ABSTRACT

This research was conducted at a progressive laboratory preschool of a national university in thePhilippines. It examined paternal participation through the fathers’ attendance in seven school-wideevents and an in-depth interview. It aimed to set apart school activities which, fathers prefer / less preferto attend and identified variables that influence paternal participation. From the pool of 134 fathers whoparticipated in the study, those with high and low attendance were identified and fifteen participantsrandomly selected from each group were interviewed about their perspectives on child-rearing andpreschool involvement. The teachers of their children were also interviewed regarding the nature of thefathers’ participation. The results suggest that activities which involved the whole family are preferredover those which required parental participation only. Younger fathers (those in their mid-thirties) andworking in the same university and whose children are between 0-2 years old were more likely to beparticipative in school activities.

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