Parental Engagement in the Development of Critical Thinking Skills in Grade Six learners in Public Primary School of Bondo Sub-County, Siaya County- Kenya

This study investigated the influence of parenting engagement (PE) on the development of Critical thinking Skills (CTs) in grade six learners in public primary schools of Bondo Sub-County. It was guided by the research question; how does parenting style influence the development of critical thinking skills in grade six learners? The study used convergent parallel mixed design where quantitative data was collected using correlational design and qualitative phenomenological design. It was anchored on Joyce Epstein’s theory of overlapping spheres of influence. A total of 130 public primary schools in Bondo, 130 Head teachers, 130 Class teachers, 5978 grade six learners and 5978 parents were the target population. Probability and non-Probability sampling techniques inclusive of clustered, purposive and simple random techniques were used to obtain a sample size of; 26 public primary schools, 26 class teachers, 6 Head teachers, 104 learners and 42 parents. Questionnaires were used to collect data from class teachers and the learners, Semi-structured interviews for Head Teachers and Focus group discussion for the parents. . Validity of questionnaires was determined by the use of content validity and Cronbach’s alpha calculated from pre-test data provided a value of 0.74 and it was accepted as indicating strong validity. Reliability of qualitative instruments was determined by member checking, triangulation and peer review. Data from the questionnaires were coded and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis aided by statistical package for social sciences version 29. Qualitative data were thematically analyzed. Multiple regressions were used to test the hypothesis and revealed that authoritative parenting with a p-value of 0.0001 has positive influence on the development of CTs. The results also showed that slightly above 50% of the learners were getting the right parenting attention, class teachers supported authoritative parenting with a mean of 3.00 and Standard deviation of 0.90. 80% of Head Teacher supported authoritative parenting as good for CTs development and most parents were not sure of suitable parenting style for development of CTs. The study recommended that Ministry of Education to rigorous run parenting empowerment programs, the Head Teachers to induct parents on best parenting styles and best practices that promote CTs in the children, Class teachers to give clear guidance on how parents are to assist with take-home assignments and parents to use online platforms to share on best parenting style that promote CTs in their children. Key words: Parental Engagement, Parenting Styles, Critical Thinking Skills, grade six learners