Étude des liens corrélationnels entre la collaboration école-famille, l’implication parentale, les styles éducatifs des parents et la réussite scolaire des élèves du primaire au Burkina Faso

This quantitative and descriptive correlational research conducted in the context of Burkina Faso, aims 1) to identify the different types of school-family collaboration, parental involvement and parental styles, and 2) to determine their links with the academic success of elementary school students, in particular 6th graders (CM2) according to their gender and area of residence. To achieve these objectives, we adopted an ecosystemic approach that enabled us to tackle both the relationships between parents and children (microsystem) and those with the school (mesosystem). This, in order to better understand the relational dynamics that take place between children's home and school environments and to determine the extent to which these dynamics influence their educational outcomes. To this end, 615 parents of 6th graders responded to a questionnaire assessing their perceptions on the research dimensions, i.e. schoolfamily collaboration, parental involvement and educational styles of parents. The questionnaire was administered in six regions of Burkina Faso, of which two are highly urbanized (Central and Hauts-Bassins regions), and four are primarily rural (Sahel region, Eastern region, the Central Plateau, and Central East). A dozen public schools distributed across these regions were selected for this research. The data thus gathered were analyzed with a well-known statistical software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences: SPSS) which helped carry out both descriptive and correlational analyses (chi-square test). The descriptive results of our analyses show the presence of different types of school-family collaboration (information, consultation, coordination and cooperation), parental involvement (roles, communications, volunteering, supporting learning at home, decision making and community collaboration) and parenting styles (democratic, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful). As for the correlational results, they showed that the school-family relations promote the academic success of students only if parents maintain regular and reciprocal relationships of information, consultation, coordination and consultation with their children’s teachers about topics related to academic performance, behavior, cultural activities, etc. Regarding parental involvement, it appeared that it supports academic success only if parents are involved continuously in the roles (purchasing school supplies, etc.), communications with the school (academic performance, behavior, etc.), volunteer activities (cleaning, supply of construction materials, etc.), learning at home (homework, lessons, etc.) and decision making (parent association, school council, etc.). With respect to collaboration with the community through the use of community resources (reading center, library, etc.), the results showed that even a low level of involvement at this level promotes academic success. Finally, the results have established that in connection with parenting styles, the democratic and authoritarian styles are those that promote school success, but with a slight domination of the democratic style. In conclusion, we find that the school-family collaborative relationships, parental involvement and democratic educational style all promote academic success at different degrees. Reciprocal relations between school and family, be them weak, can foster the academic success of elementary school students in the Burkinabe context. On the contrary, as far as parental involvement is concerned, sustained commitment is required. The democratic style emerged as the one that promotes success the most. But the area of residence (namely rural) appeared to have more influence on all these variables than gender does. It is therefore important to facilitate or promote genuine school-family collaborative relationships in order to foster greater student success, especially in rural areas. Advocacy or lobbying actions should thus be carried out in this direction; they can be conducted by parents through their associative structures, institutions or organizations working in the field of education as well as the research community.

Keyphrases: Burkina Faso, family-school collaboration, parental involvement, parenting style, primary school, area of residence, gender