HOME SCHOOL COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP IN MAURITIUS

This exploratory study aims at determining the current state of home school community partnership in Mauritius. Such partnership allows families, schools and communities develop mutual respect, understanding and ways of working together to improve students’ learning outcome. A framework for home school community is proposed by Epstein (2009) which suggests that there are six types of involvements. This study explores how schools involve home and community.

Data for this exploratory study was obtained through online questionnaire and interviews. The participants of this study were teachers working in preprimary, primary and secondary schools in the island. The analysis was performed by using WEFT QDA which is a freely available qualitative data analysis tool.

The results show that while communication, volunteering and collaborating with community is taking place quite commonly parenting, learning at home and decision making are areas where schools are not involving parents. The results also show that private schools are engaging with parents and community more than public schools.