This qualitative study sought to understand how professional working families with elementary age children perceive family engagement. Through one-on-one interviews, the researcher gained insight on how families define and perceive family engagement. The open-ended, one-on-one, semi-structured interviews included a purposeful sample of 8 participants. An analysis of data included a system of coding to link thoughts across data after reviewing, reflecting, and transcribing interviews. Their rich descriptions provide detailed information that is extremely useful to understanding the complexities of family engagement and its ability to support teachers, students, families and schools.
Findings from the study revealed the importance of families, teachers and schools communicating and collaborating to have family engagement success. According to the families in this study, family engagement involves two-way communication and relationship building that allows families and school personnel to collaborate, share their ideas and decision-making. Families also believe family engagement includes the involvement of curricular and extracurricular activities. Additionally, families discussed the important role technology plays in achieving successful family engagement by supporting communication, relationship building and involvement. Results from this study generated recommendations for elementary education stakeholders.
","abstract_html":"<p>This qualitative study sought to understand how professional working families with elementary age children perceive family engagement. Through one-on-one interviews, the researcher gained insight on how families define and perceive family engagement. The open-ended, one-on-one, semi-structured interviews included a purposeful sample of 8 participants. An analysis of data included a system of coding to link thoughts across data after reviewing, reflecting, and transcribing interviews. Their rich descriptions provide detailed information that is extremely useful to understanding the complexities of family engagement and its ability to support teachers, students, families and schools. </p> <p>Findings from the study revealed the importance of families, teachers and schools communicating and collaborating to have family engagement success. According to the families in this study, family engagement involves two-way communication and relationship building that allows families and school personnel to collaborate, share their ideas and decision-making. Families also believe family engagement includes the involvement of curricular and extracurricular activities. Additionally, families discussed the important role technology plays in achieving successful family engagement by supporting communication, relationship building and involvement. Results from this study generated recommendations for elementary education stakeholders. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ervin, Candis"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership (Ed.D)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Educational Leadership","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Debra Coffey","Dr. Linda Grant"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-12-14T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-12-14T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:43:42Z","subjects":["Family Engagement","Teacher Leadership","Elementary School","Elementary Education"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/teachleaddoc_etd/48","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Debra Coffey","Dr. Linda Grant"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ervin, Candis"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2020-12-11T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Educational Leadership"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership (Ed.D)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Family Engagement","Teacher Leadership","Elementary School","Elementary Education"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/teachleaddoc_etd/48"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This qualitative study sought to understand how professional working families with elementary age children perceive family engagement. Through one-on-one interviews, the researcher gained insight on how families define and perceive family engagement. The open-ended, one-on-one, semi-structured interviews included a purposeful sample of 8 participants. An analysis of data included a system of coding to link thoughts across data after reviewing, reflecting, and transcribing interviews. Their rich descriptions provide detailed information that is extremely useful to understanding the complexities of family engagement and its ability to support teachers, students, families and schools.
Findings from the study revealed the importance of families, teachers and schools communicating and collaborating to have family engagement success. According to the families in this study, family engagement involves two-way communication and relationship building that allows families and school personnel to collaborate, share their ideas and decision-making. Families also believe family engagement includes the involvement of curricular and extracurricular activities. Additionally, families discussed the important role technology plays in achieving successful family engagement by supporting communication, relationship building and involvement. Results from this study generated recommendations for elementary education stakeholders.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Family Perceptions of Family Engagement: A Qualitative Study to Assist Stakeholders"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Debra Coffey","Dr. Linda Grant"],"dc:creator":["Ervin, Candis"],"dc:date.available":["2020-12-11T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["This qualitative study sought to understand how professional working families with elementary age children perceive family engagement. Through one-on-one interviews, the researcher gained insight on how families define and perceive family engagement. The open-ended, one-on-one, semi-structured interviews included a purposeful sample of 8 participants. An analysis of data included a system of coding to link thoughts across data after reviewing, reflecting, and transcribing interviews. Their rich descriptions provide detailed information that is extremely useful to understanding the complexities of family engagement and its ability to support teachers, students, families and schools.
Findings from the study revealed the importance of families, teachers and schools communicating and collaborating to have family engagement success. According to the families in this study, family engagement involves two-way communication and relationship building that allows families and school personnel to collaborate, share their ideas and decision-making. Families also believe family engagement includes the involvement of curricular and extracurricular activities. Additionally, families discussed the important role technology plays in achieving successful family engagement by supporting communication, relationship building and involvement. Results from this study generated recommendations for elementary education stakeholders.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/teachleaddoc_etd/48"],"dc:subject":["Family Engagement","Teacher Leadership","Elementary School","Elementary Education"],"dc:title":["Family Perceptions of Family Engagement: A Qualitative Study to Assist Stakeholders"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Educational Leadership"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership (Ed.D)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:43:42Z"}