Alolayani, Saleh (2025) Exploring headteachers’ and fathers’ roles in creating and sustaining school– family partnerships: a study in Dammam City, Saudi Arabia. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
Due to Embargo and/or Third Party Copyright restrictions, this thesis is not available in this service.Abstract
School‒family partnerships are essential for improving students' academic performance and strengthening school‒family connections. The importance of these partnerships in enhancing educational outcomes is underscored, especially with a focus on the roles of teachers and head teachers in student engagement. These partnerships significantly impact families, particularly their interactions with children at home and in educational settings. School leadership is pivotal in fostering these partnerships because of its capacity to coordinate efforts, allocate resources, and set a unified vision, thereby achieving positive outcomes for families, teachers, and students. While families and teachers play key roles, structured support and guidance from headteachers may ensure cohesive and effective collaboration.
This study investigates the importance of school-family partnerships from the perspectives of fathers and headteachers in Saudi Arabia, addressing potential challenges at both the national and international levels. Additionally, it examines the role of head teachers in cultivating effective school-family partnerships, highlighting their crucial contribution as per findings from this PhD study. The study took place in Dammam city, Eastern Region, Saudi Arabia, viaa qualitative methodology. Data were collected via semistructured individual interviews with nine headteachers and four focus group discussions involving fathers. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data from both the interviews and the focus group discussions.
The findings show that both fathers and headteachers valued school-family partnerships for children's benefits. However, headteachers face obstacles such as a lack of authority, high centralisation in the education system, and inadequate training in school-family partnerships. Fathers encountered issues such as limited time due to job commitments and a lack of experience with home teaching. These conclusions emphasise the need for tailored strategies to enhance school-family partnerships and the crucial role of school leadership, which is consistent with the literature and the unique dynamics in the Saudi Arabian education system
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
|---|---|
| Qualification Level: | Doctoral |
| Additional Information: | Due to copyright issues this thesis is not available for viewing. |
| Subjects: | L Education > LC Special aspects of education |
| Colleges/Schools: | College of Social Sciences > School of Education |
| Supervisor's Name: | Harvie, Professor Julie and Alves, Dr. Ines |
| Date of Award: | 2025 |
| Depositing User: | Theses Team |
| Unique ID: | glathesis:2025-85277 |
| Copyright: | Copyright of this thesis is held by the author. |
| Date Deposited: | 01 Jul 2025 13:17 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Jul 2025 13:17 |
| Thesis DOI: | 10.5525/gla.thesis.85277 |
| URI: | https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85277 |
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