Enhancing Early Childhood Education Outcomes through a Parental Involvement Program: A Community-Based Participatory Action Research in an Underserved Urban Community

Monica Roito Ambarita (Universitas Negeri Manado)
Rulik Endarwati (STAI Ma’arif Magetan)
Muh. Safar (Universitas Muhammadiyah Bone)
Ridayani Ridayani (Institut Teknologi dan Bisnis Muhammadiyah, Polewali, Mandar)
Muhammad Syahrul (Universitas Muslim Indonesia)

International Journal of Community Service (IJCS)
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2026): July-December

Parental involvement is a critical determinant of early childhood education (ECE) outcomes, yet it remains persistently low in underserved urban communities in Indonesia due to socioeconomic pressures, low parental self-efficacy, and fragmented school-community linkages. This study employed a qualitative community-based participatory action research (PAR) design to co-develop, implement, and evaluate a culturally grounded parental involvement program in a densely populated, low-income neighborhood in North Jakarta. Over eight months, 32 parents, 4 ECE teachers, and 2 community facilitators engaged in three iterative cycles of planning, action, observation, and reflection. Data were gathered through participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and reflective journals, and analyzed using thematic analysis. The PAR process catalyzed four interconnected outcomes: heightened parental self-efficacy, richer home learning environments, improved parent-teacher communication, and the emergence of informal community support networks. A pre-post involvement checklist corroborated qualitative shifts, showing marked increases in all involvement indicators. The findings suggest that a participatory, asset-based approach can transform parental involvement from a prescriptive school demand into a shared community practice, thereby strengthening ECE outcomes in marginalized urban settings. The study offers a replicable model for fostering sustainable family-community-school partnerships in similar resource-constrained contexts.