Chapter 5. Discussion
5.2 Academic and Non-academic Factors Affecting Parental choice
5.2.4 Academic Quality
Academic quality featured prominently in the literature review. Most of the studies put this factor as the most significant driver of parental choice of boarding and selective schools.
The studies concluded that academic quality is recognized worldwide as the most prominent factor that parents consider when selecting schools (Rohde, 2019). It was revealed that parents generally pay more attention to the school’s capacity to teach mathematics and sciences (Alsuiadi, 2016). One of the reasons why academic quality is widely used to assess schools is associated with accountability. There are many indicators (for example, level of moral
education and respect) that cannot be empirically checked. In this study, academic quality was, expectedly, also mentioned by parents. The boarding school was considered by parents as a good opportunity for their students to pass high-stakes exams and enroll in top
universities. Parents believed that transferring their students from state schools to boarding schools could provide some advantages in the academically, though this did not appear to feature as prominently as in other studies and educational contexts. Therefore, the prominent
48 role of the that the aforementioned factors of school values, individualization, and student relationships could be explored further in the future.
5.2.5 School Selection-Based Criteria and Atmosphere
The boarding school enrolls students based on a merit-based selection system. The Parents believed that selection based on achievements can help to organize a healthy
atmosphere and environment in the school. In addition, participants believed that the selection process itself ensured that all parents appreciated their children’s opportunity in the school and also ensured students partook in healthy competition with each other. This factor appeared to not be widely presented in the academic literature. One of the reasons for this is that the boarding schools mentioned in the literature do not involve merit-based selection and are often made up of students from the countryside and other cities. Nevertheless, the current study suggests that parents viewed the merit-based system as a potentially positive factor that helped develop their students’ competitive nature in a supportive environment.
Ved (2021) in the research “The Factors Impacting Parental Choice in Picking Non- Public Schools for Their Children” mentions the factor “school environment” as the most influential for parents during school selection. However, this was not connected to the selection process. The current study perhaps identifies a new criterion for parental choice of selective boarding schools—more research may be undertaken to understand this phenomenon further, especially for single-gender selective boarding schools.
James Garvin (1987) also supports the atmosphere factor as crucial for parents. In his study, he underlines the concerns of parents about negative influence of society in schools.
His study revealed that parents expect schools to be healthy environments conducive for supportive friendships to develop among students.
49 5.2.6 Single-Gender Education
Some parents in the Republic of Tatarstan believe that single-gender positively influences the education process. They note that boys and girls develop differently and the ways in which information is communicated to these gender groups should vary accordingly.
This opinion was supported by research by Eisenkopf and Hessami (2011). They studied single-gender education and revealed that, for example, higher results by the female students may have been due to the lack of gender stereotypes and competitiveness in the single-sex school contexts. However, there is conflicting research on the effect of single-gender schooling in post-Soviet countries—for example, students from single-sex contexts in Kazakhstan tended to exhibit lower levels of academic purpose and motivation in university settings (Gilazh, 2022). Clearly, more research is needed in this area.
Another study by Pahlke and Bigler (2014) explored mothers’ preferences during the period of school selection. The authors proposed that the shared interests among girls in schools allow teachers to concentrate on girls’ interests while teaching lessons. Interestingly, findings from PISA (2012) suggested that there are only three countries where girls feel better about studying math than boys. These three countries were Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, all Muslim countries with universal single-gender education. Therefore, this finding actually support the idea of parents about the positive influence of gender-based education.
It is worth to say that the Muslim religion was one of the factors for why single gender education was highlighted by parents. According to the Tatar census (2022) a total 2,091,175 persons (53.2%) identified as Muslims in the Republic of Tatarstan. Therefore, it there may have been strong religious reasons for why the parents were motivated who have their children enrolled in single-gender schools.
50 5.2.7 Accommodation and Nutrition
The factors identified as accommodation and nutrition were not widely represented in research literature. Likewise, this factor only featured as important for a few parents.
Specifically, the current study revealed that the provided accommodation was more important for parents from Kazan, because of transportation issues associated with the population and size of the city. In most cases, parents were positive about the fact that students resided in the dormitory and were provided with five meals a day—however, these factors were not
considered as dominant. Hence, accommodation and nutrition cannot be counted as the main reasons for parental school selection in the current study. This may be associated with the specific context of Russia, a middle-income country that provides school children with meals in schools. For example, the aforementioned Debbie-Viggar Ellis (2013), based on school systems in South Africa, provided empirical evidence for the importance of nutrition for parents. They do not want their children to feel any hunger and discomfort. According to the survey, parents believed that healthy nutrition has a positive impact on their children’s emotional well-being of pupils, academic results, and physical perception. Also running counter to the findings of the current study, Ved (2021) revealed that providing
accommodation is not an important factor for parents of boarding school children. According to the study, parents are more likely to choose schools which were of walking of 30 minutes or less from their homes. It means that the participants will prefer day school nearby to boarding school. Therefore, the more anomalous findings of this study to do with nutrition and accommodation may be context specific.
