The Heads of Schools Perceptions and Experiences about Parental Involvement on Students‟ Academic Performance in Community Secondary Schools in Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences about the influence parental involvement on students‟ academic performance among community secondary school head of schools in community schools. Five participants were selected from different community secondary schools based on sex, age, marital status, level of educational attainment, professional experience and experience of working in current schools. Data was collected using in-depth interviews with Heads of School (HS) of community secondary schools. The data analysis process was done qualitatively using thematic unit where by interviews were recorded, transcribed, read word by word repeatedly so as to realize similar ideas for the formation of various themes. The findings revealed that HS perceived apparent parents‟ negative perceptions towards schools academic related activities of their children. Basing on HS experiences, poor and negative perceptions resulted from poor students‟ academic performance. Another significant finding revealed that parents‟ educational background was perceived as one of the factors for parents‟ minimal participation of the education of their children. The HS, further, perceived the marginal participation of parents as simply a result of irresponsibility of towards school academic activities of their children. The HS had a belief that parental involvement greatly influences the academic performance of students in community secondary schools. The HS were in view that if parents would strongly give cooperation and effectively make follow up of their children school academic progress, the students‟ academic performance in community secondary schools would have raised significantly. Basing on findings, the study concludes by demonstrating a significant positive