Changing the Context of Learning for a Better Education

Parent involvement is an element that has been identified in the literature base as being an important element to organizational change in schools. The author reviewed literature base on parent involvement, social capital, parent empowerment and school success. Success was defined in myriad ways that include: school completion, attendance rates, student achievement, or the acquisition of necessary skills to transition to the workforce or to higher education. The belief by researchers that an important component of educational change is changing the context of learning so that students and parents may see the purpose of education was highlighted. This paper posits that an increased understanding of the relevance of education by parents through social capital, cultural capital, parent involvement, and parent empowerment may impact parental choice and support for their children's education, that will consequently provide better education for human capital development or make learning applicable to the student's life. In addition, the behavior of teachers in the classroom and attitude towards parents, culturally responsive methods of teaching, school-parent relations, school administrators effort to coordinate activities between the school and the community were all identified as important ways of creating positive learning environment for successful schools. KEYWORDS: Parental involvement, social capital, parental empowerment, organizational change, school success