Parental involvement in Indonesian senior high school ELT: Teachers’ perceptions and the implementation gap

Abstract

This research investigates the perceptions of English Language Teaching (ELT) educators regarding parental engagement, the methodologies they use, and the disparity between these elements in senior high schools in Central Java, Indonesia. We used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. In the quantitative phase, 99 educators chosen by criterion purposive sampling responded to a questionnaire validated by experts. Five public school educators were chosen from the respondents based on their elevated perception and reduced implementation scores during the qualitative phase and they participated in semi-structured interviews through homogeneous purposive sampling. Educators rated involvement as important (4-point scale, dimension M=2.76 to 3.24), but reported much lower execution (dimension M=1.61 to 2.37). The difference was large on all six Epstein dimensions (Wilcoxon signed-rank, overall Z = −8.42, p <.001, r =.60). The most exercised aspect is Communication and the least exercised is Decision Making. The interviews indicate that this difference is caused by a lot of administrative burden and the fact that the parents’ English skills are not good enough, so the communication is one-sided and mainly reactive. Yet educators appeared to limit parental involvement to monitoring academic activities at home. This is interpreted here as tactical pragmatism. Schools should have a written engagement policy and lessen the administrative burden on teachers.