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 parentalengagement approaches in developing children ' s literacy skills in primaryschools. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were usedwith purposive sampling to obtain 44 participants. It was revealed thatparents in high-performing schools were highly engaged in their children ' sliteracy development through regular parent-teacher communications,parent-teacher trust, and parent-teacher cooperation. Parents in lowperformingschools, on the other hand, were less engaged due to the lackof awareness of their children ' s literacy skills development and hecticschedules on socio-economic activities. The paper recommends thatteachers use encouraging and friendly approaches to parents so that theycan feel comfortable engaging in developing their children ' s literacy skills.Keywords: high-performing schools, literacy skills, low-performingschools, parental engagement approaches, parent-teachercommunication