means score reported by females was 2
...
The findings reveal that females
reported that parents were more involved in parent-teacher partnership than the
males did
...
The males might be thinking that involvement in
helping preschool children in their academics is the work of women
...


91
Both the males and the females were most homogeneous in their reports concerning
levels of parental volunteering
...


Table 4
...

Table 4
...

N
Mean
N
Mean
Std
...

Dev
Parenting
67
2
...
98
66
2
...
79
Volunteering
67
1
...
63
66
1
...
48
Learning at Home
67
2
...
0
66
3
...
98
Decision-making
67
2
...
2
66
2
...
93
Community
67
2
...
97
65
2
...
89
collaboration
Communication
67
3
...
1
65
3
...
98
Overall levels of
2
...
59
parents involvement
Teacher Reports of Parents’ Level of Involvement
Reports of Male
Reports of Female Teachers
Modes of
Teachers
Involvement
Std
...
Dev
...
86

...
45

...
94

...
88

...
35
1
...
13

...
04

...
94

...
79

...
68

...
57

...
50

...
93
2
...
31
and that of the female parents was 2
...
Both the fathers and mothers reported that
they ‘sometimes’ involve themselves in the partnerships
...
In parenting,
fathers reported the lowest involvement of parents while male teachers reported the
highest involvement of parents while mothers and female teachers were in the
middle
...


Although there wasn’t much difference, mothers were slightly more homogeneous
than the fathers in their reporting of the levels of parental involvement
...
93
and 2
...
It was observed that male teachers’ ratings on parental
involvement were higher than the female teachers’ ratings
...


Based on the study questions, the study wanted to establish whether there was
statistically significant difference in the parent involvement as reported by sex
...


The male parents and teachers and the female parents and teachers were clustered to
determine if there was a sex difference in reporting teachers’ levels of involvement
...
Table 4
...


93
Table 4
...

Error
Difference

T

df

Sig
...
056

131


...
472


...
780

131


...
076


...
749

131


...
483


...
021

131


...
188


...
270

130


...
205


...
448

130


...
268


...
05
Table 4
...
The findings show that there was a significant
difference in parenting and learning at home modes of involvement
...
47218 with 0
...
In
learning at home mode, the means was -
...
007
...


The null hypothesis, which stated that at the
...
This means that there were significant differences in
reporting of parent-teacher partnerships due to sex differences in parents and
teachers’ reports in parenting and learning at home modes
...


Teachers’ Level of Involvement by Sex
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
Dev
2
...
2
1
...
84
2
...
92
2
...
94
2
...
1
3
...
93
2
...
18
2
...
31
2
...
83
3
...
Dev
...
0

...
95

...
7

...
95

Table 4
...
63 and those for
females was 2
...
Both groups reported that teachers ‘sometimes’ involve
themselves in parent-teacher partnerships
...


Male parents and teachers were homogeneous in their reports of teachers’ levels of
involvement in volunteering as shown by the standard deviation
...


Table 4
...


95
Table 4
...
33
1
...
58
2
...
00
3
...
Dev
1
...
77

...
83

...
87

N
66
66
66
66
66
66

Mean
2
...
84
3
...
50
2
...
31

Std
...

1
...
76

...
72

...
92

Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community collaboration
Communication
Overall levels of teachers’
2
...
64
involvement
Teacher Reports of Teachers’ Level of Involvement
Reports of Female Teachers
Reports of Male Teachers
Modes of Involvement
N
Mean Std
...
Dev
...
89

...
79

...
41

...
52
1
...
65

...
86

...
47

...
31
1
...
52

...
72
2
...
89

...
95

...
47
3
...
34 whereas that reported by mothers was 2
...
Mothers and fathers
have shown that teachers ‘sometimes’ involve themselves in parent-teacher
partnerships
...
47 and 3
...
Male and female teachers have reported that
teachers ‘often’ involve themselves in the partnerships
...
Generally, it can be concluded that male and female teachers reported more
active involvement of themselves than the parents
...


A t-Test was used to determine whether there was a statistically significant
difference in the reporting of teacher levels of involvement due to parents and
teachers’ sex
...


H08 There is no significant difference between Teachers’ Involvement (TI) scores held
by males and females
...

Table 4
...


Table 4
...

(2Mean
Std
...
521

58


...
100


...
460

58


...
107


...
086

58


...
212


...
685

58


...
162


...
400

58


...
199


...
276

58


...
061


...
05
Table 4
...
The findings show that there was no significant mean

97
difference in all modes of involvement
...
05 level of
significance was therefore accepted in all modes of involvement
...
It was concluded that both male
and female parents’ and teachers’ reports of teacher involvement were similar
...


Level of Education
The study established that parents with no education and those with college
degrees/diplomas differed significantly in their level of involvement in parenting,
learning at home, decision-making, and communication modes whereas teachers’
with primary school certificates were significantly different from those with
college/university diploma/degree certificate in parenting, learning at home,
community collaboration and communication modes
...
These findings suggest that low literacy levels might lead to
limited contribution to teaching and learning
...
Teachers with high levels of education were reported to be more
involved and this suggest that they understand the importance of laying a good
academic foundation for children’s in early years
...
HooverDempsey et al (2001) also found that parents who feel they had inadequate skills or
education were also less likely to become involved if they think their efforts will not
positively affect their children’s schooling
...
It can be noted that
these studies were not done on specific modes as seen above
...
Parents who had more
formal education were more likely to report being involved with their teens learning
at home than were parents who had less formal education
...
These findings also
agrees with Keith (2002) who found that many parents with higher educational
attainment and more income volunteer and support school events more than parents
with low education
...
It can be noted that this study looked at
specific modes of involvement
...


99
The study thus, suggests that parents and teachers level of education, sex, type of
school sponsorship and rural and urban contexts factors may be important for
parent-teacher partnerships
...
These factors need to be appreciated and catered for if a fruitful
partnership has to be realized
...

This shows that the levels of involvement in all modes between parents in private
schools and public schools were not different
...
This situation may also show that knowledge in preschool matters
were the same in private and public schools
...
The differences in decision-making would be the feeling that parents
should not be involved in school decision-making process
...
The differences in learning at home may be that teachers do
not have knowledge on how to create home environments that is conducive to
learning
...
The
findings are also inconsistent with Mwoma (2009) who found that fathers with

100
children in private pre-schools get involved in their children’s education more than
fathers who had children in public schools
...
The
findings are also inconsistent with Ndani (2008), whose study in Thika District
established that there was a significant difference in the levels of participation in the
preschool activities among communities
...
In addition, teacher
motivation in these schools was higher than in public schools
...
She found that the most common mode of participation in private
schools was communication, as most private schools required that parents make
comments and sign their children’s homework books or diary daily
...
A study by the National Center for Education
Statistics reported that parent’s involvement in schools is exceptionally high in the
private schools (U
...
Department of Education, September, 1997)
...
She found that the quality of education was low in both

101
private and public schools
...
He noted that private school
teachers were more satisfied with their jobs than public school teachers
...


Rural and Urban Contexts
This study has established that parents’ in rural and urban contexts differed
significantly in their levels of involvement in parenting and not in the other five
modes
...
This is
likely because parents do not have knowledge on children’s development or that
they did not agree on the parenting issues presented to them
...
This means that teachers in rural
and urban areas were in agreement about activities that were presented in all modes
...
In his study
about parental involvement by urban, sub-urban and rural parents, he found that
urban and sub-urban parents interacted more frequently with teachers than rural
parents
...
His study also found that more urban
and rural parents checked their children’s homework more than sub-urban and rural

102
parents
...
These findings
are consistent with the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 1998) in the
United States of America that reported that parental attendance at school-sponsored
events varied by geographic regions, poverty concentration and minority enrollment
(Baker et al
...
From the findings it can be observed that involvement in
parenting is significantly different in parents’ rural urban contexts whereas in the
others they were not significantly different
...
Ndani (2008) also found that there was a
significant difference in the level of participation at preschools between rural and
urban communities
...
Parents in urban localities seemed to suggest that
they pay high fees and leave most of the areas of participation particularly
volunteering and decision-making to management
...
These findings also are not consistent
with Teklemariam (1996) who found that schools in rural or an urban setting are a
determining factor to the type of relations existing between the school and the
community members
...
In addition, the inconsistency could be as a result
of where parents live
...


