Paternal Participation in School Activities in a University Laboratory Preschool in the Philippines

Paternal Participation in School Activities in a University Laboratory Preschool in the Philippines

This research was conducted at a progressive laboratory preschool of a national university in the Philippines. It examined paternal participation through the fathers’ attendance in seven school-wide events and an in-depth interview. It aimed to set apart school activities which, fathers prefer / less prefer to attend and identified variables that influence paternal participation. From the pool of 134 fathers who participated in the study, those with high and low attendance were identified and fifteen participants randomly selected from each group were interviewed about their perspectives on child-rearing and preschool involvement. The teachers of their children were also interviewed regarding the nature of the fathers’ participation. The results suggest that activities which involved the whole family are preferred over those which required parental participation only. Younger fathers (those in their mid-thirties) and working in the same university and whose children are between 0-2 years old were more likely to be participative in school activities.