ABSTRACT
Over the past decades, the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have invested massive resources to improve education to prepare their citizens to deal with economic and social changes for an increasingly globalized and competitive world. However, the outcomes are falling behind the initial expectations, which has made policy makers keen on revising plans to achieve education goals. For education reform initiatives to be successful, all stakeholders should be involved in the process. This chapter provides a literature review of the range of ways in which parents can be involved in their children’s education, including through communicating with teachers, volunteering at school, learning at home, education-related decision-making, and collaborating with others in the community. Parent-school partnerships are a critical factor in children’s holistic social, behavioural, emotional, and academic development. Family involvement practices, home-school partnerships, and home environment factors are consistently linked to children’s academic performance at all levels of education. A number of factors, including parents’ socioeconomic status and attitudes, are related to how involved they are in their children’s education. The chapter concludes with recommendations and implications for practice and policy.