103
Sex
The study has established that there were significant differences in parental
involvement due to differences in parents and teachers sex in parenting and learning
at home modes of involvement
...
It might be possible that male parents may not participate in
activities of these modes because of the believe that these are duties that women can
do with the children
...
In addition fathers and mothers may not be aware of
their roles in these modes
...
This means that male and female parents’ and male and
female teachers’ reports of teacher involvement were similar
...


On parental involvement based on male and female parents and male and female
teachers’ reports, these findings are similar to Ndani (2008) who found that there
was a significant difference in the level of community participation by sex, age or
marital status
...
Wawire (2006) also found that the factors that affect the quality and
relevance of early childhood education in Thika and Machakos Districts include sex
...
These findings

104
are not consistent with Nyakwara (2007) findings that found that there were no sex
difference in instructional computer use by preschool and lower primary teachers
...
However, it can be observed from the findings that parents views
on teachers’ level of involvement in parent-teacher partnerships was significantly
different in some modes based on their sex
...
These studies looked at parents’ sex and found
that it affected parent-teacher partnership but the current study looked at both
parents and teachers’ sex
...
However, these factors do not affect all aspects of these
partnerships
...


4
...
That is what parents' and teachers' should do and should not do
in the partnerships
...
The defined roles for
parents and teachers within parent-teacher partnerships are described in the
following sections
...
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
17
2
...
36
3
...
58
4
...
83

Std
...


...
86

...
85

...
63

According to table 4
...
83
...
Specifically, they were unsure in volunteering, decision-making, and
community collaboration modes
...
31 compares the means of parents and teachers on parents’ roles in
Epstein’s six modes of involvement
...
31 Overall Means for Parents’ Role Definition as Reported by Parents
and Teachers
Modes of Involvement
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community collaboration
Communication
Overall parents’ mean

N
133
133
133
133
133
133

Reported by Parents
Std
...
12

...
58

...
27

...
69

...
50

...
19

...
73

Reported by Teachers
Mean

Std
...


4
...
18
4
...
03
3
...
50
4
...
56

...
46

...
81

...
31 shows that overall means score as reported by the parents was 3
...
05
...

These results show that parents agreed on their roles in parenting, learning at home
and communication
...
There
scores ranges from disagree to agree
...
Teachers were more in agreement with the stated parental roles
suggesting that they understood parental roles than the parents
...
The
following hypothesis was tested:

H09: There is no significant difference in Parents’ Role Definitions (PRD) held by
parents and teachers
...
32 presents the findings on the t-Test computation of the significance level
between means
...
32: Independent Samples t-Test For Equality of Means on Parents’
Role Definition

Modes
of involvement
Parenting
Volunteering

t

...

(2Mean
Std
...
523

...
104

-3
...
003*

-
...
131

Learning at home

1
...
160


...
114

Decision-making

2
...
040*


...
151


...
651


...
113


...
551


...
114

Community
collaboration
Communication

* Significance at p<0
...
32 shows the mean differences in defined roles for parents
...

The null hypothesis, which stated that there is no significant difference between
Parents’ Role Definitions (PRD) held by parents and teachers at
...
There was
no significant mean difference in parents’ and teachers views on parents’ role
definition in other modes of involvement
...
In the volunteering mode, parents disagreed on parents’ roles
while the teachers were unsure
...


Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials at the national and district levels

108
were also asked to define parents’ roles
...
33 shows the mean scores of
Headteachers’, Ministry of Education Officials’ parents’ role definition
...
33: Mean Scores of Headteachers’ and Ministry of Education
Officials’ Parents’ Role Definition
Modes of Involvement
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community collaboration
Communication
Overall means for Parents’
role definition

HT
N

Mean

DEO
N

11
11
11
11
11

4
...
65
4
...
40
3
...
10
3
...
90
4
...
15

4
4
4
4
4

4
...
68
4
...
31
4
...
49

5

4
...
43

3
...
09

NEO
N

Mean

4
...
33 shows that the overall means for Headteachers, district officials and
national officials were 3
...
09 and 4
...
The findings showed that
Ministry of Education Officials at the district and national level always had the
highest means suggesting that they agreed and identified numerous potential roles
for parents
...
In contrast, Headteachers had the lowest mean scores
particularly in volunteering
...
The three groups also had the lowest scores in
volunteering
...
In other modes, they were not sure while in some they believed that parents
should be involved
...
The following hypothesis was

109
therefore tested
...

Table 4
...


Table 4
...
448
10
...
784
4
...
031
9
...
903
16
...
784
5
...
081
20
...
394
18
...
550

...
603
4
...
724

...
191

Sig
...
328

2
...
296

8
...
003*


...
993


...
642

2
...
887

2
...
084

2

3
...
993


...
06

...
793


...
271

* Significance at p<0
...
34 shows ANOVA test findings of Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials at the district and national parents’ role definition in Epstein’s six modes
of parent-teacher partnerships
...
There was no
significant means difference in the other modes of involvement
...
05
level of significance was therefore rejected in volunteering
...
It was concluded that the
Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials’ definition of parents’ roles was
significantly different in volunteering, but not in other modes
...
The findings of the current study show that
there were significant differences between Ministry of Education officials at the
national level and the Headteachers
...
03<0
...
03<0
...
Ministry of Education officials at the national level had more
positive role definitions in volunteering mode
...
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
12
2
...
32
4
...
01
4
...
93

Std
...


...
80

...
62

...
51

Table 4
...
93
...
The findings also

111
reveal that there was an agreement in all modes except volunteering
...


Table 4
...


Table 4
...
Dev
133 3
...
76
133 2
...
70
133 4
...
58
133 4
...
58

N
60
60
60
60

Mean
4
...
10
4
...
23

Std
...


...
88

...
70

133

3
...
63

60

4
...
55

133

4
...
52

60

4
...
43

3
...
15

Table 4
...
84
whereas that of the teachers was 4
...
This means that parents were ‘unsure’ about
teachers’ roles while teachers ‘agreed’ on their roles
...
Parents disagreed with teachers’ roles in volunteering
...


The findings show that teachers were in agreement on their roles in parenting,
decision-making, learning at home, community collaboration and communication
modes but they were unsure of their roles in volunteering where the mean score was
3
...
The findings reveal that parents and teachers recognize many of teachers’ roles

112
in all modes except in volunteering mode
...


Based on the study research questions, the study wanted to establish whether there
was a statistically significant difference between teachers’ role definition as defined
by parents and teachers
...

Table 4
...


Table 4
...

Mean
Std
...
082

131


...
271


...
593

131


...
275


...
838

131


...
085


...
469

131


...
146


...
223

131


...
027


...
828

131


...
075


...
05
The Table 4
...
The
findings showed that there was a significant mean difference in parenting and
volunteering
...
27188 with a
...
The mean difference for volunteering was -
...
011 level of
significance
...


The null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant difference between
Teachers’ Role Definitions (TRD) held by parents and teachers at 0
...
It was rejected in parenting
and volunteering
...
The
findings show that there was no significant mean difference in parents’ and
teachers’ views on teachers’ roles in other modes
...


Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials at the national and district levels
were also asked to define teachers’ roles
...
38 shows the mean score of
Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials on teachers’ role definition
...
38: Means Scores of Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials’ Teachers’ Role Definition
Modes of involvement
Parenting
Volunteering
Learning at Home
Decision-making
Community collaboration
Communication
Overall
means
for
Teachers’ role definition

HT
N
10
10
10
10
10
10

Mean
3
...
68
4
...
47
3
...
09
3
...
15
3
...
90
4
...
30
4
...
15

N
4
4
4
4
4
4

NEO
Mean
4
...
93
4
...
37
4
...
50
4
...
They strongly agreed about many activities
teachers should do in the partnerships
...
This would be interpreted to mean that
they did not believe it was the role of teachers to be involved in some of the
activities in the parent-teacher partnerships
...
Headteachers had a narrower role definition for teachers in this area
...


Based on the study research questions, the study wanted to establish whether there
was a significant difference between teachers’ role definition as defined by
Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials, the following hypothesis was
tested:

H12: There is no significant difference in Teachers’ Role Definitions (TRD) Held by
Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials
...
39 presents the findings on the ANOVA computation of the significance
level between means of Headteachers and Ministry of education Officials
...
39: ANOVA Computation on Teachers’ Role Definition
Modes of involvement
Parenting

Volunteering

Learning at home

Decision-making

Community
collaboration

Communication

Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total
Between Groups
Within Groups
Total

Sum
Squares

...
133
20
...
042
10
...
300
3
...
108
17
...
115
15
...
684

of

df
2
17
19
2
17
19
2
17
19
2
17
19

Mean
Square

...
184

F

Sig
...
201


...
521

...
178


...
963

...
546


...
058

...
247


...
851


...
288


...
626

2


...
233
17
...
500
14
...
284

17
19
2
17
19


...
250

...
05
Table 4
...
The table shows that there was a
significant difference between Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials at
the District and National level for teachers’ roles in volunteering
...


The null hypothesis which stated that there is no significant difference in Teachers’
Role definitions held by Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials at
...
The null hypothesis
was accepted in other modes of involvement
...


A post hoc analysis was computed to establish the group which was significantly
different in parents’ role definition
...
Ministry of Education officials at the national
level and the Headteachers differed where it was P=0
...
05 and Headteachers
P=0
...
005
...


Discussion of Parents’ and Teachers Roles
In relation to question three which sought to establish the how parents, teachers,
Headteachers and MOE officials define parents and teachers roles in children’s
education, the study established that how parents, teachers, Headteachers and MOE
affects aspects of parent-teacher partnerships
...
The reason that could be bringing the difference in
volunteering are: Parents do not volunteer in preschool activities, parents' and
teachers' believe that they should not be involved, parents are busy, lack of
understanding in preschool issues or cultural attitude about preschool education or
parents' and teachers' may think that it is not parents’ role to volunteer
...


These findings are not consistent with Nicolau & Ramos (1993) study that
established that parents and teachers believe that parents and teachers have a role to
play in parent-teacher partnerships although they have limited roles
...
Moreover, they explained that
parents believed that one group should not interfere with the job of the other
...
She also found
that caregivers had a negative role definition
...
This appeared to be due to lack of knowledge about their role
definition
...
Ngugi (2000) also
found that parents have a common belief that they have no role to play in
stimulating their children’s olfactory perception
...
According to Smith (2000), people act very frequently with their
beliefs and feelings
...
This may be because

118
Headteachers were unsure about parents’ roles in this mode
...


These findings are consistent with Williams (1997) who established parents want to
be more involved in parent-teacher partnerships and in a broader variety of ways,
but educators sometimes were reluctant to have parents involved in modes of
involvement like volunteering and decision-making because they do not understand
their roles in them
...


This study found that there were significant differences in parents’ and teachers
views on teachers’ role definitions in parenting and volunteering
...
This may suggest lack of
knowledge in teachers’ roles in this mode or differences in levels of education and
knowledge in preschool education matters
...
It can be observed from
these findings that parents and teachers were unsure of the roles teachers should
play in the parent-teacher partnerships
...
Swick (1991) assert that parents and teachers can create

119
viable partnerships by engaging in joint learning activities, supporting each other in
their respective roles, carrying out classroom and school improvement activities,
conducting collaborative curriculum projects in the classroom, participating together
in various decision-making activities, and being advocates for children
...
This may also suggest lack of knowledge in teachers roles in
this mode of involvement
...
These findings are also consistent with Siu and Lo
(1987) who established that students, parents, teachers and education officials had
different perceptions of teachers’ roles in education
...
Lack of awareness may contribute to low involvement and ineffective
partnership
...
6 Strategies Used By Headteachers and Ministry Of Education Officials
Based on the study questions, the study also established the strategies used by the
Headteachers and Ministry of Education officials at district and national level in
promoting parent-teacher partnership in pre-school
...
Strategies
used were important because they help educators, administrators and school
managers’ deal with the challenges of collaboration
...
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
Deviation

DEO

5

2
...
40

NEO
HT
Overall Mean

4
10

1
...
10
2
...
21

...
40 shows that overall mean score was 2
...
The findings document that
Ministry of Education Officials at the district level had the highest mean score
...
This means that they reported using more of the
suggested strategies than the Officials at the national level
...
ANOVA was used to get the level of significance
and the following hypothesis was tested:

H13: There is no significant difference between strategies used by Headteachers (HS

121
score) and Ministry of Education Officials (DS score and MS score) to strengthen
parent teacher partnerships
...
Table 4
...


Table 4
...
283
2
2
...
022
19

Mean
S

...
878

Sig
...
43


...
41 shows ANOVA scores for Headteachers and Ministry of Education
Officials on the strategies they used to enhance parent-teacher partnerships
...
434
...
However, as it was seen earlier, the
use of the other strategies by these three groups shows major differences in the
frequencies
...
05 level of significance was therefore accepted
...
This suggests that Headteachers and Ministry of
Education Officials’ use of strategies was the same
...


122
The findings also show that the use of strategies by these three groups to strengthen
partnerships was reported to be almost the same
...


To obtain more information about other strategies used, ten Headteachers, five
DICECE officers and four officials at the national level were interviewed
...
42
...
42 shows the frequencies of other strategies used by Headteachers and
Ministry of Education Officials to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships
...
42 Frequencies of Other Strategies Used by Headteachers and Ministry
of Education Officials to Strengthen Parent-teacher Partnership
Other Strategies Used
Organizing workshops on transition

HT
10

DEO
0

NOE
0

Total
10

Conducting home visits
Organizing for graduations
Holding farewell parties
Using class representatives
Organizing academic days
Taking children for academic tours
Encouraging parents to allow children to participate in games
Sending letters
Organizing for sporting days
Open visits by parents

5
9
7
4
6
6
7
10
5
4

0
0
0
0
3
0
2
5
0
0

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

5
9
7
4
9
6
9
15
5
4

Providing information about children’s progress

10

0

0

10

Holding parents teachers meetings

10

3

0

13

Involved administrators (chiefs/assistant chiefs)

3

8

0

11

Organizing for sensitization meetings

4

5

0

9

Holding class meetings for parents

5

0

0

5

Participation in volunteer services in school

3

0

0

3

Holding closing term meetings

10

0

0

10

Sending information to the teachers through DICECE officers

0

0

8

8

Organizes training opportunities for DICECE officers

0

0

3

3

Passing policy did documents to DICECE officers

0

0

4

4

Total Frequency of Other Strategies used within The Last 12
Months to Strengthen Parent-teacher Partnerships

118

27

15

160

*Note: the frequencies indicated 0 showed that the activity was not applicable to the
group
...
42 shows the frequency of other strategies used by Headteachers and
Ministry of Education Officials in the last 12 months
...

•

Headteachers and Ministry of Education Officials varied considerably in the
other strategies used
...

•

The most frequently used strategy by National Education Officials was sending
information to the teachers through DICECE officers
...


•

The least frequent strategies among DICECE officers were encouraging parents
to allow children to participate in games, holding parents teachers meetings and
organizing academic days
...