5.3 Parental Expectations of Boarding Schools for Gifted Students
Upon review of all of the current available literature, it became apparent that the expectations of parents were not widely described by authors. Most of the studies are focused
51 on school selection itself and school assessment. The current study, therefore, extends the previous literature by revealing what parents actually expect from school while their children participate in the boarding schools.
There were cases when some of the parent participants did not have any specific expectations of the boarding schools. They believed that the majority of parental expectations might depend on the family and the child. Nevertheless, according to responses, parental expectations could be divided into two categories: academic and non-academic expectations.
A discussion of each of these results is now provided.
5.3.1 Non-Academic Expectations
The most frequent factors that influenced parents’ decision to support their children’s enrolment in the boarding schools were value-based education and the individualized
approach to learning provided by the schools. In terms of non-academic expectations, parents believed that by studying at boarding school, their children might reveal their underlying identities and develop positive qualities. Moreover, responses from parents suggested that student success was equally attributable to both academic and non-academic factors.
Aligned with the current findings, research on parental expectations of boarding schools suggests that non-academic outcomes were equally if not more important that academic outcomes. Vigar-Ellis (2013) found out that parents expect from boarding schools the development of independence and the building character in children. The participants highlight that living in a dormitory can help their male children by “weaning them [boys] off their mothers’ support” (p. 9). Moreover, based on the direct statements of the parents, the author posited that the children’s independence and strong character were related to value- based education and the strict discipline of the schools. Therefore, findings from the Vigar- Ellis study align very well with the findings of the current study. The same answers were
52 given by parents in the boys’ boarding school in Almetyevsk city, Tatarstan. In another study, Ved (2021) revealed that “School environment” stood higher than academic results according to parents’ point-of-view. In addition, the factor described as “Student welfare” was also highlighted by parents as primarily important. Therefore, findings from both the Vigar-Ellis and Ved studies suggest that parents view non-academic factors as centrally impactful on the future of children.
5.3.2 Academic Expectations
Understandably, parents expected that their children might achieve higher academic results in the boarding schools compared to what they might achieve in public schools.
Parents assumed that the school would provide more optimal academic support for their children and that their children would achieve higher results on standardized exams. Getting high exam results and enrolling to the top universities, from the parents’ view, would lead to their children’s success in the future.
Research by Haderlein (2022) identified the central importance of academic quality for parents. Based on the findings of this study, it became apparent that parents appear to pay a lot of attention to school academic performance as a proxy for the academic quality of the
selected schools and expect their children to achieve well academically. Similarly, according to a study by Erickson (2017), the academic expectations of parents were identified as “very important”. The parent participants believed that academic quality was related to critical thinking, study habits, and communications skills. In addition, like the parent respondents in the current study, parents in the Erickson study expected schools to develop this key attribute in their children and assumed that this would be a positive influence in their children’s future.
6. Conclusion 6.1 Introduction
This final chapter summarizes the key findings, discusses implications, and suggests recommendations for policy, practice, and future research. The current study aimed to understand what factors affect parental choice in selecting boarding schools for gifted children. More specifically, the study attempted to identify the academic and non-academic factors that influence parental school choice in the Republic of Tatarstan and what are
parents’ expectations from boarding schools for gifted students. The following questions were addressed: 1) Why do parents choose boarding schools for gifted students in the Republic of Tatarstan? 2) What are parents’ expectations of the boarding school for gifted students?
6.2 Revisiting the Research Questions
Why do parents choose boarding schools for gifted students in the Republic of Tatarstan?
This study revealed the following seven main reasons: value-based education, an individual/personal approach, the quality of teachers, academic quality,
surroundings/selection, single-gender education, accommodation, and nutrition. Contrary to the research literature, the findings suggested that non-academic factors dominated over academic factors. Parents explained that the values of the school played an important role during school selection. They believe that academic results influence exams, but moral education influences a child’s entire life trajectory. Some of the parents noted the threat that ill-mannered and unethical people pose to society. Such factors as the school’s individualized approach to supporting students, the school surroundings and general feeling, and the quality of teachers speak to parents’ faith about the impact of the overall experience that the boarding schools have on their children’s development.
