Parents’ and teachers’ attitudes towards homework at one elementary school in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Homework has become a subject of a long-lasting debate among educational stakeholders including parents, teachers, students, school administrators, and policymakers around the world. A group of stakeholders believes that homework is crucial for enhancing student learning and building students’ study habits, while the other group runs counter emphasizing that homework diminishes student engagement. The purpose of this study is to explore teachers’ and parents’ perspectives about homework at a selected elementary school in Kazakhstan. The research disclosed elementary school teachers’ and parents’ homework development and assistance practices based on the main research questions 1) What are elementary school teachers’ perspectives about out-of-class assignments, and 2) What are the attitudes of elementary school students’ parents towards homework? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five elementary school teachers and five parents. The findings revealed teachers’ and parents’ regular homework development, assignment, and assistance practices. Parents perceived their children to be spending comparatively more time than it was expected by teachers. Almost all the participants encountered certain difficulties in their homework practices. Teachers found the lack of didactic resources and designing differentiated homework tasks difficult, while parents struggled with the language barrier and family relationship issues. All these challenges encountered were perceived to have come from the introduction of Kazakhstan’s newly updated curriculum. Disregarding these challenges, almost all the participants held a positive attitude toward homework viewing it as an essential part of student learning that brings positive academic achievements. Both teachers and parents described quality homework as a clear task that links new learning with prior knowledge and promotes students’ independent learning. Since it is the first research on homework in the Kazakhstani context, its findings will help teachers to inform their homework practices. Parents will benefit from this study by gaining more insights into the way they engage in their children’s homework behaviour. The study may also contribute to the development of a coherent homework policy at the state, district, and school levels.