•

The least mentioned strategy was participation in volunteer services in schools
and organizing training opportunities for DICECE officials
...
The findings also revealed that few strategies were used in a
year
...
This implied that the
relationship between school and home was weak
...


This means that they use few of the stated and recommended strategies to strengthen
partnerships and increase opportunities for engagement
...
There is lack of knowledge about effective strategies that would be used
ii
...
Conflicting in roles
iv
...
Logistical problems as many schools are in rural areas
...
But, it appears that these many other strategies were not
effective since partnership was found to be low
...
These findings are also close to Fantuzzo & McWayne (2002) study that
found that traditional strategies to involve parents, such as inviting parents to
meetings and school events, did not promote genuine interaction between home and
school
...
They suggested that two-way
communication between home and school is essential to building successful parentteacher partnerships
...
Two-way communication provides choices to parents

126
as to the times and ways they can be involved in their children's education
...
Unfortunately, many teachers
were not specifically trained in the skills they need to communicate effectively with
parents (Hradecky, 1994; Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2004)
...

According to Epstein & Dauber, (1991) teachers often did not have the attitudes,
knowledge, skills, and strategies needed to collaborate with families effectively
because the topic of family involvement in education has not enjoyed a central role
in teacher education programs
...


4
...
Findings
were presented using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations
...
One Way Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA) and t-Test for independent samples were used to test the
hypotheses
...
It was noted that the level of parentteacher partnerships was low in the Epstein six modes of involvement
...
On the other hand, teachers’ level of involvement was
found to be significantly different due to their educational levels in parenting,
volunteering, community collaboration, learning at home and communication
modes
...
Findings also showed that parents’ level of involvement was
significantly different in Rural-urban context in parenting mode of involvement
...
The way parents and
teachers’ defined parents’ roles within the partnerships were found to be
significantly different in volunteering and decision-making
...
In addition,
strategies used by Headteachers and Ministry of Education officials to strengthen
parent-teacher partnerships were not found to be significantly different but
Headteachers were found not to be in agreement with some roles parents' and
teachers' should play in the partnerships
...
0 Introduction
In this chapter, the summary of the study is presented with major conclusions drawn
from the study
...


5
...
The most frequent mode of involvement for the parents was
communication
...
The least mode of involvement for
parents was volunteering
...
This was followed by decision-making, community collaboration,
learning at home and parenting in that order
...


In this study findings shows that parents, teachers, Headateachers and MOE
officials differed significantly in parent-teacher partnerships specifically in
parenting, volunteering and decision-making modes of involvement
...


There was a significant difference between parents’ level of education and parental
level of involvement in parenting, learning at home, communications and decisionmaking modes
...
Parental involvement was not found to be significantly
different due to their educational levels in volunteering and collaboration
...
There was also a significant
difference between parents with College/ University education with diploma or
degree certificate and the unschooled
...
This means that teachers of different educational
levels differed significantly in these modes
...
Specifically, there was a significant
difference between teachers with primary education and those with college
education
...
On the other hand, the findings showed that
the teachers in private and public schools differed significantly in their levels of
involvement in decision-making and learning at home modes
...
This
means that the type of school sponsorship affect the teacher’s levels of involvement
in decision- making and learning at home
...


130
Rural and urban parents’ level of involvement was found to be significantly
different in parenting mode of involvement
...
On the other hand, the
findings showed that teachers’ level of involvement was not significantly different
in rural and urban context in all modes of involvement
...


The findings showed that there was a significant difference between parental
involvement and parents and teachers’ sex in parenting and learning at home modes
...
This also meant that mothers and fathers and teachers’ views on parental
level of involvement were similar in volunteering, decision-making, community
collaboration and communication based on their sex
...
It can be concluded that both fathers and mothers and teachers’ reports
of teacher involvement were similar
...


The way parents and teacher’s defined parents’ roles within the partnerships were
found to be significantly different in volunteering and decision-making
...


131
It was also found that the way parents and teachers’ defined teachers’ roles in
parent-teacher partnerships were significantly different in parenting and
volunteering modes
...
The national education officials agreed strongly that parents and teachers
should be volunteering while parents, teachers and Headteachers said that was not
their role
...
This means that the numbers of strategies
used by Headteachers and Ministry of Education officials were almost the same
...


5
...
Some of the important implications were:

Low parent-teacher partnership in the six modes of involvement is likely to lead to
low educational outcomes
...
Research suggests that when parents were involved in their children's
education, children perform better academically (Christenson, 2004)
...
In addition, increased partnership has
also been shown to lead to greater teacher satisfaction, improved parent
understanding and parent-child communication and more successful and effective
school programmes (Russell and Reece 2000)
...
Thus, more effective strategies were required to increase parentteacher partnership
...
This poor relationship will ultimately lead to poor academic outcomes
...
Equally important, when schools
work to create a positive climate, parents uphold the school in the eyes and ears of
their children (Christenson, 1999)
...


Low parental and teachers’ level of education is likely to lead to low parental and
teacher involvement
...
This means that parents of different
educational levels differed significantly in these modes
...
This means that parents who were
more educated with at least secondary education were more involved in children’s
education than those who did not have the same education
...
On the other hand, teachers’ level of involvement was found to be
significantly different in parenting, volunteering, community collaboration, learning
at home and communication modes due to their educational levels
...

This implied that limited education did notes not allow teachers to engage
themselves actively in these six modes of involvement
...
The type of school sponsorships was found to be
significantly different in teachers’ levels of involvement in decision-making and
learning at home modes
...
The
findings showed that teachers in private schools were more involved than those in
public schools
...


Low level of involvement disadvantages children in academics
...
This means that where parents lived affect their
views on parenting mode of involvement
...
Children in rural areas
could be disadvantaged in their academic work as a result of their parents not
helping them with schoolwork at home
...
Parents’ level of
involvement was found to be significantly different in parenting and learning at
home modes of involvement due to their sex
...
The
findings showed that female parents were more involved in parent-teacher
partnerships more than male parents
...


Lack of awareness of the roles that stakeholders should play in parent-teacher
partnerships may lead to conflicting roles among partners and ultimately may affect
the spirit of partnerships
...
This means that there could have been other factors that affected the
way they defined their roles
...
However, the way
Headteachers and Ministry of Education officials defined parents’ roles was found
to be significantly different in volunteering mode of involvement
...
This means that they did
not agree on the roles parents should play in volunteering mode of involvement
...
Use of the recommended strategies by Headteachers
and Ministry of Education officials to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships were
not found to be significantly different but they use them infrequently
...
New measures therefore need to be
considered
...
At this point
different strategies may be required
...
3 Study Conclusion
Findings from this study have clearly shown that parent-teacher partnership in preschools in Uasin Gishu district is weak
...
Strong early childhood education stakeholders’ partnership leads to
better education outcomes and children’s holistic development
...
Various
factors were found to affect various aspects of parent-teacher partnerships in
preschools
...
Some of these factors were found to be significant
...
Sex and type of school sponsorships were also found
to affect parent-teacher partnerships
...
It was concluded that the above factors were important
in facilitating parent-teacher partnerships for enhancement of children’s holistic
development and should be considered when developing strategies used to enhance
the partnership
...
4 Recommendations
Some of the recommendations for the important stakeholders in ECDE have been

136
outlined in the subsequent sections
...
4
...
It is recommended that the
Ministry of Education assess the impacts of the partnership policy in Kenyan
pre-schools
...
Also, it is
recommended that the Ministry of Education review or develop new policies
that strongly support parent-teachers’ partnerships to ensure quality early
childhood education
...

2) Results showed that parents and teachers differed significantly in parenting,
volunteering and decision-making modes of partnership
...

3) The study established that there was a significant difference between parents’
level of education and parents’ level of involvement in parenting, learning at
home, communication and decision-making modes
...

