Parental Engagement Approaches to Primary School Children’s Literacy Skills Development in Tabora Region, Tanzania

Abstract

This paper employs a qualitative case study design to explore parental
engagement approaches in developing children’s literacy skills in primary
schools. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were used
with purposive sampling to obtain 44 participants. It was revealed that
parents in high-performing schools were highly engaged in their children’s
literacy development through regular parent-teacher communications,
parent-teacher trust, and parent-teacher cooperation. Parents in lowperforming
schools, on the other hand, were less engaged due to the lack
of awareness of their children’s literacy skills development and hectic
schedules on socio-economic activities. The paper recommends that
teachers use encouraging and friendly approaches to parents so that they
can feel comfortable engaging in developing their children’s literacy skills.
Keywords: high-performing schools, literacy skills, low-performing
schools, parental engagement approaches, parent-teacher
communication