Parents’ Perceptions of Their Involvement in Curriculum Development at Secondary School: A Case Study in the Philippines

Abstract

Curriculum development is a collaborative work that implies the involvement of different stakeholders. While parents are one of the stakeholders of learners’ education, they do not participate in curriculum development even at the school level. This lack of parents’ participation has negative impacts on teaching and learning and the future of learners. Parents are recognized as important stakeholders of the school curriculum. This case study explored parents’ perceptions of their curriculum development involvement in a selected private high school in the Philippines. Individual semi-structured interviews were used in collecting data from the parents. The data collected were analyzed according to Saldana’s model. This process consisted of organizing and preparing data, coding data, generating categories, providing thick descriptions of themes, and interpreting the findings. The five themes were (a) parental involvement in children’s education, (b) parental absence in curriculum committee, (c) parent perceptions of the taught curriculum, (d) barriers to parental involvement, and (e) parents’ opinions. The result indicated that parents contribute financially and attend meetings organized by the school for the children’s education. However, they are not involved in school curriculum development. Implications and recommendations are provided in this study.