Based on these research findings, it is recommended that the Ministry of
Education strengths adult education curriculum to cater for the need of the
unschooled parents
...

4) The findings indicated that stakeholders (parents, teachers, Headteachers and

137
Ministry of Education officials) significantly differed in the roles parents and
teachers should play in parent-teacher partnership
...

This can be done by organizing seminars or workshops yearly for all the
stakeholders where roles of each partnership should be explained
...
Results showed that
fewer strategies are used
...
It is
recommended that the Ministry of Education highlight appropriate and effective
strategies that could be adopted to promote partnerships
...
The Ministry also should
monitor and evaluate strategies to establish if they are effective in promoting
partnerships
...
It is recommended that the Ministry of
Education evaluate the effectiveness of the INSET programme that train primary
school Headteachers on how to strengthen parent-teacher partnerships in
primary schools through School Empowerment programme (SEP, 2004),
Evaluation of the INSET programme will enable the Ministry of Education
come up with new programme
...
4
...
It is recommended that
NACECE and KIE use the findings of this study as a basis for developing

138
community mobilization
...

2) The study established that parents and teachers with low education were less
involved in the partnerships
...

3) The findings of this study indicated that stakeholders differed significantly in the
roles parents and teachers should play in parent-teacher partnership particularly
parents, volunteering and decision-making
...
For
example, roles in volunteering, parenting and decision-making should be clearly
defined
...

4) Mothers and fathers were found to differ significantly in parenting and learning
at home modes
...
This is important because children’s holistic
development requires the contribution of both mothers and fathers
...
Urban parents were reported to
be more involved than rural parents
...


139
6) Parents should be sensitised through community mobilization meeting organized
by DICECE officers so that they recognize their specialized role in children’s
pre-school education
...
4
...

1) The finding of this study indicated that parents in private schools were more
involved than those in public schools in decision-making and learning at home
modes
...

2) Results showed that Headteachers were unsure of the roles parents and teachers
should play in parent-teacher partnership
...

3) Results showed that parents in public schools were less involved in parentteacher partnership
...
It is recommended that school managers in public preschools find ways in which parents and teachers can be effectively involved in
these specific modes
...

4) Mothers and fathers were found to differ significantly in parenting and learning
at home modes
...
For examples, school diary system,
decision-making, volunteering and sporting activities
...
4
...


5
...
5 Suggestions for Further Research
This study identified some gaps that need further consideration in research for
example, the present study explored specific factors that affect parent-teacher
partnerships
...
Also, there might be other
factors that affect parent-teachers like socio-economic status, nature of work,
cultural differences, language differences and time and resources
...
Also, research is necessary through multiple regression to see which
independent variables have more affect
...
There is need for more
intensive research to be conducted in other areas of Kenya and among other
communities to establish the status of parent-teacher partnerships
...
There is need to
conduct research on the views of other early childhood stakeholders
...

The study focused on six months of parent-teacher partnership
...


The study established that fathers reported less involvement in parent-teacher
partnerships whereas mothers reported active involvement
...


This study focused on reported involvement of parents and teachers
...


142
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School Family, and Community Partnerships Survey Findings, Johns Hopkins
University Retrieved May 23, 2007, from
(http://www
...
gov/pubs/fainvolved/local3
...

Scribner, J
...
, Young, M
...
(1999)
...
Lessons from high performing Hispanic schools
...
Retrieved May 23, 2007, from
(http://www
...
org/products/latinoparentsreports
...

Sheldon, S
...
& Epstein, J
...
(2005)
...
The Journal of
Educational Research, 98, 196-207
...
ldid notnline
...


152
Siu L
...
, & Lo, L
...
The characters of good teacher as perceived by school
principals, teachers, students and parents in Hong Kong
...
uiuc
...
html )
...
H
...
Making schools work school- by- school reform
...
Retrieved July 14, 2006, from
(http://www
...
org/makingschoolswork/sbs/csp/index
...

Spann, S
...
, Kohler, F
...
, & Soenksen, D
...
Examining parents'
involvement in and perceptions of special education services: An interview
with families in a parent support group
...
Retrieved June 15, 2006, from
(http://www
...
com/a_admin/admin/admin 072
...

Stoner, J
...
, Bock, S
...
, Thompson, J
...
, Angell, M
...
,Heyl, B
...
, & Crowley,
E
...
(2005)
...

(Autism spectrum disorder)
...
Retrieved June 15, 2006, from
(http://www
...
com/a_admin/admin/admin072
...

Studer, J
...
(1993/94)
...
Childhood education
...
educationworld
...
shtml)
...
(2001)
...
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
...
assetsforcoyouth
...
pdf)
...
Parent’s report of school practices to
provide information to families: 1996 and 2003
...
S
...

Retrieved June 15, 2006, from
(http://www
...
com/a_admin/admin/admin072
...

Williams, D
...
Parental involvement teacher preparations: Challenges to
teacher education
...
Boston: Allyn and Bacon
...
assetsforcoyouth
...
pdf )
...
, Korinek, L
...
L
...
T
...

Collaboration for inclusive education: Developing successful programs
...
uiuc
...
html )
...
National early childhood development policy
framework
...


153
Government of Kenya (2001)
...
Nairobi: KIE
...
The report of the presidential working party on
education and manpower training for the next decade and beyond
...

KIE, (2006)
...

Government Printers
...

KIE, (2001)
...
Nairobi: Kenya
...
School empowerment programme: School
empowerment Headteachers module
...

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST)
...
National early
childhood education development policy framework
...

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) (2007)
...
Nairobi, MOEST
...
Uasin Gishu District Development Plan
...

Sessional paper No
...
Provision of Early Childhood Development and Education
(ECDE)
...

The Education Act (1968)
...
Government Printer
...
Parent teacher relations
...

UNESCO, (1976)
...
Paris: Paris International Children’s Center
...
Currently, I’m
pursuing my PHD program in Kenyatta University
...

I believe that you are involved in your child’s school in different ways
...
I would like you to
complete the following questionnaire
...
Your information is only for this research study and will be
kept completely confidential
...
Please go thorough the questionnaire
and give your answers in the spaces provided
...
Name your educational division-----------------------------------------------------------2
...
Type of school sponsorship Private ( )

Public ( )

4
...


Urban ( )

Rural ( )

5
...
A number of actions are listed
and I want to know which ones you never do, do sometimes or often do or you do
very frequently
...

Never (N), Rarely (R), Sometimes (S), Often (O) Very Frequently (VF)
HOW OFTEN DO YOU DO
LEVELS OF PWERENT INVOLVEMENT ACCORDING THEM?
TO YOU
N
R
S
O
VF
1
...
I ask the preschool teacher about how to develop a home
environment that will support my child’s learning
3
...
I ask the preschool teacher about my children’s strengths and
Talents
5
...
I help my preschool teacher in preparing classroom materials
such as teaching aids
7
...
I help prepare snacks or meals in the preschool
9
...
I supervise and set specific time for my children’s homework
11
...
I ask my preschool teacher how to help children in reading,
writing and math’s at home
...
I participate in Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Parent
Teacher organization (PTO) activities
14
...
I’m involved in making decisions in school regarding
development projects, fees and teacher employment/firing
16
...
I help in raising funds for my preschool to improve school
Facilities

156
18
...
I ask local businesses, churches, industries, and community
organizations to donate materials and build classrooms in the
preschool
20
...
I listen to what the preschool teacher says during the parent
and teachers meetings
22
...
I discuss my child’s report card with my preschool teachers
24
...
In the
section below, please indicate how often your preschool child’s teacher does the
following things
...
Use the same code: N= Never; R= Rarely, S=Sometimes,
O=Often and VF= Very Frequently
...
Asks me about my child’s, strengths & talents
2
...
Tells me how to help my child learn
4
...
Invites me to work with children on learning activities in the
classroom like preparing classroom materials
6
...
Create a welcoming environment for me to volunteer in
school activities
8
...
Helps me to understand the importance of reading and writing
activities at home
10
...
Gives me advice me on what to did not with the my child
during weekends and school holidays

