Parent Partners in School Science: Parent Engagement Research Study

In 2001, The Franklin Institute Science Museum (TFI) received funding from the National Science Foundation to develop and implement Parent Partners in School Science (PPSS). A year project, PPSS was designed to demonstrate how a science museum can facilitate K-4 children's science learning in and out of school, working with teachers and parents from 3 urban elementary schools in Philadelphia. More specifically, three goals have informed the implementation of PPSS: 1) Promote science teaching at the elementary level; 2) Cultivate home-school collaboration in support of students' science learning; 3) Document the role that a science center can play in bridging the gap between home and school in an urban educational district. Grounded in an understanding of parent engagement as a socially distributed, dynamic and iterative process (Calabrese Barton et al., 2004), this study examined the complex ways in which PPSS has brought parents and teachers together in support of K-4 students' learning. Specifically, the study investigated three research questions: 1) What is the nature of parents' participation in PPSS?; 2) What are participating parents' perceptions of the program?; 3) How do parents' perceive that PPSS has influenced their engagement in their child(ren)'s learning over time? A two-phased, mixed methods design was used to investigate the above-mentioned research questions. In Phase I, questionnaires were administered to participating parents, documenting the nature of their involvement in PPSS. In Phase II, interviews were conducted with a subset of parents to collect rich, qualitative data on their specific program experiences and impacts. On the whole, participation trends were positive. Parents reported being involved in the program for an average of 2 years, with the majority of families participating in consecutive years throughout the program's 5-year duration. Parents with multiple children in PPSS reported longer participation rates, as they had more opportunities to participate throughout the life of the program. In terms of perceptions, parents who participated in PPSS had a clear understanding of the program's goals, despite the number of years in which they had been involved in the program. At a broad level, they saw the program as educational in nature - an opportunity for parents and children to engage in science together. Parents perceived that PPSS had a strong impact on their involvement in their child(ren)'s learning. Specifically, parents' ratings on questionnaires indicated that they felt the program helped them to see how important it is for their child to learn science, helped them to better understand what their child does in school, gave them strategies for engaging their child in science at home, helped them to talk with their child about science outside of school, helped them to feel more comfortable in their child's school, and enhanced their interaction with their child's teacher. The appendix of this report includes a questionnaire, interview protocol, and coding rubric used in the study.