Teacher-parents relationships is an interaction which could be mutual or reciprocal of action that exist between two or more persons with the aim of achieving or fulfilling one or more physical or emotional needs [1]. Learners with hearing impairments like their hearing counterparts, have the desire to learn, make friends, understand their identity (who they are) and also feel connected to their school community [2]. Problems with social interactions at school between both the “Students and his or her teacher” and have been long recognized to be an issue for student with hearing impairment. The issue was addressed in summary by (English), who stated that “our long-term goal should be to help children develop independence, confidence and strategies to succeed and these goals are achieved by practice and support as the children cannot be taught by telling”. A concern was voiced by (English) that todays classrooms and pedagogical (teacher related) practices are not providing the opportunity for the social interaction and growth that supports students with hearing impairments.
 

Parental involvements in children’s academic activities appears to be more rewarding with lots of positive outcomes including fewer behavioural problems and better social conducts [3-5] lower dropout rates [6] and higher student achievement [5,7,8]. Research shows that parent-teacher contact and parents participation in school activities improve social and academic outcomes. The relationship between school and family (teacher-parents) emerges as relevant theme since early childhood, specifically when the child attends a child care centre [9]. Without a positive interpersonal relationship amongst learners and teachers, there could be communication breakdown and when happens, it leads to poor academic performance by the learners.
 

Parental involvement comprises of programs that are designed to aid parents in using school resources for the academic benefits of their children. A  strong  predictor  of students’ success in school has been found to be parental involvement [10]. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) describes parental involvement as a parent’s role in the educational support and development of the child in regards to academic learning and school activities [11]. Some aspects of parent’s involvement include open communication with schools and active parental involvement at school, including but not limited to partnerships with school organizations [11].
 

Teachers generally have a professional responsibility to promote parental involvement in their children’s school processes through cordial relationship. It has been observed that some parents have low levels of school-related skills or that they cannot communicate in English [12]. They May be overwhelmed by other realities of their families’ lives or lack of transportation [13] or they may feel that school culture is foreign to them [14]. Parents may have bad memories of their own school experiences [15], which influence their relationship with teachers. Obstacle from teachers’ perspective is that teachers may have limited time and although wanting to be more communicative, the sheer number of parents and families overwhelm their ability to respond in a timely fashion (way).
 

It has become necessarily requiring establishing teacher-parents relationship as a strategy to support students learning. “Relationship” involves parents, families and practitioners working together to make children benefit from school as much as possible, a relationship involves responsibility on both sides, teacher and parents if we want pupils to make the required progress in academic (“Building partnerships between parents and practitioner). Parental involvement includes communication between educators and parents, communication about children’s homework and their difficulties, participation in school activities etc. Therefore, Teacher-parents relationship is extraordinarily complex, including various domains [16].
 

In modern times, when we are responding to increased professional expectations, economics pressure, time constrains and rapid changes effective collaboration between educators and parents has become more essential to meet the basic needs of the students. Parents provide children with their first learning experiences, starting with eating and sitting, walking, colouring at early childhood stage, writing and reading at school etc. As a result of these help from parents to kids, pupils in establishing basic developmental milestones of life in their kids, they (parents) can also help them do well at school. Therefore, reinforcing a strong bond of teacher-parents relationship would be an indisputable strategy in guaranteeing support of their learning process in the educational institution.
 

The determinant of academic performance of the learners with hearing impairment include, class participation, class assignments, homework assignments, tests, examinations and participation in competitions or other events. The pressure of parent and other individuals upon teachers and school administrators to improve the academic performance has enabled schools to come up with advanced strategies. These include: Promoting extra classes for students, introducing effective teaching-learning methods and instructional strategies, using technology, rewarding students for good performance serves as a motivating factor b and when they achieve low grades, than they usually tend to work more to make improvements [17]. When teachers and parents implement the strategies for rewarding good performance then the students would be motivated to study and improve their academic performance. On this note, the real impact of each family structural element on the academic performance of children with hearing impairment remains unknown.
 

