Thesis: Roles of Stakeholders in School Improvement and Management

This thesis examines the impact of stakeholder involvement on school improvement, focusing on a case study at Hithadhoo School. The research investigates the roles of parents, teachers, and students in enhancing educational outcomes. Data analysis includes both quantitative and qualitative methods, such as surveys and interviews, to explore themes related to stakeholder engagement, parental supervision, extra-curricular activities, and teacher-parent communication. Key findings reveal the positive impact of stakeholders on student education, the importance of parental supervision, and the influence of extra-curricular activities on academic performance. The thesis also addresses challenges related to stakeholder engagement and offers recommendations for future research, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach to academic and extra-curricular activities and effective communication between stakeholders. Graphs and tables are used to present the data and findings, supporting the analysis with relevant literature reviews.

Running head: THESIS
THESIS
Name of the Student
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THESIS
Table of Content
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results........................................................................................4
4.1 Data Analysis...................................................................................................................4
4.2 Key findings of the study.................................................................................................5
4.3 Thematic Analysis............................................................................................................5
Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion....................................................................................18
5.1 Discussion......................................................................................................................18
5.2 Stakeholders’ involvement.............................................................................................18
5.3 Parents’ supervision and children academic activities...................................................19
5.4 Extra curriculum activities and academic performance.................................................19
5.5 Teachers and parent communication..............................................................................20
5.6 Stakeholder engagement challenges..............................................................................20
5.7 Recommendation............................................................................................................20
5.8 Future Research..............................................................................................................21
5.9 Summary and Conclusion..............................................................................................21
References................................................................................................................................23

2THESIS
List of Graphs
Graph 1: Stakeholders’ involvement..........................................................................................5
Graph 2: Parents’ supervision and children academic activities................................................7
Graph 3: Extra curriculum activities and academic performance............................................10
Graph 4: Teachers and parent communication.........................................................................13

3THESIS
List of Tables
Table 1: Stakeholders’ involvement...........................................................................................7
Table 2: Parents’ supervision and children academic activities.................................................9
Table 3: Extra curriculum activities and academic performance.............................................12
Figure 4: Teachers and parent communication........................................................................14
Figure 5: Stakeholder engagement challenge..........................................................................16

4THESIS
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Results
4.1 Data Analysis
This chapter of the dissertation presents the data and the results of research questions
that have been collected by performing survey and interviews among parents, teachers and
the students of Hithadhoo School. Data collection was a significant aspect of this thesis
paper as it took plenty of time in collecting and preparing the data for the analysis. Data
analysis is known as the process of managing the data by organizing them and writing them
into a comprehensible units. Moreover, qualitative research is an interpretive study in which
the authors can make personal assessment of the data to present themes; so that the outcomes
derived are not pre-determined.
In the present study, the data was analysed after gathering the data from the survey.
After the survey, the information was converted to present them in a meaningful manner. So,
the survey data has been converted to numerical format and then presented in tables. When
interpreting the data, the chosen variables of close ended questions are denoted by number
and percentage. Likewise, when analysing the survey data, findings of the existing research
papers have been linked. Analysis followed a thematic process in which a set of themes have
been generated from picking up the variables of the research topics. So, for each theme, the
data is demonstrated in the table. The following section is about the presentation and
interpretation of the survey data.
The following are the research questions that were used to lead the study towards the
intended direction.
 What is the role of internal and external stakeholders of schools in achieving
enhanced outcomes?
 What are the roles of secondary level students in school improvement?

5THESIS
 How can the involvement of secondary level students as stakeholders provide positive
outcomes?
4.2 Key findings of the study
The major findings of the study is based on five different themes and the key themes
are further supported by other sub-themes related to stakeholders’ involvement in education
development. The first theme of the findings is “Stakeholder involvement and it is followed
by “Parents’ supervision and children academic activities”. Likewise, the rest of the
themes are derived from quantitative and qualitative questions used to collect primary data.
With each theme, three to four sub-themes are presented that are emerged from the subsidiary
questions. After the presentation of the themes, a detailed description of the findings are
presented that are further linked to the findings found in the literature review.
4.3 Thematic Analysis
Theme 1: Stakeholders’ involvement
The survey question centred on impact of stakeholders’ involvement such as parents
and community on education had a varieties in the responses. Almost 22% of the respondents
who are teachers agree to the fact that parents and community have a positive impact on
education, while 11% of the respondents who were students of grade 9 and 10 have a
contradictory views about community and parents.

