Children’s Involvement in Supplementary Education: Monitoring and Value of Education on the Part of Parents

Abstract

The paper explores parental attitudes towards additional education basing on the materials of 20 interviews with parents of schoolchildren. We analyse the ideas about the value and objectives of additional education among parents in the context of three types of children’s involvement in additional education — high, flickering and low. We then discuss parental practices of control over children's education and of maintaining children's motivation and compare their views on the problems solved by different areas of activities (foreign languages, sports and dance, visual arts, revising the curriculum with the help of tutors, computer knowledge).Also, we focus on the strategies of "maximal" and "optimal" filling of out-of-school educational space that is common among parents of children with high involvement in additional education. The paper concludes with reflections on the significance of the family in the organization of the child’s educational space since the parents and other members of the family are the primary initiators, organizers, actors responsible for the child’s educational space.