Parental engagement in Ghanaian pre-primary schools: A mixed-methods study

Parental engagement in early childhood education can promote children's development, though context-driven studies examining parental perceptions of and barriers to engagement in low-and middle-income countries are scarce. In this study, we employ mixed methods to focus on parents in the Greater Accra region. Using semi-structured interviews, we explore how parents describe their engagement in their child's learning, define their roles, and describe barriers to engaging. Using survey data, we estimate predictors of and variation in engagement across subgroups of households. Family characteristics, including wealth, education level, and home language, predict engagement, while actors of engagement differ across household subgroups. Overall, parents report initiating most types of engagement, as schools lack structural policies to involve parents in their children's learning.