Identifying and Prioritizing Effective Factors in Increasing the Participation of Families in Educational and Sports Activities of Schools

Identifying and Prioritizing Effective Factors in Increasing the Participation of Families in Educational and Sports Activities of Schools

Isa Eskandari 1, Morteza Rezaii Suofi 2⃰, Zahra Esmaelpanah Amla

shi 3 & Fatemeh Eskandari Taskoh4

1PhD in Sports Management, Physical Education Teacher, Guilan, Iran.

2Professor of Sports Management Department, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

3PhD in Psychology, Counseling and Psychology Teacher, Guilan, Iran.

4MA, Assistant for Education and Educational Affairs of the School, Guilan, Iran.

⃰Correspondence Isa eskandari Email: Isa.eskandari@yahoo.com

Schools are among the important educational and nurturing institutions in society that require the active participation of everyone, especially families. Active parental involvement refers to utilizing the intellectual, scientific, skill-based, and specialized potential of parents in managing and guiding the educational and sports affairs of students. In general, active parental involvement in the education system shapes part of the teaching and upbringing process and has considerable effects on the teaching-learning system, influencing the learning process in students. However, sometimes the lack of understanding by parents of the goals and functions of the school can lead to ineffective communication and cooperation between the family and the school. The main purpose of this research was to Identifying and prioritizing effective factors in increasing the participation of families in educational, educational and sports activities of schools.

This research is applied in nature and was conducted using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design, implemented in two qualitative and quantitative phases In the first phase, a qualitative approach based on content analysis was employed. The statistical population consisted of experts and key informants, including school principals, teachers, and parent representatives. Purposeful sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached, which occurred after 18 interviews. . The second phase adopted a descriptive-survey method. The statistical population included all principals, teachers, and parents in schools across Guilan Province. In line with the theoretical foundations of the research, theoretical sampling was used for sample selection. Theoretical sampling is a type of purposive non-probability sampling used in qualitative research (mixed sampling). In the qualitative section, 18 principals, teachers, and parent representatives were selected as the sample for the qualitative part of the research using convenience sampling. In the quantitative section, cluster sampling was employed. Initially, the Guilan province’s education department was divided into three clusters: East, West, and Central. Subsequently, five educational zones were selected from each cluster, and five schools were chosen from each zone. From each school, the principal, teachers, and a parent representative were selected as research samples (East cluster: Rudsar, Langarud, Lahijan, Siahkal, and Amlash; West cluster: Talesh, Rezvanshahr, Masal, Somayyeh Sara, and Foman; Central cluster: District 1 and 2 of Rasht, Anzali, Rudbar, and Astaneh). A total of 475 questionnaires were collected." The required information was collected through semi-structured interviews, document and report review. The data collection and analysis process continued until the researcher reached theoretical saturation. All interviews were conducted in person. Most of these interviews lasted approximately 30 to 50 minutes. The content of each interview was written and important information was marked. The coding process was carried out in 3 stages (primary, secondary and specific). To assess the participation of parents and based on the results extracted from the interviews, a researcher-made questionnaire was developed and distributed to the sample. This questionnaire had five components, which included a total of 34 questions, and a Likert scale was used.



Data collection tools included content analysis of domestic and foreign researches, interviews and researcher-made questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis method was used to determine the validity of the factors. The reliability of this tool was calculated through Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and the reliability coefficient of questions related to participation barriers was(0.88). The collected data were analyzed using one-sample t-test, Friedman's test and SPSS software.

“Based on the information obtained, categories were identified for increasing parental involvement in schools. These categories have a set of components, which are: environmental factors affecting participation (structural factors, informational factors, motivational factors, educational factors, and cultural-social factors). In this study, exploratory factor analysis was used. In order for the results of factor analysis to be sufficiently valid, the sample size adequacy index and Bartlett's criterion must be observed. In the above test, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin sampling adequacy measure is greater than 0.6. And the sig value in the Bartlett's sphericity test is significant, that is, it is smaller than 0.05. And this shows that the sample size is sufficient for the research.

Therefore, the findings showed that the sample adequacy index is 0.954 percent, which is greater than the desired criterion, and the sig value obtained is equal to 0.001. As a result, it can be said that the sample size for this analysis has reached the sufficient level.

The correlation matrix examination table shows that all values have a significantly higher correlation than 0.33, which indicates that the components are related to each other, therefore this matrix is suitable for factoring.

As shown in the t-test table, all components are at a level above the average compared to the average, and according to the table above, the significance level of the tests is 0.001, which is less than the error level of 0.005. Therefore, we can state with 99% confidence that our components play a role in parental participation in schools.

Comparing the average ratings shows that the highest average rating (3.42) is assigned to the structural feature in the level of participation, which means that the most important component of participation from the perspective of the statistical community is the structural factors component in participation. After the above component, the most important components of participation were obtained in order of cultural-social factors, motivational factors, educational factors, and informational factors.



The essence of education requires the participation of all elements involved in the teaching-learning process. In such a process, the idea of learning and participation in decision-making causes social, political, cultural and sports growth and development and provides the grounds for the realization of a dynamic and developing society. Therefore, global formal education systems around the world are trying to provide as much as possible the possibility of continuing the educational role of families in the formal and public education system. Considering these materials, the main goal of this research is to identify and prioritize the factors that played a role in increasing the level of family participation in educational and sports activities in schools in Guilan province. In this research, based on data analysis, the factors that played a role in increasing the level of family participation in educational and sports activities were identified, and these factors had the highest average based on the Friedman test ranking in the following order (structural factors, socio-cultural factors, motivational factors, educational factors, informational factors).

Among the factors that play a significant role in increasing the level of family participation in schools are structural factors. This component has the highest percentage among other components (m=3.8029). Perhaps the reason for choosing this component is the role and importance of regulations and organizational methods in schools. So that for parental participation in school affairs, developing a strategy based on organization and adopting policies and guidelines that can lead to maximum parental participation is of particular importance and necessity. Of course, participatory policy must be accompanied by policies to change the attitude of administrators and parents towards establishing communication with each other, by increasing their motivation, in order to achieve effective results. Another factor that played a role in increasing family participation in schools, and ranked next (M=3.6908), was socio-cultural factors. The results showed that the more the socio-cultural component is promoted among families, the more its role will be visible. Socio-cultural factors are considered as an umbrella that casts a shadow over other factors affecting parental participation.

K E Y W O R D S

Partnership, Family, Education



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