157
12
...
Involved me individually in decisions making in the school
14
...
Includes parent from all ethnic, or high or low socio-economic
levels in the school decision-making
16
...
Invites me as a resource person to talk to children on
Education
18
...
Makes me aware of the role of school in the community and
what the community’s can did not for the school
20
...
Uses different forms of communication like newsletters, sms,
phone calls, report cards, conference schedules, and diaries to
communicate to me about the school, special events,
organizations, meetings and parenting
22
...
Organizes parent-teacher meetings at least once a year
24
...
Please tick your appropriate
response using this code:
Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Not Sure (NS), Agree (A) Strongly Agree
(SA)

158
PARENTS’ ROLE DEFINITION ACCORDING SD D
TO YOU
1
...
Should ask the preschool teacher about how
to develop a home environment that will
support children’s learning
3
...
Should ask for information from teachers on
how children grow and develop
5
...
Should go with the children and teachers on
educational field trips
7
...
Should volunteer in activities like making
Classroom teaching materials
9
...
Should supervise how children did not
Homework
11
...

12
...
Should attend Parent Teachers Organization
(PTO) or Parent Teachers Association (PTA)
meetings regularly
14
...
Should participate in school decision-making
process like planning, reviewing and
improving school programs and curricula
16
...
Should encourage the teacher to use
community resources like parks, museums,
and libraries, community services like clinics to
improve children’s learning in the preschool
18
...
Should ask local businesses, churches,
industries, and community organizations to
donate materials and build classrooms in the
preschool
20
...
For example to hold
meetings
21
...
Should read memos, diaries, sms or newsletters
from school and give feedback to the teachers
23
...
Should ask questions during meetings to clarify
Issues
Finally, I want you to think about what your pre-school child’s teacher and the
school should be doing to help you with your child’s education
...
Use the same code as
before:
Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Not Sure (NS), Agree (A) Strongly Agree
(SA)

TEACHERS’ ROLE DEFINITION ACCORDING TO YOU
1
...
Teachers should give information to parents to understand how
children develop
3
...
Teachers should listen to parents concerns about their children’s
learning needs
5
...
Teachers should encourage parents to be involved in assisting in
classroom during lessons
7
...
Teachers should involved parents in school field trips
9
...
Teachers should provide information to parents on how to
supervise and discuss homework
11
...
Teachers should tell preschool parents how to develop a home
environment that will support my child’s learning

S D N
D
S

A SA

160
13
...
Teachers should provide parents with information to prepare
them in school decision-making
15
...
Should includes parent from all ethnic, or high or low socioEconomic levels in the school decision-making
17
...
Teachers should create awareness to the parents about the role of
the school in the community by working with local businesses,
industries, churches and community organizations to promote
learning and children’s skills
19
...
Teachers should invite community leaders to talk to children
about education
21
...
Teachers should use different forms of communication like
newsletters, phone calls, report cards, conference schedules, and
diaries to communicate to parents about what goes on in school
23
...
Teachers should encourage parents to attend conferences
(meetings) regularly

I sincerely want to thank you for taking your time to complete this form
...
Kwa sasa
ninaendele na masomo ya PHD katika chuo kikuu cha Kenyatta
...

Nina imani kua wewe kama mzazi unajihusisha na shule anakosomea mtoto kwa
njia tofauti
...
Ni mambo yapi yanayokuvunja moyo au kukutia motisha katika
kujihusisha na shule
...
Nimatumaini; ushirikiano wako na mimi au msaidizi wangu
utakuwa wakuridhisha katika utafiti huu
...


SEHEMU A: USHAHIDI
1
...
umbo

Kiume

()

Kike ( )

()

Uma ( )

3
...
Sehemu ya shule

mashambani ( ) Mjini

()

5
...

maagizo
Katika sehemu hii ni ngependa kujua jinsi wazazi na waalimu wanavyojihusisha
katika kuboresha masomo ya watoto wa shule za chekechea
...

Tia mkwaju katika nafasi ulizotengewa
Badid not (B) Si mara kwa mara (SM) Mara nyingine (MN) Mara kwa mara
(M) kila wakati (KW)

VIWANGO VYA UHUSISHAJI (MZAZI)
1
...

3
...

5
...

7
...

9
...

11
...


Mimi huuliza mwalimu jinsi ya kuboresha
nidhamu ya mtoto wangu shuleni
...

Mimi huuliza mwalimu jinsi mtoto hukua
na kujifunza vitu
...

Mimi huwasaidia waalimu darasani
...

Mimi hujihusisha na masomo ya watoto
uwanjani
...

Mimi huuliza mwalimu jinsi ya kuwasaidia
watoto katika masomo na kazi ya ziada
...

Mimi huangalia kazi ya mtoto
...


Mimi huuliza mwalimu jinsi ya kumsaidia
mtoto kujua kusoma , kuandika na hesabu
nyumbani
...


14
...


15
...


MARA NGAPI?
B
S M M
M N

K
W

163
16
...

18
...

20
...

22
...

24
...

Mimi husaidia katika ukusanyaji wa pesa
ilikuboresha shule
...

Mimi hutafuta wafadhili ilikusaidia katika
ujenzi wa shule
...

Mimi husikiza mazungumzo katika
mikutano shuleni
...

Mimi huzungumza na mwalimu jinsi mtoto
anavyosoma jshuleni
...


Katika sehemu hii ninaagazia majukumu ya waalimu
...
Tia mkwaju katika nafasi ulizotengewa
...
Je mwalimu huuliza nguvu na udhaifu wa mtoto
katika masomo na talanta
...
Je wewe hupata mawasiliano kutoka kwa
mwalimu kuhusu masomo ya mtoto
...
Je mwalimu hunieleza jinsi ya kusaidia mtoto
katika masomo
4
...

5
...

6
...
Je mwalimu hunitengea nafasi ya kujihusisha na
kazi ya kujitolea shuleni
8
...

10
...

12
...

14
...

16
...

18
...

20
...

22
...

24
...

Je mwalimu hunieleza umuhimu wa kujua kusoma
na kuandika
Je mwalimu hupeana kazi ya ziada kufanywa
nyumbani
Je mwalimu hunipa wasia , jinsi ya kuwa na mtoto
wakati wa likizo
Je mwalimu hunieleza jinsi ya kutumia biombo
vya michezo nyumbani na mtoto
Je mwalimu hukuhusisha kibinafsi katika mambo
ya shule
Je walimu hutayarisha mikutano shuleni
Je mwalimu hu husisha watu wa tabaka zote
Katika kufanya maamuzi ya mambo shuleni
Je mwalimu hunipa mawasiliano ya kutosha
katika kukata kauli shuleni
Je mwalimu hunialika shuleni kuzungumza na
Watoto
Je waalimu hutumia raslimali za uma kama
maktaba kliniki na zingine ilkuboresha hali ya
masomo
...

Je mwalimu hutumia njia tofauti kama gazeti,
ujumbe mfupi,simu, katika kunieleza mipango na
matukio shuleni
...

Maagizo
Katika sehemu hii nigependa kuujua ni nini wazazi wanastahili kufanya kuhusu
masomo ya watoto shuleni
...


Kataa kabisa (KK) Kataa (KA) Sina uhakika (SU) Kubali (KU) Kubali kabisa
(KK)
MAJUKUMU YA WAZAZI
1
...
Wanafaa kuwatengea watoto mazingira
yatakayowasaidia kusoma
3
...
Wanastahili kupata habari jinsi watoto
wanavyokua na kuendelea
5
...
Should go with the children and teachers on
educational field trips
7
...
Wanafaa kujihusisha katika utengezaji wa
vyombo vya masomo
9
...
Wanafaa kufatilia jinsi watoto wanavyofanya kazi
ya shule
11
...

