Alan Russell, a Senior Lecturer in Education at Flinders University in South Australia, wanted to find out if parentsí beliefs about their role in their childrenís learning influenced their actions in this regard.  He interviewed 41 parents (39 mothers and 2 fathers) from an Adelaide preschool. 

Russell grouped parents by the way they saw their role in their childrenís education.  He found roughly four different groups. 

• Parents and teachers are partners in education. 

• Parents have a role but it is subordinate to the teacher's and should  support  the teacher role. 

• Parents have no educational role but see it as important to be a support for teachers. 

• Parents have no educational role and are reluctant to become involved. 

Russell observed that the parents behaved according to their beliefs.  If a parent believed that he or she was in partnership with the teacher, then working with the teacher was seen as an opportunity to further the parent role as the childís primary educator and that parent participated accordingly.  The parent who saw his or her role as supportive of the teacher, viewed working with the teacher as an opportunity for exactly that. 

Russell concluded that childrenís learning is best served when parents see themselves as partners with teachers in the education process.  He acknowledges that other researchers have found that 
"many parents are unaware of the potential or significance of their own role as an educator of their child". 

Nancy Dunn from the University of Pennsylvania looks at the separate effects of the beliefs of mothers and the beliefs of fathers on childrenís learning. 

Dunn found that if mothers believe it is their role to teach their children academic skills, then their children do well at school in verbal skills, maths and other knowledge skills.  In fact, what Dunn discovered is that:

• Mothers who believe in their role as primary educators of their children, actually equip their children  to learn from other teachers or instructors.  These mothers teach their children how to learn. 

• Fathers who believe  in their role as primary educators of their children equip them with problem-solving skills such as the ability to follow instructions, willingness to do new activities, memory, self-reliance, and the ability to work towards a goal. 

Dunn observed that, with regard to young children, most teaching parents do is informal.  Overall, she says, mothers and fathers have different kinds of effects on their children's learning. 

She emphasises her major conclusion: 

It appears to be most critical for children's achievement at school-entry age that their parents perceive themselves as educators of their children. 

"The main obstacle to children beginning school as high achievers and continuing as such, appears to be that most parents donít realise the influential position they are in".