Date of Award
12-1-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate of Education, Ed.D.
College
College of Education
Department
Education
First Advisor
Barbara Weschke, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Deborah Johnson-Blake, D.M.
Third Advisor
Peggy Dupey, Ph.D.
Abstract
This qualitative study was conducted at a rural school located in southwest Louisiana with an enrollment of 767 students during the Spring of the 2017-18 academic school year (XXXXX School Board, 2018). A descriptive phenomenological research methodology was used to investigate the experiences of parents working with their adolescent children on their secondary mathematics homework. A sample of seven parents participated in this study. The criteria used for a parent to qualify was having an adolescent child taking secondary mathematics courses during the 2017-18 school year. Data were collected using one-on-one interviews with individual participants during the summer of 2018. Eleven themes were developed in this study including home environment, parent-child relationships, parent-initiated communication, student-initiated communication, teacher-initiated communication, parents helping at home, ability to help, self-help resources, school resources, parent leadership, and resources from the community. The results of this study revealed parents are genuinely interested in wanting to assist their adolescent children with their secondary mathematics homework; there was lines of communication between the participants and the school but most of the communication was initiated by the participant; most of the participants do not feel comfortable helping their adolescent children with their secondary mathematics homework because they do not believe they have the necessary skills to help; and most participants were interested in becoming involved in decision making at the school level but never received information on how they could. This study may benefit stakeholders in education by helping them understand how parents view their ability to be engaged in their children’s high school mathematics homework.