Involvement of illiterate mothers in their children‟s education

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the views, suggestions and barriers of illiterate mothers to be involved in their children‟s education and how being illiterate influences their participation in the education process of their children. By using qualitative research method, the research is carried out with ten illiterate mothers participated in literacy course in a public education center. The most important characteristics of participants are being illiterate and having school aged children. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with the participants. Findings from the study indicate that illiterate mothers are identified by analyzing the extent of mothers involvement from four types of involvement such as parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home. There are a number of factors that influence involvement of illiterate mothers. These factors are stated as personal or psychological factors such as parental role, educational aspirations, self-efficacy, knowledge of being involved in the academic life of their children; contextual factors such as school climate, social support and barriers; socicultural factors as demographic variables of illiterate mothers. Maternal time spent with the child and mother employment are another additional factors accepted as sociocultural factors that influence the involvement of illiterate mothers. In the light of the findings from this research, illiterate mothers are aware of the importance of their involvement in their children‟s education and being illiterate is the greatest barrier for them to be involved in their children‟s education. They have a high self awareness of their own responsibilities and desire to be influential in their children‟s education.According to their responses, they need to learn reading and writing in order to be influential in children‟s learning.They hold high academic aspirations for their children.They encourage their children to continue their education process and get a profession at the end of this process. Illiterate mothers want to take an active part in the education process of their children so that children reach academic aspirations. They state the most important reason to participate in literacy course as the desire to be influential in their children‟s education.