School choice and parent involvement among Australian children starting school

Graham Daniel, Cen Wang, Elizabeth Murray, Linda J. Harrison

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine the connection between school choice and parent-school involvement in an Australian sample of over 3700 6–7 year-old children. Parents provided information on the type of school the child attended (government-public, Catholic, independent-private), the most important reason for their choice, and whether they had visited the child’s classroom, contacted a teacher, attended a school event, and volunteered at the school. Results showed that, overall, Australian parents had participated in 2.84 activities; however, higher levels of involvement were reported by parents whose choice was based on school academic reputation, availability of specific programs, or religious teachings (average = 3.00) compared to parents whose choice was based on convenience (average = 2.69) or familiarity (average = 2.76). Involvement also differed by type of school, but when both school type and reasons were included in the analyses, school type was no longer a significant predictor of parent school-based involvement. Level of parent-school involvement was largely determined by parents’ reasons for school choice.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFamilies and transition to school
EditorsSue Dockett, Wilfried Griebel, Bob Perry
Place of PublicationCham, Switzerland
PublisherSpringer, Springer Nature
Chapter9
Pages131-143
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9783319583297
ISBN (Print)9783319583273
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameInternational perspectives on early childhood education and development
Volume21
ISSN (Print)2468-8746
ISSN (Electronic)2468-8754

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