| Parental involvement is associated with students’ educational achievement. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate a lack of parental involvement and, particularly, teachers and parents’ perceptions of barriers to parental involvement in an alternative high school. The research questions involved understanding teachers’ perceptions of barriers to parental involvement in schools, parents’ perceptions of barriers to their involvement in schools, how teachers view parental involvement in schools as it relates to student behavior, and how parents view their involvement in schools as it relates to student behavior. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory was used as the conceptual framework for the study. Criterion sampling was used to select 5 teachers and 5 parents who were interviewed regarding their perceptions of barriers to parental involvement in an alternative school and how those barriers affected students’ behavior. Data were collected using open-ended interviews that were transcribed, sorted, coded, and analyzed using the NVivo 9 software, which revealed 12 themes. Results indicated that participants’ perceptions of barriers to their involvement affected not only student behavior but also teacher-parent communication, home-school connections, and school-community outreach initiatives. Implications for positive social change include recognition of some of the issues parents have that can inform the development of new strategies to involve parents. Such recognition could lead to increased parental involvement practices in alternative schools, such as weekly parent-teacher conferences, parental involvement contracts, and school-community outreach programs that foster and address the issues that hinder active parental involvement. |
