Abstract:

The PISA results from 2015 show that Slovakia is in the tenth lowest place among OECD countries in measuring the sense of belonging (often understood as a synonym for emotional engagement) in 15-years-old students. School engagement is multidimensional concept. It usually refers to students' subjective perceptions and experiences of school (Appleton, et al., 2006). As parents act as role models, the parental involvement in education can affect students' school engagement. Patel and Agbenyega (2016) describe the broadest notion of parental involvement in education as the participation of parents in activities of any kind that involve the education of children in the period from birth to adulthood. When researchers examine parental involvement in education, they usually obtain data from parents or teachers. Only little attention is paid to how parental involvement is perceived by children themselves. As children are active participants in the process of parental involvement in education, we consider it beneficial to pay attention to their opinion as well. The aim of the presented paper is therefore to analyse the relationship between the child's school engagement, parental involvement in education and the successful school achievement of students. We also focused on whether the parents' view of parental involvement in education differs from how students perceive it. The research sample consisted of 56 pupils aged 13 to 15 (M = 14.00; SD = 0.63) and 56 mothers. The School Engagement Measure-MacArthur (SEM) was used to determine school engagement (Blumenfeld, Fredricks, 2005). Parental involvement in education was measured by two questionnaires - the Parent involvement questionnaire (Fan, 2001) and the Report of Encouragement Scale (Hoover-Dempsey, Sandler, 2005). School achievement was measured by marks at final certificate from Maths and Slovak language. The analysis of the results showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between school engagement, parental involvement in education and school achievement. In examining whether the parents' view of parental involvement in education differs from how students perceive it, we found statistically significantly higher average values in parents in contact with the school, in parental control and parental encouragement. Our results confirm, that it is necessary for school to create conditions to make students feel school engaged. To support school climate, good relationships between students and teachers, but also involve parents into education.

Keywords:

School engagement, parental involvement, school achievement, students, parents.