Parents Educational Concerns about Their Middle School Children

Year 2020, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 73 - 97, 26.06.2020

Aysel Ateş Ali Ünal

Abstract

This study intends to define the educational concerns of Turkish parents whose children at middle school. The study is conducted a phenomenon science pattern one of the qualitative research approaches. Data were collected by two focus group meetings from 22 parents, live in three different districts in Istanbul in the 2019-2020 academic year. The criterion sampling method, which is one of purposeful sampling method, was used to select participants. Data construed by content analysis. The study result indicates that the parents whose children in middle school, stable concern about education policies that change frequently in consequence of not paying attention to the goals and principles of the educational system, uncertainty that occurs because of the way practitioners understand and implement educational policies and not trust neither education system nor administrator and teachers. Besides these basic concerns, parents also have some expectancies. They desire that their children are advanced as a whole not only academically but also socially and psychologically on the base of their individual feature. They believe their children can not get the education which helps them to get a good job and make them successful in life. Some suggestions are made for policymakers and practitioners.  

Keywords

Parents' concerns, Education system, School, Teacher and administrator qualification

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