This slide show was presented at the BELMAS conference in July, 2017. It represents work-in-progress about parental engagement in Jewish families. The questionnaire for parents in Jewish families is still live - please help complete this research so we can learn more! The survey is here:
https://bathreg.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/parental-engagement-in-jewish-families-copy
2. Parental Engagement
with Children’s
Learning
Engaging parents to
raise achievement
Helping parents
support their children
(literature review)
Best practice in
parental engagement
(literature review)
Impact of faith on
parental engagement
Parental engagement
in Jewish families
Toolkit for parental
engagement
Parental Engagement
and Maths
Super Shoppers
My work in this field
3. • Background and Rationale
• Value of PEwCL
• Anomaly of achievement
• Research project
• What next
• What have we learned
• What we still don’t know
4. 28% of children in the UK live in poverty
Two-thirds (64%) of children growing up in poverty live in a family
where at least one member works
Why we need this research
5. These risks are cyclic
• Children raised in poverty are much more likely
to raise their own children in poverty
• Children who do not achieve at school are likely
to raise children who also do not achieve
More problematically
6. About 80% of academic achievement comes
from what happens outside of school
Rabash et al, 2010 and Save the Children,
2013
7. “What parents do is more important than who
parents are” (Sylva et al, 2004)
“For all children, the quality of the
home learning environment is
more important for intellectual and
social development than parental
occupation, education or income.
8. Parental involvement with schools
Reading in class Going on Trips Parents’ Evenings
Parental involvement with schooling
Helping with homework Keeping track of coursework
Parental engagement with children’s learning
Moral support Interest in learning Guidance
9. • Children from Jewish backgrounds – above average
achievement, above average return on investment to
education (Chiswick 1988, Burstein 2007, Lynn and Kanazawa 2008)
• Previous explanations:
• More investment in education (Lehrer 1999, 2006; Meng and
Sentence, 1984)
• Behavioural explanations: value of education, high
aspirations, support for learning, education as a
portable good (Goodall, 2013)
• Higher Intelligence (Lynn and Kanazawa 2008)
The anomaly of achievement
10. 7 interviews
65 responses to questionnaire
(Of which 56 were completed for analysis for this
presentation)
This project - ongoing
11. Q Respondents (n 56)
Respondent locations
UK US Other
Average number of
children: 2
Average age of eldest
child: 13 years
12. Questionnaire responses
Yes No
Is it important for parents to be involved? All
Is there anything in your faith group that supports parental
engagement?
29 24
Have you received support for PEwCL from your faith group? 34 19
Do you think there is more support for PEwCL in Jewish families? 45 6
13. Three themes which relate to the conference theme
have come through clearly from the grounded
analysis of the data: the value of familial support
for learning, the importance of education for a
group facing discrimination, and the value placed
on critical thinking within this community.
Abstract says….
14. From both questionnaire and interview respondents:
• The value of education (in/by/with the family) 61x
• The value of critical thinking (disputation) 56 x
• Education as a portable good 20x
• This relates to the responses about how parents interact
with their children’s learning: discussion comes second
only to helping with homework
Data says…
15. “The most Jewish thing I can do is study and teach texts”
“Success as a parent is whether we have transmitted
Jewish learning to our children – love and learning but
learning first”
“How do you reach the world to come? You sit on your bum
and you learn”
“We see learning as a religious value”
(Interview respondents)
Value of learning/study
16. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you
shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your might. And these words
which I command you this day shall be upon your
heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children,
and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and
when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and
when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon
your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your
eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your
house and on your gates.”
The Shema Deut 6:4
17. After the argument about the Oven of Akhnai
The rabbis dispute about the purity of an
oven, one against the many. The one brings
signs, including a heavenly voice – but the
majority reject all the signs, "The Torah is not
in heaven!" (Deut. 30:12).
God’s reaction?
"He laughed, saying, 'My children have
defeated Me, My children have defeated Me.'"
This can be linked to the need for
enquiry in learning
18. • The Torah – and human interpretation thereof – trumps
miraculous phenomena and even a voice from heaven
• Argues to a valuing of human thought and disputation
• “God is not authoritative in disputes” (Frank 2004)
• Disagreement is privileged and assumed, and
speech is valued most highly. (Frank 2004)
• “Jewish culture is academic and argumentative”
(QR)
‘We pay no attention to a heavenly voice’
19. In Judaism, everything is open to question and
interpretation. It doesn't matter who's the authority
figure, or who's telling you that what they say is
correct...there is always room to disagree, make a
strong argument, and ultimately go your own way.
Our commentaries preserve minority opinions--
opinions about religious matters held to be *wrong*
by the rest of the community-- because of this.
Thinking for yourself is incredibly important.
Questionnaire response
20. • Value of discussion
• Value of study and of texts
• Value of questioning
• Lack of assumption that there is only one correct answer –
valuing of the minority opinion
Impact of this view on parenting
All upheld in the literature as important parts of
the home learning environment and parental
engagement in learning
21. • Parents in this group put great value on discussion in the
home
• Aligns with literature: value of the home learning
environment (Sylva, Melhuish et al.
2008)(Desforges and Abouchaar 2003)
• Discussion around learning does not seem to presuppose
a search for an absolute answer
• Study for the sake of study
• ‘It’s the way into the world to come’
What have we learned?
22. • Highlighting the value of discussion for parents/families
• Discussion starters for the home
• ‘Super shoppers’ project
How can we support that for other families?
23. Message to parents:
• What matters is that they care about their
children and their learning
• They don’t need to know the answers
• They need to care that the answers get
found
What parents do…
They need to support the questioning….
24.
25. • Effect of religion overall
• Important effect understood in the
literature
• But few qualitative studies in the UK
(Byfield, 2008)
• And no quantitative studies that we have
found
Issues for further study PEwCL
26. • Different conceptions of God
• Different conceptions of truth and means of
validation of truth
• “These and These” decision and its parallel
w/concept of cognitive dissonance: God is
both merciful and just
Issues for further (other) study
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of Religious Education 36(3): 332-352.
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Context: Shabbat as the Weekly Family Ritual Par Excellence." Family Process.
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