Parents’ Perceptions about their Involvement in Pre-school Aged Children’s Education in Sri Lanka: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background: Early childhood education has become a vital integral robust part of education literally around the world. Child development and education are intrinsically linked and greatly influenced by the behaviour of parents. The education system and social expectations influence parenting style and parents’ involvement in education of pre-school children. Objectives: To explore perceptions of parents regarding parental involvement in pre-school aged children’s education in Sri Lanka. Methods: This qualitative study involved ten in-depth interviews and two focus group discussions with 24 parents. They were purposively selected parents of pre-school aged children from Kandy district. Interviews based on a pre-tested semi-structured interviewer guide were audio-recorded with permission, transcribed and analyzed by thematic analysis approach. Results: The major theme “Parental involvement in pre-school aged children’s education” was classified under three subthemes; parental responses on children’s achievement, parental responses on children’s failures and parental aid for education. Parents have diverse approaches to address their children’s physical, cognitive, literacy, psychological and social aspects of development. Parents’ behaviours correlate with authoritative, authoritarian, permissive or neglectful type of parenting. Conclusions: This study recognizes a range of effective and ineffective behaviours of parents in dealing with children’s pre-school education. These findings will be useful for parents’ education programs and to design tool for quantitative study at national levels.