Hence, there is need for a new study to highlight the factors that influence teacher-parents relationship on the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment. It is against this background that the researcher sought to investigate the factors that influence the academic performance of the learners with hearing impairment in Akwa Ibom State.

Statement of the Problem
Education has become highly competitive and commercial in many countries. Therefore, academic achievement has become a yardstick of self -worth and success. The outcome of education determines the quality of life, progress and status of people living anywhere in the world.     Most students in developing countries including Nigeria come from low income backgrounds presenting them less prepared for school activities thus they tend to secure trusting relationships with their teachers who are mostly middle-income earners who do not even know their parents. Also, there are evidences of poor attitude of parents towards their children’s education (as witnessed by absence at P.T.A and school meetings, weak or no homework supervision and abating their wards absence from school etc.), illiteracy and low self-esteem amongst parents affects both the parent-teachers relationship and children’s performance.
 

However, most of these references have mainly focused on normal children leaving a death in information on the influence of these factors on the performance of learners with hearing impairment. Hence, this study seeks to determine some aspects of teacher-parents relationship and its influence on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment.

Objectives 
The objectives of the study include to:

•    Determine the influence of teacher-parents support in academic performance of learners with hearing impairment
•    Determine the influence of teacher-parents communication on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment
•    Determine the influence of teacher-parents interpersonal relationship on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment
 

Hypotheses 
Null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:

•    Teacher-parents support does not significantly influence the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment
•    Teacher-parents communication does not influence the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment
•    Teacher-parents interpersonal relationship does not significantly influence the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment

Research Design

A descriptive survey design was used for this study. A descriptive survey is a study which aims at collecting data on and describing in a systematic manner, the characteristic or features and facts about a given population. 

Area of the Study

The study was carried out in Akwa Ibom State. It is a State in Nigeria, located in the south-southern region of the country. The State is bordered on the east by Cross River State and on the West by Rivers and Abia States and on the South by Atlantic Ocean. The said State "Akwa Ibom" is one of the 36 States in Nigeria. It was created on the September 3rd, 1987, from the former Cross River State. The State has 31 Local Government Areas and its capital is Uyo.

Akwa Ibom as a State has numerous Primary Schools and three (3) Special Education Schools. The study was conducted in two (2) Special Education Schools including Special Education Centre, MbiabongEtoi and St. Louise Center for Inclusive Education, Ikot Ekpene.

Population of the Study

The population of this study consisted of forty-seven (47) learners with hearing impairment in the aforementioned schools in Akwa Ibom State. 

Sample and Sampling Techniques

Two centers were sampled purposively for the study using Senior Secondary two (SS2) learners of hearing impairments because only two centres made provision for educating the learners with Hearing Impairment in Akwa Ibom State. The researcher used purposive sampling because the total population is equal to the equal sample size. Eighteen (18) Learners with hearing impairments were purposively sampled at St. Louises Inclusive School, Ikot Ekpene and twenty-nine (29) learners with hearing impairments also sampled purposively at Special Education Centre, Mbiabong Etoi. Giving a total number of forty-seven (47) learners with hearing impairments.

Instrument for Data Collection 

The study adopted research questionnaire method for collecting data. The Researcher used self-constructed designed questionnaire titled: Teacher-Parents Relationship Questionnaire (TPRQ) and Student's Data collection Profoma (SDCP) was used to elicit academic performance of learners with hearing impairments in four (4) core subjects; Maths, English, Literature and Christian Religious Knowledge which was collected from the school authority to aid the study. The questionnaire was self-constructed on a scale for Influence of Teacher-parents Relationship on the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment. 

The Instrument (questionnaire consisted of close ended questions and were useful in collecting information from the children. The questionnaire provided questions that sample self-reported behaviours associated with tasks that were linked to Influence of Teacher-parents relationships on the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment. The Instrument was subdivided into two sections ie A and, B section; A comprising of the respondent's personal bio-data and Section B comprising of 20 question items with four (4) alternatives which include: Strongly agree (SA), Agree (A) Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD).

