Taming the tide of achievement gap by managing parental role in learner discipline

Abstract

Parental involvement is germane and crucial to a child’s well-being and development in later life. Involvement is subjective in nature and difficult to evaluate. The family is the primary cell of society where the child’s upbringing commences at birth. This study focuses on the parental role in managing learner discipline with the aim of improving learner academic achievement and reducing educational inequities in underachieving schools. The question guiding this study is: how can parents as stakeholders in the school ensure that learners are disciplined for the school environment, in order to tame the tide of achievement gap? A qualitative empirical approach was employed in this study, with the semi-structured interview as the main data-collection instrument. Social cognitive theory underpinned the study to highlight the impact of the role of parents on learner discipline for improved performance in the school environment. Findings suggest that lack of disciplinary management skills may result in unruly behaviour, non-adherence to school rules and poor learner performance in school. This study reveals that parental involvement in children’s education has a powerful impact on the attainment of positive results.

Keywords: academic performance; achievement gap; disruptive behaviour; learner discipline; management skills; managing; parental involvement; parental role; quality teaching and learning; well-being