PARENTAL MOTIVATIONS AND INVOLVEMENT: A DEVELOPING COUNTRY PERSPECTIVE

The paper reports qualitative results of a mixed design investigation. Qualitative data is collated by means of semi-structured interviews form 33 parents of children from four schools in Northern region of Ghana. The sample included from 16 parents from deprived districts and 17 parents from non-deprived districts whose children attended both public and private basic schools within these districts. The key objective of the study was to explore Motivations for involvement in deprived and non-deprived districts in a developing country context and also to identify some barriers to both school based and home based involvement. The findings suggest that parent’s Attitude were the foremost motivation factor that influences their involvement in their child’s education. This was followed by Social norm (SN) and Perceived behavioural control (PBC). It was found that some difference did exists for influence PBC and SN on parents across deprived and non-deprived districts. It was also found that parent home involvement activities varied with the most dominant activities setting time to study, as assisting with homework, and selecting television programmes for children, though marginal differences were observed across district type. With regards to school activities most parents largely limited themselves to PTA meetings and communications with school teachers. It was also found barriers to PI included the lack of time due to work schedules, the lack knowledge on homework, and financial constraints, based on these findings some recommendations to help improve parental involvement are presented.