Many of the motivational factors revealed in this study appeared to not be covered in the literature, or at least did not appear to be prominent at all. For example, the schools’
individual approach to learning, the connection between the selection process and the school
54 surrounding/environment, and aspects of accommodation and nutrition are highly valued by parents in the Republic of Tatarstan. Unexpectedly, academic quality, which is recognized worldwide as the most prominent factor that parents consider when selecting schools, was not among the most popular factors. The current study revealed that the mere academic results of these schools do not capture the full range of essential characteristics considered by parents when making the selection for such schools. The clear implication for this is that non-
academic factors should be considered as a highly relevant area to inform parents about when advertising to parents to enroll their children in entrance exams for such schools.
In addition, single-gender education and the specific gender-specific psychological view of parents, was not presented in literature review as a factor that influenced parents’
school selection of boarding schools. In current study, the parents believed that the
development of boys and girls proceeds differently, so the educational process should vary.
This view runs contrary to the generally accepted social constructivist view of parents in the West that a child’s gender has little bearing on the way that they learn. This conception from parents may have also been linked to religion, though religion itself was also mentioned as a distinct reason for why the parents selected such schools.
What are parents’ expectations of the boarding school for gifted students?
Findings suggested that the expectation of parents are reflective of the criteria with which parents selected the schools. The expectations could be divided into two main groups:
academic and non-academic expectations. Academic qualities are connected with students’
successful passing of exams and ultimate enrolment in top universities while the non- academic expectations were associated with the capacity of the boarding schools to support students to identify their strengths and reveal their unique competencies. These parental
55 expectations appear to be quite common among the boarding schools surveyed. The results of this research reveals the importance of boarding schools for meeting parents’ non-academic expectations, which appeared to be quite unique in the literature.
To sum up, the findings from the current study may help the schools of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, and other post-Soviet countries to re-orient their key recruitment approaches to meet the needs and expectations of parents, especially non-academic related needs and expectations, and make the schools more attractive to families.
6.3 Recommendations
This section presents recommendations based on this study’s conclusions, which are relevant to policymakers and school administrative bodies. Additionally, this sub-section will also suggest some implications for further research on the investigation of school selection factors in the Republic of Tatarstan and worldwide.
To meet the needs of parents and to recruit new students, school principals and
administrators are recommended to pay more attention to non-academic factors such as value- based education, individualized approaches to learning, and the development of a healthy yet competitive school environment. Moreover, based on these research findings, it is also recommended for school administrators to get acquainted with the expectations of parents to make schools more inclusive. Even if academic results were not identified as the most important factor for parents, finding balance between this and non-academic factors remains crucial for school administration.
State and school policymakers are recommended to use the research results for
assessing schools in the context of the Republic of Tatarstan. Since academic results were not the most important criteria for the parents’ selection of such schools, key findings may help in the development of more appropriate and relevant indicators for evaluating school
56 performance. Moreover, the voice of parents, specifically the value that they place on non- academic aspects of school education, should be accounted for and communicated in the reframing of policy documents, school objectives, and procedures for evaluating school effectiveness. Moving forward, to motivate schools, the Department of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan may consider a more broad focus on the non-academic aspects
identified as important for parents as bi-annual/yearly key performance indicators for schools.
The non-academic focus of boarding schools, while a feature of the sample schools
themselves, may also be important to parents whose children attend other school types in the Republic of Tatarstan and other post-Soviet contexts. Therefore, such other schools may consider at least exploring the importance of these factors for their students’ parents.
6.4 Limitations and Directions for Further Research
There are several important limitations of this study, mostly associated with the way in which this study was designed. The main limitation of the research is associated with the relatively small number of participants who cannot represent the views of the parents of all the boarding schools in the region. As the results of this research suggest, school selection factors appear to be subjective and multifaceted, therefore it is difficult to generalize the current fundings to other similar contexts. Consequently, a more significant number of participants could be involved in future research in order to develop a more thorough and comprehensive understanding parents’ thoughts of factors affecting school choosing. There were only two cities represented in the survey. The inclusion of neighboring regions of Tatarstan may have increased the variety of responses of parents. Moreover, including participants from more varied regions could have provided a more nuanced region-related understanding of the factors that might affect parental school choice. Certainly, this research has identified non-academic criteria that warrant further investigation. Therefore, any future quantitative research on parental expectations should certainly aim to measure the degree to
57 which non-academic features such as values, student personality development, and healthy competitive environments. The current study concentrated on parental reasons for school choice at a single point in time. Therefore, it would be useful to explore whether the actual expectations might have been realized for their children upon completion. Another suggestion is to obtain information on parental choice and expectations vis-à-vis written responses. This was recommended by one of the parents. This may enable participating parents to concentrate more on questions and provide more detailed and broad responses. Interviewees can at times be bewildered and respondents may forget some important details.
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