6THESIS
Graph 1: Stakeholders’ involvement
Under this theme, four different subthemes are derived in accordance to survey and
interview. The following tables demonstrates the indicative responses of teachers, parents and
students where surveyed and interviewed.
Respondents Increase
consistency in
education
Increase of
Students’
regularity in
education
Spread of
awareness
about
education
Overall quality
improvement
of education
Teacher 1    
Teacher 2    
Teacher 3    
Student 1    
Student 2    
Student 3    
Parent 1    
Parent 2    

7THESIS
Parent 3    
Table 1: Stakeholders’ involvement
The above table shows that teachers and parents have quite similar views regarding
the impact of stakeholders’ on education as both teachers and parents emphasized on the fact
that involvement of stakeholders could increase consistency in education. However, the
parents have also stated the fact that parents and community involvement might not enhance
students’ regularity in education. Particularly, parent 1 and parent have stated that:
“To enhance students’ regularity in education, educational setting should develop policies
to increase regularity of students; particularly, teachers should take the initiatives”
In the literature review, it was found that school reading model, internal stakeholders
vividly have a greater capacity to deliver a positive change in school but they do not have all
of the power required to sustain it. So, it is worth stating that educational setting has a key
role to play in increasing students’ regularity in education. Moreover, secondary student 1
and student 2 have similar views as parent stated above.
“Teaching model of educational institutes should be designed in a way that students find it
attracting; so that students themselves find the interest to pay a regular visit to their
educational setting”
The data findings help to observe that many of the respondents hold a positive views
about the impact of stakeholders’ involvement such as parents and community on education.
Theme 2: Parents’ supervision and children academic activities
This particular theme is developed upon the survey question whether parents should
supervise children’s academic activities on a regular basis. The data findings indicate that

8THESIS
almost 22% of the respondents have mentioned that parent should monitor the academic
activities of children on a daily basis, while 11.11% of the respondents strongly disagree to
the context. However, almost 56% of the total respondents have mentioned that parents
should supervise the academic activities of the students on a regular basis. The following
graph shows the stated responses:
Graph 2: Parents’ supervision and children academic activities
This particularly theme is developed upon four other sub-themes that are related to parents’
supervision in students’ academic activities. The following sub theme tables shows the
respective responses to the sub-themes.
Respondents Children will
be responsible
towards their
studies
Educational
setting finds it
easy to speed
up the process
of teaching
Mental
disability can
be discovered
Overall
enhanced
education
Teacher 1    

9THESIS
Teacher 2    
Teacher 3    
Student 1    
Student 2    
Student 3    
Parent 1    
Parent 2    
Parent 3    
Table 2: Parents’ supervision and children academic activities
The above presented table demonstrate a large number of the respondents have the similar
views that regular supervision of students’ academic activities enhance help educational
setting to speed up the process of teaching which means no student can be left behind in the
syllabus. One of the teachers in the interview has stated that
“Dealing with all children with a same programme can be challenging if the learner does
not have the room for the support outside the setting, while it is easy when parents equally
contribute to teaching”
Likewise, in the literature, it was found that, external stakeholders also have a
significant role to perform in holding the improved outcomes. If the external stakeholders are
informed of school’s effort to enhance reading outcomes, they could help to sustain district’s
emphasis on over time “mission oriented changes. When further digging out the sub-theme-
children responsibility towards their educational activities, one of the parent has mentioned
“We supervise our children’s activities as we believe that learning can be processed
anywhere; so completely relying on educational setting can create learning challenge
because educational setting has to deal with a lot more”

10THESIS
Parent1 has stated the above fact as it is certain that educational setting has to deal
with several other children and all these activities are done under a certain procedure, which
is systematic; however, systematic procedure may not be the only option to teach a children
throughout his/her course programme. In addition to this, the existing studies also state that
mentioned that external stakeholder groups can be a great motivators as well as powerful
drivers to bring about and sustain positive changes. Nonetheless, the existing papers also state
an additional fact that stakeholder engagement is quite different from what educators and the
external stakeholders might consider of when thinking of the notion and the engagement of
the community in schools. This means engagement is not about the engagement in school
events, fund-raising efforts and the conventional involvement in activities like parent
training, homework assistance as well as general volunteering. The conventional engagement
such as parent training, homework assistance are the major activities that parent can perform
to guide their children in education. In this context, one of the secondary student has
mentioned that
“Homework assistance is a vital activity which every young learner should receive besides
the support they receive in the setting. The students who are usually deprived from
parents’ support for homework assistance often lag behind the students who have the
same; hence, external tutors get involved”
This response of the secondary students help to observe that homework assistance is a
significant learning aspect that come under parent observation of children academic activities.
This means parents need to be equally responsible about children’s academic activities to
speed up the process of education.
Theme 3: Extra curriculum activities and academic performance

