parents and principals as partners in creating a culture of learning

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in a common task, namely the education of the child (cf. 4.3.1). The fact is,
however, that parents often have no knowledge of pedagogics, and that they also
lack the intuition or experience to know that their pedagogic responsibility extends
beyond the school gates and into the classrooms. Education was often not realised
adequately in the homes where these parents grew up. They therefore lack a
model of parenthood to direct their own educative actions (cf. 4.3.4). The
improvement of parent involvement "particularly among at-risk populations, has
become one of the most challenging tasks facing educators today". It is
unfortunately so that for many parents school brings back memories of their own
failure. Some feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, even guilty when they walk into
a school. Others do not feel valued by the schools. Feelings of inadequacy,
shyness or resentment, longing or fear ... every parent has his own story to tell. "
Many parents do not have the confidence or the desire to get involved with the
school, a matter that needs to be urgently addressed (cf.2.5).
The majority of insufficiently educated parents (cf. 6.1.6; table 6) do not
understand the objectives and functioning of the school. Their perception is that
the upbringing of their children is virtually or totally in the hands of the teachers
at school. As a result, the parents have abdicated their responsibilities to the
schools and inadvertently lost their parental control over their children (cf. 2.4).
In the exercising of their parental authority, parents are often flouted and even
threatened by their alienated children. It is therefore clear that in a changing
society, parents should seek help to enable them to establish or re-assert
themselves as responsible parents and authoritative role-models in the education
of the child.
Traditional views on parent-principal involvement limit rather than increase the
potential for principals and parents to work together. When parent involvement
is viewed as a means of co-opting parents to raise funds or to run the tuck-shop,
the number ofparents involved is generally low. Furthermore it is limited to those