ARMY PARENT’S INVOLVEMENT IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS: A QUALITATIVE, DESCRIPTIVE, MULTI-CASE STUDY

Understand the challenges and barriers active duty Army parents’ encounter when participating in parental involvement programs.  The theoretical framework used Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (1995, 1997) Model of Parental Involvement and Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System theory Bronfenbrenner (1977) gain a deeper understanding of parental involvement decision and parents’ choices of involvement.  The research question that guided the study was RQ: How do Army parents actively engage in school activities?  There were two sub reaserach questions SQ1: What opportunities and supports are helpful for Army parents on active involvement in their child's education?  SQ2: What challenges and barriers prevent Army parents from having active involvement in their child’s education?  The study was conducted on an installation in North Carolina that interviewd seven active duty Army parents in a survey, interivew questions, and think aloud.  The data from the interviews, survey, and think aloud was entered into QSR International, NVivo™ 11 software to provide themes, trends, and patterns of the participants for the study.  The major conclusions from the study were that communication and time was a factor for the Army parents.