The Parents' Participation Models And Their Implementation Mechanisms In School Management

Parents' participation in school management plays an important role in school-based management. The process of social democracy and educational decentralization asks for parents' participation in school management. Parents' participation in school management has been performed in the western developed countries for near 50 years. Overcoming its weaknesses by acquiring its strong points, the author summarizes the parents' participation models and constructs their implementation mechanisms, which will promote educational reform and increase school efficacy.This paper expounds parents possess the rights and duties of participation, and parents participation caters to the demand not only of home-school cooperation but also of the school reform. Though facing several challenges, parents' participation is certified feasible. In the survey, people show their support to parents' participation, while they also recognize there exists some difficulty and worry. Consequently, it is time to implement parents' participation with its emphasis on strengthening the function of parents' institute, constructing the flexible mechanisms and facilitating the process of parents' participation.According to the depth of parents' participation, the author generalizes 3 models: supervising, volunteered serving, and sharing decision-making. Supervising is widely practised in our country. It aims at parents' rights of listening to school report and examining educational facilities. With the school environment limited open, parents' commission is performing institute and parents are in passive position. Volunteered serving has emerged recently in our country. It asks for more open school environment. Parents' volunteered team as performing institute, it requires parents take concrete actions in school management. In this model, parents turn into supporters and suppliers of school management. Sharing decision-making has not appeared in our country currently, but it represents the trend. It requires highly open school environment. Parents enter school council through election and share decision-making. Hence, parents become the school's partners and the agents of school interest. Although the parents' participation modelsseem different, their procedures are roughly the same. First, the school should carry out a survey in order to decide the suitable model. Second, it should set up the performing institute, determine parents' duty and supply supporting conditions. In the process of practice, it is necessary to define the role of headmaster, decide the scope of parent's participation, facilitate the information transmission, and adopt the techniques for problem solving. Finally, to help parents' participation keep on flourishing, the school should try to diminish its negative influence by continuous assessment and integrated governance.In the future, there are two important purposes to which parents' participation might contribute. One of these purposes is the creation of educational systems with greater internal learning capacities. The second purpose is lifelong learning, for parents' participation provides community members with many opportunities for engaging with schools in conversations about community values, life aspiration, and expectations for how education might contribute to those values and aspirations.