12
...
Wanafaa kujihusisha na mikutano ya shule mara
kwa mara
14
...
Wanastahili kujihusisha na mambo ya shule kama
kupanga,kuboresha na kuweka miundid not
msingi
16
...
Wanastahili kuwauliza waalimu watumie vifaa
vya uma kama maktaba kwa uboreshaji wa
masomo shuleni
18
...
Wanastahili kuiuliza jamii kusaidia katika ujuenzi
wa shule
20
...
Wanastahili kusikiza mazungumzo katika
22
...
Wanafaa kua na mawasiliano na shule
24
...
wakati wa mikutano
26
...


167
Tia mkwaju katika nafasi ulizotengewa
MAJUKUMU YA WAALIMU
KK KA
1
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwajulisha wazazi kuhusu ukuaji
wa watoto
3
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwasikiza malalamishi ya wazazi
5
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwahimiza wazazi kujihusisha na
kazi ya watoto shuleni
7
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwahusisha wazazi uwanjani
9
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwaeleza wazazi jinsi ya
kuwasaidia watoto kufanya kazi ya ziada nyumbani
11
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwaeleza jinsi ya kuwatengea
watoto mazingira mazuri ya masomo nyumbani
13
...
Waalimu wanafaa kuwafahamisha na yanoyojiri shuleni
ilikuwawezesha kufanya maamuzi maridhawa shuleni
15
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwahusisha watu wote katika
ukataji kauli
17
...
Waalimu wanastahili kueneza umuhimu wa shule katika
jamii kwa kufanya kazi kwa paomja na wanabiashara na
hata kanisa
19
...
Waalimu wanastahili kuwaalika viongozi wa jamii
kuzungumza na watoto shuleni
21
...
Waalimu wanastahili kutumia njia tofauti za kueneza
ujumbe wa shule kwa wazazi
23
...
Waalimu wanastahil kuhimiza wazazi kuhuturia
mikutano za wazazi shuleni kila wakati
...
Currently, I’m
pursuing my PHD program in Kenyatta University
...

I believe that you are involved in children’s learning in different ways
...
I would like you to complete the
following questionnaire
...
Your information is only for this research study and will be kept
completely confidential
...
Please go thorough the questionnaire
and give your answers in the spaces provided
...
Name your educational division-----------------------------------------------------------2
...
Type of school sponsorship

Private ( )

Public

()

Rural ( )

Urban

()

4
...

5
...
A number of actions are listed
and I want to know which ones they never do, do sometimes or often do or you do
very frequently
...

Never (N), Rarely (R), Sometimes (S), Often (O) Very Frequently (VF)
HOW OFTEN DO
LEVELS OF PARENTS’ INVOLVEMENT ACCORDING THEY DO THEM?
TO YOU
N
R S
O VF
1
...
Ask me about how to develop a home environment that
will support children’s learning
3
...


Ask me about children’s strengths and talents

5
...
Helps me in preparing classroom materials such as teaching
Aids
7
...
Helps prepare snacks or meals in the preschool
9
...
Supervise and set specific time for children’s homework
11
...
Ask me how to help children in reading, writing and math’s at
home
...
Participate in Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or Parent
teacher organization (PTO) activities
14
...
Were involved in making decisions in school regarding
development projects, fees and teacher employment/firing
16
...
Helps in raising funds for my preschool to improve school
Facilities

170
18
...
Ask local businesses, churches, industries, and community
organizations to donate materials and build classrooms in the
preschool
20
...
Listens to what I say during the parent and teachers meetings
22
...
Discuss children report card with me
24
...
In the section below, please indicate
how often you do the following things
...
Use the same code: N= Never; R=
Rarely, S=Sometimes, O=Often and VF= Very Frequently
...
I ask parents about children’s strengths & talents
2
...
I tell parents how to help child learn
4
...
I invite parents to work with children on learning
activities in the classroom like preparing classroom
materials
6
...
I create a welcoming environment for parents to
volunteer in school activities
8
...
I help parents understand the importance of reading and
writing activities at home
10
...
I give advice to parents on what to did not with the their
children during weekends and school holidays

HOW OFTEN DO YOU DO
THEM?
N
R
S
O
VF

171
12
...
I Involved parents individually in decisions making in
the school
14
...
I include parent from all ethnic, or high or low
socioeconomic levels in the school decision-making
16
...
I invite parents to school to talk to children on
education
18
...
I make parents aware of the role of school in the
community and what the community’s can did not for
the school
20
...
I use different forms of communication like newsletters,
sms, phone calls, report cards, conference schedules,
and diaries to communicate to parents about the school,
special events, organizations, meetings and parenting
22
...
I organizes parent-teacher meetings at least once a year
24
...
Please tick your appropriate
response using this code:
Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Not Sure (NS), Agree (A) Strongly Agree
(SA)

172
PARENTS’ ROLE DEFINITION ACCORDING TO YOU
1
...
Should ask the preschool teacher about how to develop
a home environment that will support children’s learning
3
...
Should ask for information from teachers on how children grow
and develop
5
...
Should go with the children and teachers on educational field trips
7
...
Should volunteer in activities like making classroom teaching
materials
9
...
Should supervise how children did not homework
11
...

12
...
Should attend Parent Teachers Organization (PTO) or
Parent Teachers Association (PTA) meetings regularly
14
...
Should participate in school decision-making process like
planning, reviewing and improving school programs and curricula
16
...
Should encourage the teacher to use community resources like
parks, museums, and libraries, community services like clinics to
improve children’s learning in the preschool
18
...
Should ask local businesses, churches, industries, and community
organizations to donate materials and build classrooms in the
preschool
20
...
For example to hold meetings
21
...
Should read memos, diaries, sms or newsletters from school and
give feedback to the teachers
23
...
Should ask questions during meetings to clarify issues

SD

D NS

Finally, I want you to think about what your pre-school child’s teacher and the
school should be doing to help you with your child’s education
...


A SA

173
Use the same code as before: Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Not Sure
(NS), Agree (A) Strongly Agree (SA)
TEACHERS ROLE DEFINITION ACCORDING TO YOU
SD D
1
...
Teachers should give information to parents to understand
how children develop
3
...
Teachers should listen to parents concerns about their
children’s learning needs
5
...
Teachers should encourage parents to be involved in
assisting in classroom during lessons
7
...
Teachers should involved parents in school field trips
9
...
Teachers should provide information to parents on how to
supervise and discuss homework
11
...
Teachers should tell preschool parents how to develop a
home environment that will support my child’s learning
13
...
Teachers should provide parents with information to prepare
them in school decision-making
15
...
Should includes parent from all ethnic, or high or low
socioeconomic levels in the school decision-making
17
...
Teachers should create awareness to the parents about the
role of the school in the community by working with local
businesses, industries, churches and community
organizations to promote learning and children’s skills
19
...
Teachers should invite community leaders to talk to children
about education
21
...
Teachers should use different forms of communication like
newsletters, phone calls, report cards, conference schedules,
and diaries to communicate to parents about what goes on in
school
23
...
Teachers should encourage parents to attend conferences
(meetings) regularly
I sincerely want to thank you for taking your time to complete this form
...
Currently, I’m
pursuing my PHD program in Kenyatta University
...

