Case Study of the Parents’ Perception of the School Climate of a Rural Primary School in Tangshan, Hebei Province, China

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to find out the perceptions of the parents about the rural school climate. This study was set in a selected rural primary school located in Hebei Province, in China. Data were collected using questionnaires and a semi-structured interview protocol. 103 parents participated in the questionnaire and 10 parents were invited to take part in the focus group interview. The findings in the questionnaires had revealed that parents had positive perceptions of the rural school climate. Inferential statistics further showed that there was no significant difference in parents’ perceptions based on education level, and the male parents’ perceptions of school administrators, teachers, and students were higher than the female parents. The focus group interview further revealed that parents felt that the rural schools were unable to establish a complete school curriculum, lacked a sufficient number of teachers, had a shortfall of adequate infrastructure, had school violence, inadequate extracurricular activities, and programs.