11THESIS
This theme is developed upon the survey question –impact of extra curriculum
activities on students’ academic performance. The survey responses indicate that 11% of the
respondents have mentioned that extra curriculum activities have strong impact on students’
academic performance and almost 33% of the respondents have the similar views regarding
the context. However, almost 11% of the total respondents disagree to the stated fact.
Graph 3: Extra curriculum activities and academic performance
This particular theme is further supported with four other themes that related to extra
curriculum activities. It is certain that several educational setting often design different extra
curriculum activities simultaneously besides the regular academic activities. However,
excessive emphasis on extra curriculum activities can lead to negative consequences; thereby,
it is highly necessary for the educational setting to create or maintain a balance between
regular academic activities and curriculum activities. The following tables demonstrates the
responses to the sub-themes.
Respondents Increase
interaction
among the
Concentration
on studies
Mental fitness Enhanced
culture

12THESIS
students
Teacher 1    
Teacher 2    
Teacher 3    
Student 1    
Student 2    
Student 3    
Parent 1    
Parent 2    
Parent 3    
Table 3: Extra curriculum activities and academic performance
The above table shows that all three parents have the same views that extra
curriculum activities can increase communication or interaction among the students. This
means there are many students who may be shy or introvert in nature and do not prefer to be
involved in regular communication. Thereby, extra curriculum activities create opportunities
for those learners to interact with others through sports and physical exercise in the
educational setting. One of the teachers in the interview has mentioned
“Extra curriculum activities carry a set benefits that directly influence children’s
education. We find many children having communication difficulties which is delaying
their learning but putting those children in an entertaining program like sports often help
to enhance the frequency of interaction”
Parent 1 and parent 2 have mentioned that “our kids grasp things quite easily when they are
regularly involved in sports, where they get to interact with other children on several
agenda; back home kids remain active and prepare their homework on a timely manner”

13THESIS
The views of parents are nothing surprising since it is certain when children or the
young learners play sports or perform exercise, in between they get to know each other better
and status of their studies and this inspires them to perform their own work. For example,
when children is sharing the process of his/her homework activities, others listen up and
share their own. Thereby, they become responsible towards learning. Moreover, frequent
interaction provide many learning opportunities. Although, previous studies do not have
much say about extra curriculum activities but respondents are quite concerned about the
consequence of such activities. One of the parents has stated
“A young learner might not be able to grasp everything from their study materials;
thereby, learning opportunities need to be wide and dispersed. So, extra curriculum
activities should be designed and aligned with academic activities of the students”
Moreover, the secondary students have supported the fact that culture development
through extra-curriculum activities, which is a vital aspect as talents should be practised at
the early learning stage. For example, if a learner wishes to play guitar or learn it, extra
curriculum activities are the opportunities to do so.
Theme 4: Teachers and parent communication
Teachers and parent communication is a significant aspect in children education
development as parent should know how their children are being taught and conversely,
teachers’ interaction with parents help to know about learner’s general habits, test and
interest. So these elements used when providing learning activities to students. The
following graph shows the survey responses of the participants.

14THESIS
Graph 4: Teachers and parent communication
Almost 34% of the respondents have mentioned that teachers and parent
communication is highly necessary. However, almost 23% of the respondents disagree to the
fact of teachers and parent communication. Among 9 respondents, almost 11% of the
respondents did not choose any of sides. Therefore, the derived responses is difficult to
analyse due to the similar digits of responses. Nonetheless, the data is further interpreted with
sub-themes.
Figure 4: Teachers and parent communication
Teachers and parent communication
Behavioural Changes Changes in learning pattern