I believe that you are involved in children’s learning in different ways
...
I would like you to
complete the following questionnaire
...
Your information is only for this research study and will be
kept completely confidential
...
Please go thorough the questionnaire
and give your answers in the spaces provided
...
Name your educational division-----------------------------------------------------------2
...
Type of school sponsorship Private ( )

Public

( )
...
Locality of your school
...
Your level of Education
Primary with certificate

()

Secondary but not with certificate

()

Secondary with certificate

()

College/ University but not with diploma or degree certificate

()

College/University with diploma or degree certificate

()

176
SECTION B: PARENTS’ AND TEACHERS’ ROLE DEFINITION IN
PARENT-TEACHER PARTNERSHIP
Instructions
In this next section, I am interested in what you think parents should be doing in
their preschool child’s schoolwork (not what they do)
...
Should be discussing with teachers how they can
work together more effectively in their children’s
learning
2
...
Should be asking for information about how
children learn
4
...
Should help the preschool teacher in the
classroom during lessons
6
...
Should help prepare snacks or meals in the
preschool
8
...
Should set time for children’s homework
10
...
Should engage themselves in children’s learning
activities at home such as tell stories, read
together with children, provide quality reading
materials and play materials
...
Should provide a supportive learning
environment at home that will support learning
13
...
Should make sure that school decisions and
policies were implemented
15
...
Should participate in making school policies
17
...
Should help in raising funds for the school to
improve school facilities
19
...
Should request teachers to allow them use school
buildings for their own use
...
Should listen to what the preschool teacher says
during meetings
22
...
Should talk freely during parent-teacher
conference (meetings)
24
...
In the section
below, please indicate by ticking in the appropriate box how much you agree with
each statement that says what the teachers should be doing
...
Teachers should help parents to understand how children learn
2
...
Teachers should ask parents for information about children’s goals,
strengths & talents
4
...
Teachers should invite parents to prepare classroom materials in the
preschool
6
...
Teachers should provide parents with rooms or space in school where
parents volunteers can work, meet, and access resources about
parenting, childcare, and other things that affect their children

SD D

NS A

SA

178
8
...
Teachers should provide homework to be done at home
10
...
Teachers should make parents aware of the importance of reading
and writing at home
12
...
Teachers should involved parents individually or collectively in
making decisions about school
14
...
Teachers should organize Parent Teachers Associations (PTA)
meetings
16
...
Teachers should make use of community resources, such as
businesses, libraries, parks, and museums to improve children’s
learning
18
...
Teachers should involved parents in fundraising for the school
20
...
Teachers should establish a clear two-way channels for
communications from home to school and from school to home
22
...
Teachers should provide clear information about school policies, or
school reforms
24
...
Please select your response by ticking your
appropriate response
...
Organized workshops for parents and teachers to
exchange information on children’s literacy, numeracy,
home and classroom work
2
...
Created a welcoming environment for parents to win
their support in helping their children succeed
4
...
Provided information to parents about homework
6
...
Organized meetings/discussions for parents on literacy,
numeracy, home and classroom work
8
...
Written an annual Action Plan for parent-teacher
partnerships
10
...
Provided a school calendar listing dates of parentteacher conferences
12
...
Conducted home visits that help parents support their
children’s learning
14
...
Given information to parents and teachers on how they
can utilize each other competencies for the sake of the
child
1) On the table below list other strategies had used to support parents-teacher
partnerships in the preschool and the frequency you have done them in the last
12 months
...


1 2 3 4

ACTIVITIES

1
...

3
...

5

I sincerely want to thank you for taking your time to complete this form
...
Currently, I’m
pursuing my PHD program in Kenyatta University
...

I believe that you are involved in children’s learning in different ways
...
I would like you to
complete the following questionnaire
...
Your information is only for this research study and will be
kept completely confidential
...
Please go thorough the questionnaire
and give your answers in the spaces provided
...
Date
...
Section -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
...
What is your position? -------------------------------------------------------------------6
...
Please tick your appropriate
response using this code:
Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Not Sure (NS), Agree (A) Strongly Agree
(SA)
PARENTS’ ROLE DEFINITION ACCORDING TO YOU
1
...
Should ask the preschool teacher about how to develop a home
environment that will support children’s learning
3
...
Should ask for information from teachers on how children grow
and develop
5
...
Should go with the children and teachers on educational field trips
7
...
Should volunteer in activities like making classroom teaching
materials
9
...
Should supervise how children did not homework
11
...

12
...
Should attend Parent Teachers Organization (PTO) or Parent
Teachers Association (PTA) meetings regularly
14
...
Should participate in school decision-making process like
planning, reviewing and improving school programs and
curricula
16
...
Should encourage the teacher to use community resources like
parks, museums, and libraries, community services like clinics to
improve children’s learning in the preschool
18
...
Should ask local businesses, churches, industries, and community
organizations to donate materials and build classrooms in the
preschool
20
...

For example to hold meetings
21
...
Should read memos, diaries, sms or newsletters from school and
give feedback to the teachers
23
...
Should ask questions during meetings to clarify issues
Finally, I want you to think about what your pre-school child’s teacher and the
school should be doing to help you with your child’s education
...
Use the same code as
before:
Strongly Disagree (SD), Disagree (D), Not Sure (NS), Agree (A) Strongly Agree
(SA)
TEACHERS’ ROLE DEFINITION
SD
ACCORDING TO YOU
1
...
Teachers should give information to parents to
understand how children develop
3
...
Teachers should listen to parents concerns about
their children’s learning needs
5
...
Teachers should encourage parents to be involved
in assisting in classroom during lessons
7
...
Teachers should involved parents in school field
trips
9
...
Teachers should provide information to parents
on how to supervise and discuss homework
11
...
Teachers should tell preschool parents how to
develop a home environment that will support
my child’s learning

D

NS

A

SA

184
13
...
Teachers should provide parents with information
to prepare them in school decision-making
15
...
Should includes parent from all ethnic, or high or
low socioeconomic levels in the school decisionmaking
17
...
Teachers should create awareness to the parents
about the role of the school in the community by
working with local businesses, industries,
churches and community organizations to
promote learning and children’s skills
19
...
Teachers should invite community leaders to talk
to children about education
21
...
Teachers should use different forms of
communication like newsletters, phone calls,
report cards, conference schedules, and diaries to
communicate to parents about what goes on in
school
23
...
Teachers should encourage parents to attend
conferences (meetings) regularly
SECTION C: STRATEGIES OF STRENGTHENING PARENT-TEACHER
PARTNERSHIP
Instructions
In this section I am interested in understanding which strategies you are using to
strengthen parent and teacher partnerships in children’s preschool education
...
How many times in the
past six months have you done the following?

185

Frequency in the last
ACTIVITIES

YOU

STRENGTHEN

HAD

DID

PWERENT

NOTNE

TO 6 months

TEACHER 0

PARTNERSHIPS
WITHIN PRESCHOOLS
1
...
Provided DICECE officers with information how to
share knowledge with parents on children’s learning
3
...

4
...
Provided information to DICECE officers about
children’s homework or other children’s learning
activities
6
...
Organized meetings/discussions for DICECE officers
on how to exchange information with parents on
children’s homework or classroom work
...
Developed a parent-teacher handbook to help parents
and teachers understand ministry policies
9
...
Provided newsletters to DICECE officers with school
information on parent-teacher partnerships
11
...
Provided in-service training to help DICECE officers
share experiences with parents
13
...
Provided information to DICECE officers about
education policies and practices
15
...

0
No
...

2
...

4
...

6
...


187

APPENDIX VI
INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR HEADTEACHERS AND MINISTRY OF
EDUCATION OFFICIALS

Position ______________________________Male ____Female_____
Researcher asked Headteachers and Ministry Officials the following question
...
What other strategies have you used in the last 12 months to strengthen parentteacher partnerships?

188
APPENDIX VII
SAMPLED SCHOOLS IN KAPSERET AND KAPSOIYA DIVISIONS
Sampled Schools in Kapseret division
SN0
...
Luke Kormaet

Inder Primary school

2

St
...
Peter Sameto

Aturei Primary school

4

St
...


Private

Public

1

Jakim Academy

Kapsoya Primary school

2

Baraka Academy

Boarder Farm Primary school

3

Fine Kids Academy

Central Primary school

4

Little Hearts Academy

Ilula Primary school

5

Pals Academy

Sosiani Primary school



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