Influence of parents' educational and occupational status on their wards' educational status-A study

Abstract

Today's children are fundamental to society because they are our future; they hold the key to change, and in turn a successful future, in their hands. Therefore, it is society's duty to provide them with a complete education that teaches them how to work together successfully, how to question what is in front of them, and how to be catalysts of change. This education starts with what children learn ~on:;t their parents and from what they learn in the first few years of their lives. This initial education impacts the rest of their lives, and inherently society's future. In his research, William Teale concludes that "Horne background plays a significant role in a young child's orientation to literacy and to education. But home background is a complex of economic, sccial.cultural, and even personal factors." (Teale 1993) According to most research done on th~ parental involvement in their children's education, the most influential of these four interconnected elements described by Teale are the personal backgrounds and the economic backgrounds of parents. These two components also largely contribute to the home environment .th.at they provide for their children. ,_. Parental education and occupational status are highly correlated with children's educational . .. choices and attainment. Dustmann (2004) finds that parental background is strongly related to the choice of secondary school track of the child, and that this association translates into 1 RIE Library Bhopal substantial differences in earnings later in life. This is surprising given that, on the surface, the German school system appears fairly egalitarian, and that returns to education are at conventional levels. However, it has been suggested that the importance of parental background for a child's education is due to more specific characteristics of the school system, such as stratification and early tracking of students according to ability (OECD, 2008). I Traditionally, family status variables such as socio-economic status and parents' level of education have been regarded as predictors of children's academic achievement. Increasingly, research has suggested that, rather than having a direct association with children's academic achievement, socio-economic status and parents' level of education is part of a larger constellation of psychological and sociological variables influencing children's school outcomes (Joan, 2009). Attendant on higher levels of education may be access to resources, such as income, time, energy, and community contacts, that allow for greater parental involvement in a child's education. Thus, the influence of socio-economic status and parents level of education on student outcomes might best be represented as a relationship mediated by interactions among status and process variables (Joan, 2009).The literature also suggests that level of education influences parents knowledge, beliefs, values, and goals about childrearing, so that a variety of parental behaviours are indirectly related to children's school performance. For example, higher socio economic status and high levels of education may enhance parents' facility at becoming involved in their children's education, and also enable parents to acquire and model .social skills and problem-solving strategies conducive to children's school success. Thus, students whose parents have higher socio economic status and higher levels of education may have an enhanced regard for learning, more positive ability beliefs, a stronger work orientation, and they may use more effective learning strategies than children of parents with lower socio-economic status and lower levels of education (Joan, 2009). :: Onocha (1985) concludes that a child from 'a well-educated family with high socio economic status is more likely to perform better. than a child from an illiterate family. This is because the child from an educated family has a lot of support such as a decent and good environment for academic work, parental S~PP9rt and guidance, enough textual and academic materials and decent feeding. He or she is likely to be sent to good schools where well-seasoned teachers will handle his or her subjects. Children's academic achievement was found to be affected by varying family processes. Campbell and Wu (1994) said that the home environment and family processes pr9v~de a network of physical, social and 2 RIE Library Bhopal , intellectual forces and factors, which affect the student's learning. According to them, the family's level of encouragement, expectations, and education activities in the home are related to socio-economic status, while Song and Hattie (2004) agreed that families from different socio-economic groups create different learning environments that affect the child's academic achievement. There is no doubt that parent's attitudes help to condition their children's attitudes. A parent who shows complete regard for education might have some effect upon his or her children's education progress. Many studies have examined the relationships among those constructs and student's achievement. Schunk, Pintrich and Meece (2008) affirm the fact that there is a consistent fmding of motivation being related to achievement behaviours. In a nutshell the influence of socio-economic and educational background of the parents on their children education cannot be undermined.