Teachers' attitudes toward parental involvement in selected government kindergartens in China

Parental involvement can have very positive effects on student success, school and teachers' quality and program design. Meanwhile, during the procedure of actualizing the positive effects of parental involvement in childhood education, the teacher is the key. Teachers' attitudes toward parents and parental involvement are of great importance to the level and quality of parental involvement, which play integral roles in the quality of childhood education.;Currently in China, children's development and childhood education are still new and developing areas. While many western countries are making great progress in the theoretical and practical development in childhood education, research in this area in China is very limited. There is little research that has examined kindergarten teachers' attitudes toward parental involvement in childhood education. In order to address the new issue and to provide implications for the development of quality parental involvement, kindergarten teacher education programs and childhood education in China, this study was initiated to examine teachers' attitudes toward parental involvement in selected government kindergartens in China. A sample of 159 kindergarten teachers from 16 government kindergartens in Nanjing, China was selected in this study. The instrument employed in this study was a self-designed survey questionnaire which contained three parts: (1) demographic information, (2) teachers' attitudes toward school-based parental involvement, and (3) teachers' attitudes toward home-based parental involvement. After data collection, descriptive statistics was first computed to examine the data. Then, paired t-test was conducted to determine if there was any statistically significant difference in teachers' attitudes toward school-based and home-based parental involvement. Finally, a multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the relationships between teachers' attitudes and their selected demographic characteristics.;The research findings and conclusions are as follows: (1) Chinese kindergarten teachers had positive attitudes toward both school-based and home-based parental involvement. (2) There was a statistically significant difference in teachers' attitudes toward school-based and home-based parental involvement. Teachers had more positive attitudes toward home-based parental involvement than school-based parental involvement. (3) There were statistically significant correlations between teachers' attitudes toward school-based parental involvement and their age, highest degree and membership in professional organizations. Those teachers with younger age, higher degree or more memberships in professional organizations had more positive attitudes toward school-based parental involvement. (4) There were statistically significant correlations between teachers' attitudes toward home-based parental involvement and their age, highest degree and class size. Those teachers with younger age, higher degree or larger class size had more positive attitudes toward home-based parental involvement.