Center Director Awarded Grant for Japan-Philippines Education Study from Sumitomo Foundation

The Social Development Research Center Director Dr. Melvin A. Jabar has been named recipient of a Sumitomo Foundation grant for a study on parental involvement in Japanese and Philippine elementary education. The comparative analysis specifically seeks to determine how parental involvement or engagement impacts children’s educational outcomes. The study springs from Dr. Jabar’s earlier exposure to parental involvement and social capital studies while in Japan for his doctoral program. It addresses current research gaps, in that parental involvement in elementary education in the Philippines is relatively sparse, and that literature on parental involvement in the Japanese context in English is likewise rare. The current study has an added value as it is a timely research enterprise considering that the former is in the K-12 transition.

The study will be conducted in Beppu City in Japan, and Cagayan de Oro City in the Philippines. Parents of grade six students in one elementary school in each city will be selected to participate in the study.