An Assessment of Teacher - Parent Collaboration in Promoting Quality Teaching and Learning in the Foundation Phase: A Case Study of Sibasa Circuit Primary Schools, Limpopo Province

Abstract

The South African legislation through the constitution and the South African Schools Act (SASA) of 1996 allows for parents make meaningful contribution towards their children’s school activities. In many countries, including South Africa, one of the strongest trends in education reform has been to give parents and community members, an increased role in governing schools. Lack of parental involvement has been identified as an obstacle in many primary schools in South African, particularly among the lower socioeconomic groups. As an educator, the researcher noticed that many learners in the Foundation phase either fail to do their homework or partially complete them due to lack of assistance and supervision back home. The study assessed teacher-parent collaboration in the Foundation Phase in primary schools in Sibasa circuit of Limpopo Province. The researcher used a qualitative case study approach and employed semistructured interviews and observation checklist to obtain data. A total of 4 primary schools with Foundation phase were purposively selected for the study. A total of 4 principals, 13 educators and 21 parents were purposively selected and interviewed for the study. Content analysis was used as the main method of data analysis. It involved identifying, coding and categorizing the primary patterns of data. The data in this study consisted mainly of individual interview transcripts and observations checklist. The findings indicated that the involved schools are not well resourced in terms of infrastructure. Based on the interviews, the benefits of parental involvement at the Foundation phase are well appreciated by the principals, educators and parents and despite that appreciations, barriers to effective parental involvement were evident. These included parents low level education status, broken families, inadequate resources in schools, inadequately prepared teachers in terms of parental involvement and poor communication between schools and parents. It was thus recommended that all stakeholders put measures and programmes in place for successful and effective parental involvement particularly for learners in the Foundation phase for better educational outcomes.