High School Students' Perspectives of Parental Involvement

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to seek out and explore the perspectives that high school students have on parental involvement in their education. Parental involvement is vital to student success, but what do the students feel about their parents' involvement? How do they want their parents to be involved? Five high school students were chosen by one of the school's counselors, who chose students she felt typified each of these general social categories: Athlete, Scholar, Popular, Rebel, and Average. The primary method used for data collection was semi-structured conversational interviews with each respondent. This case study shows that high school students desire parental involvement in their education. A thorough analysis of the interviews with high school students provides a deeper understanding of the student's views through themes that emerged from the qualitative data: Parental Involvement Through Student's Eyes, Listening, Casual Conversations, and Church/Religion.