15THESIS
Above thematic figure demonstrates how teachers and parent communication is
further associated with two sub-themes. It is certain that if parents remain in touch with
teachers for being aware of their children’s educational progress, it becomes easy for children
and teachers to shape students’ learning. One of teachers in the interview has mentioned that
“During the progress of learning, the learner may go through several behavioural changes
and such changes have direct impact on their learning but knowing the behavioural
changes of learning lead to positive learning”
The teacher has stated such fact because it is certain that parents should be aware of
their children’s learning progress such as how they are learning and what changes they have
brought in learning. Knowing such areas will contribute to further learning. On the other side,
one of the parents have mentioned that
“Children are open to making mistakes and being a parent one should keep an eye on their
children regular learning activities but it is quite difficult to know how children react to
learning process of a setting because that time period is out of our vigil –so a frequent
interaction with teachers help to learn how the children need to be guided and directed in
education”
The above presented graph also helps to observe that the fact that during the learning
process, learner might experience changes in learning patterns as there are several
programmes involved in the process. So, parents communicate with the teachers on a
frequent basis, parents can know how their children are dealing with the learning process.
Theme 5: Stakeholder engagement challenges
This particular theme is derived from the interview question revolving around
stakeholder engagement challenges in terms of the community and parents. The theme is
further supported by two sub-themes such as communication and technology that have direct

16THESIS
impact on the involvement of stakeholders. The following graph demonstrates that the
relationship between the themes and sub-themes.
Figure 5: Stakeholder engagement challenge
One of the teachers in the interview has mentioned
“Engaging external stakeholders in the process of developing academic performance is
sometimes challenging due to the bridge gap of communication and poor knowledge about
the technology use”
The teachers has mentioned that as it is certain that cultural background of students
are wide and different in nature. Language is the major barrier in implementing the process. It
is observed that there are many parents who do not understand English; thereby, when
communicating with parents, teachers or the members of the educational setting find it
difficult to share the concerns in terms of growth and planning of education. Difficulty
appears when parents are not able to figure out how the care setting is carrying on with
children academic performance. Had it been planned in accordance to parents’ view and
teachers’ consideration, the educational setting would have been able to speed up the process
of developing performance. Another teacher has mentioned
“Use of technology is a great deal, all our academic activities are done through technology
but most often it is challenging when parents are not able to cope up with the use of
Stakeholder engagement challenge
Communication Technology

17THESIS
technology and so the children are; I personally mention that aligning technology with
education and keeping parents aware of the same is difficult”
This is challenging because when there is school event revolving around the
discussion about students’ progress, all data are screened on the devices, parents and other
community stakeholders should learn how the entire activities are processed and designed.
Knowing the plan would have helped parents and teachers in designing performance of
learners in a systematic manner. Nonetheless, the existing papers help to learn that the school
staff should take the lead to deliver stakeholders the data and the information they require to
become useful and productive partners around student achievement. It is also learnt from the
literature that parent involvement in education usually takes one of three forms such as
parent training which is about how to become a good parent, how to promote the
importance of education and how parent should talk to their child about the important issues.
Another form is parent support, which is about school’s homework practices and child’s
homework endeavours. Notwithstanding, all these activities are possible to implement when
parents’ backgrounds are culturally developed in terms of communication, social awareness,
use of technology and other relevant factors.

18THESIS
Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion
5.1 Discussion
The major objective of the study was to identify and explore the impact of stakeholder
engagement in education. The data findings include primary and secondary analysis by
collecting data through survey and interview. This chapter of the study provides a
compressible discussion regarding the themes and sub-themes that are presented in the above
chapter. So, the major purpose of this particularly chapter is to compare the findings derived
from themes with the findings found in the literature. However, following research questions
are taken into consideration when comparing the data with the findings of the literature
review.
 What is the role of internal and external stakeholders of schools in achieving
enhanced outcomes?
 What are the roles of secondary level students in school improvement?
 How can the involvement of secondary level students as stakeholders provide positive
outcomes?
5.2 Stakeholders’ involvement
When presenting this theme, the study involved some specific respondents such as
three parents, three teachers and three students of grade 9 and 10 to identify the impact or the
consequence of stakeholder involvement in education. The findings imply that a large
percentage of the respondents have mentioned that stakeholder involvement have a positive
impact on education development as learners remain under the supervision of both parents
and teachers. Godemann et al., (2014) mentioned parent volunteering, which ranges from
volunteering in the classrooms to help out with social activities at school. While all such
activities enhances the academic or social dimensions of child’s school experience as well as

