Building effective family-school community partnerships: exploring teachers’ perspectives on parental involvement in selected South African township primary schools

Establishing partnerships between the family and the school has become the most effective approach for developing capacity techniques for parental involvement in township primary schools in South Africa.According to the literature, poor parental involvement in preparing and teaching their children remains a matter of global and national concern.This study aimed to explore teachers' perspectives of parental involvement in township primary schools in Gauteng, South Africa.A qualitative approach underpinned by an interpretive research paradigm was employed to explore the matter.Purposeful sampling was utilized to select appropriate participants for the investigation.The study was undergirded by Epstein's theory of overlapping spheres of influence, which advances the building of family-school partnerships.A case study design was applied to collect data in focus group discussions with ten teachers selected at two primary schools.Thematic data analysis was utilized.The findings that emerged from this study revealed that although parental involvement is crucial in promoting learner performance, regrettably, parental involvement remains unsatisfactory.The findings highlight various barriers to parental involvement, including parents' and teachers' insufficient knowledge, lack of time, child neglect, lack of social work services, learner absenteeism, lack of funds, transportation, and diverse languages spoken at school and at home.Based on the findings, the study recommends techniques to build family-school partnerships, including establishing applicable communication programmes and spaces, provision of parents' transport to the school, and awards to increase parental involvement, maintenance of academic achievement awards ceremonies, presenting parent-child evenings and weekends, operative social work services, and validation of family-school partnership by curriculum developers.