Promoting Children's Early Literacy Development: The Role of Parental Involvement in School Activities

The present study explores Filipino parents' perceptions of their role in fostering their children's early literacy skills, their collaboration with schools, and the challenges they encounter in parental involvement. Employing an exploratory qualitative design, data from in-depth interviews with seven parents of Grade One students from two public schools were analyzed thematically. Findings reveal that parents perceive their involvement as a collaborative partnership with teachers and active engagement in home- and school-based activities, although class story-reading sessions were identified as the only school activity they were involved in. Limited time due to work commitments and a lack of parent-friendly activities were the main barriers to active involvement, resulting in minimal opportunities for parents to participate. Nonetheless, participants expressed willingness to engage in school activities such as class story-readings, provided these are carefully planned to accommodate working parents' schedules. The study concludes with implications for stakeholders to diversify parent-friendly activities and accommodate working parents, and recommends expanding future research to private schools, greater sample diversity, and teacher and administrator perspectives. These findings offer initial insights to guide educational institutions and policymakers in implementing programs that foster children's early literacy development and academic success.