19THESIS
extend what the school could deliver. Thereby, it is worth mentioning that involvement of
parents and communication members in the process could lead to positive growth of
education.
5.3 Parents’ supervision and children academic activities
A large percentage of the respondents have mentioned that parents should supervise
the academic activities of children on a regular basis. All of the respondents agree to the fact
that teachers find it easy to speed up the process of education when the parents are regularly
in touch with the academic activities of their children. Hladchenko (2015) particularly
mentioned that when the community and parents tend to support for the kinds of systematic
change, which could help to sustain improved outcomes, the schools would probably focus
on such changes and thereby, be able to sustain the recent improvements. So, it becomes
when community and parents remain in the row to supervise the overall activities;
particularly the educational setting can implement their predefined goals.
5.4 Extra curriculum activities and academic performance
Under this theme, it is particular found that many of the respondents of total 9 have a
similar views that extra curriculum activities can directly impact the academic performance
of students. All of the respondents have mentioned that extra curriculum activities can certain
enhance the frequency of interaction between the students. Such interaction helps learners to
know each other and get rid of their introvert nature. However, it is certain that there are
many educational settings that did not consider the extra curriculum, activities; thereby, the
previous studies did not say much about the context. However, French et al., (2014)
performed a study and found collaborative school practices bring about greater range of
employees motivation, moral as well as commitment.

20THESIS
5.5 Teachers and parent communication
This was one of the significant themes in the analysis under which more than fifty
percent of the respondents have mentioned that parents and teacher communication is highly
significant. Under such practice, teachers or organizational members of the educational
setting can make parents aware of the process of improving education and on the other side,
parents can also learn about flaws and challenges that they should identify and monitor in
their children’s academic activities. A study performed by Leisyte and Westerheijden (2014)
raised a question about how external stakeholder can be engaged in improving student
reading outcomes. This fact raise the concern there is a significant need for a regular trend of
communication between teachers and parents.
5.6 Stakeholder engagement challenges
Findings of this study has proven that the idea of engaging stakeholders in the process
is little different than the theoretical findings. It is found that due to cultural and language
differences, teachers or the organizational members find it difficult to communicate or
interact with the parents. Moreover, as the entire process is done through a technological
framework, making parents aware of the process is another barrier. Ćukušić, Garača and
Jadrić (2014) suggested that several typologies of engagement can be taken into the
consideration to measure the impact of parental involvement in academic setting. Bergsmann
et al., (2015) mentioned that parent-teachers interaction could most likely to continue
throughout the students’ education.
5.7 Recommendation
The following suggestions have been provided consideration the findings to design and
enhance the quality of education through the involvement of stakeholders. On the basis of
primary findings, the educational setting arrange for the following:

21THESIS
 Design a regular interaction platform for parents and teachers as this teachers find it
difficult to communicate with the parents. This trend of communication should take
place twice a week
 Presently, the educational setting does not have any well-planned extra curriculum
activity to expand learning opportunity for the students. So, extra-curriculum
activities should be designed in way that is it aligned to the academic activities of
students and this should take place five days in a week
 Educational setting should design for social campaign for increasing awareness of
education in the community. This initiative will help to make parents and other
external stakeholders aware of children education. Consequently, this might help to
enhance the culture of education.
5.8 Future Research
Although the study has covered a broad discussion on the importance of stakeholder
engagement in enhancing and managing school but this study requires further improvement
with respect to theoretical approaches to involve internal stakeholders. Scholars should
further proceed the research emphasising the role of internal stakeholders in education
because it is certain that due to changing educational environment, quality of educational
setting is affected. Scholars should consider the fact and implement an elementary study.
5.9 Summary and Conclusion
The study effectively explores the involvement of external stakeholder in enhancing
and managing educational setting. It was found in the literature that external stakeholders
have a broad role in managing education of their children; particularly, parents and family
members can look after their children’s academic activities. In order to make the analysis
relevant to the real-world facts, study uses survey and interview methods and involves
parents, teachers and secondary students. Analysis follows a thematic analysis process in

22THESIS
which a set of themes have been prepared on the basis of the questionnaire that are used in
data collection. The findings indicate that establishment of parent and teachers’
communication in the process could lead to positive growth of education.

23THESIS
References
Bergsmann, E., Schultes, M. T., Winter, P., Schober, B., & Spiel, C. (2015). Evaluation of
competence-based teaching in higher education: From theory to practice. Evaluation
and program planning, 52, 1-9.
Ćukušić, M., Garača, Ž., & Jadrić, M. (2014). Online self-assessment and students' success in
higher education institutions. Computers & Education, 72, 100-109.
Godemann, J., Bebbington, J., Herzig, C., & Moon, J. (2014). Higher education and
sustainable development: Exploring possibilities for organisational
change. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(2), 218-233.
Hladchenko, M. (2015). Balanced Scorecard–a strategic management system of the higher
education institution. International Journal of Educational Management, 29(2), 167-
176.
Leisyte, L., & Westerheijden, D. F. (2014). Stakeholders and quality assurance in higher
education. In Drivers and barriers to achieving quality in higher education (pp. 83-
97). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.