Parental involvement and support in students’ activities is a subject that many amateurs

and experts alike are talking about. Study after study points to the benefits to student learning,

student self-esteem and self-efficacy, parent-teacher-student relationships, and more that come

with active parental involvement in the learning process. However, there still seems to be a

massive disconnect between all the research and discussion, and the actual learning, lessons, and

classrooms. Students are being forced further and further into educational isolation, and parental

roles are being minimized into oblivion. As a result, student development is devastatingly

hindered, especially in the context of music learning that, without outside support, has the

potential to cease to exist in the lives of many students worldwide. The need for increased

support from parents cannot be overstated, and the call for educators to intervene in the process

in order to bring parents back into their children’s learning has never been louder or clearer.

This research sought to discover the ways in which parents can be involved in their

child’s musical learning, and the effects of that involvement on various aspects of the child’s

educational – as well as personal – well-being. This involved looking into ways in which parents

have been involved in existing music classrooms or private studios and assessing the outcomes

from the perspectives of the students, the parents, and the teachers involved. Across the board it

was found that nearly every form of parental involvement in or support of music learning

provided benefits to the child, the family unit, and the learning community (classroom, private

studio, etc.) as a whole.

The motivation for this research was inspired by some related research on the Suzuki

method that brought the issue to attention. It seems that American pop culture has a tendency to

minimize the roles that parents can and should play in their children’s lives. This is evident in

our television programming, our popular music, our youth and young adult literature, and,
unfortunately, our various educational and learning systems and practices. Americans seem to

have the mentality that learning only happens when teachers are teaching. Parents send their

children away to school to have someone else do the work of educating them, and that educating

stops when the students leave the learning environment. The kids return home somehow

enlightened, and there is little to no reinforcement of any learning or activity that occurred during

earlier lessons. Poor performance is the teachers’ fault, and teachers are therefore penalized.

Little to no responsibility, when it comes to learning, lies on the individuals who claim to be

raising the child.

That simply doesn’t make sense. And other cultures seem to agree. A survey conducted

in Hong Kong revealed that it is not unusual to see Chinese parents getting personally involved

in their child’s schooling and development, largely due to the cultural belief (possibly stemming

from Confucianism) that studying music increases intelligence (Tai, Phillipson, and Phillipson

2018). This survey took into consideration reasons for parental involvement in music learning.

According to this survey, Hong Kong parents supported their children learning music because:

(a) learning music increased their child’s chance of getting into a better secondary school, (b)

learning music gave them and/or their child a sense of pride, (c) learning music helped their child

gain skills they believed to be valuable, and (d) learning music is fun and enjoyable for their

child (Tai, Phillipson, and Phillipson 2018). Already it is evident that before parents can

effectively be involved in their child’s music education, they must first perceive value in musical

learning and have a desire to support their child in that learning. Therefore, educators should

keep in mind the importance of conveying the relevance of music learning to their students and

the parents of their students.

 This process is discussed by a study conducted in Canada that aimed to pinpoint parental

aspirations and values specifically in private studio lessons. A publication in 2017 discussed that

the positive correlation between parental involvement in music learning and cognitive, affective,

and performance outcomes suggests that success is achieved when parents and students have

similar learning goals (Upitis et. al 2017). Factors that determine parent-student learning goals

include but are not limited to the parents’ musical background, the home practice environment,

the amount of parental supervision of home practice, and family dynamics (Upitis et. al 2017).

This study reinforced that a large part of learning is tied into relationships and encouraged a

fostering of strong and complex parent-teacher-student relationships in order to boost motivation

for parents to remain involved. This strategy of “communion” – that is, interacting with others,

provided the students with the ability to make independent choices (autonomy), a feeling of

connectedness to others (relatedness), and the will “to persist when they encounter obstacles, and

to utilize strategies appropriately” (competence) (Upitis et. al 2017). These three things:

autonomy, relatedness, and competence, are considered to be three essential psychological needs,

and that when these needs are met, healthy learning happens (Upitis et al. 2017).

As stated earlier, research showed that nearly every form of parental involvement in the

child’s learning process provided benefits to the child’s motivation, achievement, and self-

esteem. It was interesting to see, additionally, situations discussed in another Hong Kong study

in which only one parent was involved, or where one parent was significantly more involved

than the other. For example, in situations where only fathers were involved in or supportive of

their child’s music learning, students were more likely to remain motivated and achieve greater

success than in situations where only mothers were involved in or supportive of their child’s
music learning; however, situations where involvement and support primarily came from the

mothers as opposed to fathers were heavily more frequent (Law and Ho 2009).

Now with the understanding that parental involvement and support for student music

learning are largely beneficial to the entire music learning community, it is important to discuss

ways in which current music educators can create opportunities for parents of their own students

to become more involved, and techniques to invite parents to an intentional participant and

supporter of their child’s music learning. One example of excellent innovation is the “Family

Ensemble” technology that was used in piano private lessons. The program allowed parents with

any level of musical background to be able to play alongside their beginner pianist on the piano

by sounding an accompaniment pitch regardless of what the parent played on the piano, while

the child performed the actual music. The software scrolled with the child’s progress, so if the

child made a mistake, the parents could still tell where the child was playing and continue to play

along. The joint practice sessions led to more discussion of musical ideas between the parents

and the student (Oshima, Nishimoto, and Hagita 2007). This changed daily practice into a fun

and collaborative form of learning, which enhanced musical growth for the student (Oshima,

Nishimoto, and Hagita 2007).

Going forward, it would be interesting to compare parental involvement in music

learning situations to parental involvement in non-music learning situations, due to the question

of whether there is more or less success in the absence of strong parental support in non-musical

subjects that are considered to be “core subjects” such as mathematics. It would also be

interesting to see how music learning measures up next to other activities that might be

considered extracurricular, such as sports.

 Additionally, while earlier it was discussed that mothers and fathers can have different

impacts on their children individually, these examples were referring primarily to students who

had one mother and one father, each of whom contributed in differing amounts to their musical

learning. There was no mention in the research of situations of students with same-sex parents,

or students who only have one parent in the home. It would be interesting to have the opportunity

to look at how support from a more diverse demographic compares with support from

heterosexual couples.

The most pressing question for further research, however, goes back to the discussion of

the responsibilities and roles of the music teacher. Is there a way that music educators can

provide support for students who do not have strong parental support that would be of near or

equal substantiality? How far can teachers go before overstepping boundaries between educating

and parenting? What responsibility do teachers have to avoid showing favoritism or otherwise

becoming biased toward (or against) students who lack parental support? The best thing anyone

can do to begin answering these questions is to simply try something different. Trial and error

will lead to results, which ultimately will benefit music students and parents everywhere.
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