Validation of the Instrument

The Questionnaire was given to three (3) specialized lecturers from the Department of Early Childhood and Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of Uyo for content and face validation.. Each vetter was served with a copy of the questionnaire and requested to identify ambiguities and proffer suggestions for improving the instrument toward meeting the objectives of the study. Through this process, some missing details were added, unnecessary ones were dropped and some were modified, all corrections were inserted and the instrument was deemed valid for the study.

Reliability of the Instrument 

After the modification of the Instrument in line with the views of the vetters, Teacher-Parents Relationship Questionnaire (TPRQ) was trail-tested on 20 learners with hearing impairments who were not part of the main study. The internal consistency reliability of the Instrument was determined using Cronbach's Alpha statistics which yielded a reliability coefficient index of 0.87. The result indicated that the instrument is reliable and suitable for the study.

Method of Data Collection

The researcher personally visited the sampled schools on different school days to administer the instrument for data collection and retrieved at the completion of the required information.

Method of Data Analysis

Data collected were analyzed using Z-test for the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

Hypothesis One

There is no significant influence of teacher-parents support on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment.

Table 1 presents the z-test analysis of influence of teacher-parents   support   on   academic   performance   of learners with hearing impairment. It is observable from the Table 1 that the calculated z-value is 57.343 at 45 degree of freedom and 0.05 level of significance. Since the calculated z-value of 57.343 is greater than the critical table value of 1.960, this hypothesis is rejected. There is therefore a significant influence of teacher-parents support on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment.

Table 1: Summary of Z-Test for Influence of Teacher-Parents Support on Academic Performance of Learners with Hearing Impairment

Hypotheses Two

There is no significant influence of teacher-parents communication on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment.

Table 2 presents the z-test analysis of influence of teacher-parents communication on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment. It is observable from the Table 2 that the calculated z-value is 58.368 at 45 degree of freedom and 0.05 level of significance. Since the calculated z-value of 58.368 is greater than the critical table value of 1.960, this hypothesis is rejected. There is therefore a significant influence of teacher-parents communication on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment.

Table 2: Summary of Z-Test for Influence of Teacher-Parents Communication on Academic Performance of Learners with Hearing Impairment 

Hypotheses Three

There is no significant influence of teacher-parents interpersonal relationship on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment.

Table 3 presents the z-test analysis of influence of teacher-parents interpersonal relationship on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment. It is observable from the Table 3 that the calculated z-value is 60.438 at 45 degree of freedom and 0.05 level of significance. Since the calculated z-value of 60.438 is greater than the critical table value of 1.960, this hypothesis is rejected. There is therefore a significant influence of teacher-parents interpersonal relationship on academic performance of learners with hearing impairment.

Table 3:   Summary of Z-Test for Influence of Teacher-Parents Interpersonal Relationship on Academic Performance of Learners with hearing Impairment 

Summary of Findings of the study includes that:

• Teacher-parents support influence the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment in Akwa Ibom State
• There is a high influence of teacher-parents communication on the academic performance of learners with hearing impairments in Akwa Ibom State
• There is a high influence of teacher-parents interpersonal relationship on the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment in Akwa Ibom State

The     influence     of     Teacher-parents     Relationship on    academic    performance    of    learners   with hearing   impairment   in   Akwa   Ibom   State.  Data were collected and duly analyzed and interpreted. Based on the findings and discussions of this study, it was concluded that Teacher-parents support, communication, interpersonal relationship and parental involvement influence the academic performance of learners with hearing impairment in Akwa Ibom State.

Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made:

• Parents should be given prior antenatal awareness on pre natal, peri natal and post natal causes, identification and interventions for hearing impairment to prevent and or reduce the occurrence of the impairment in children
• Parents should create an avenue to give adequate educational support and encouragement to their children for greater positive performance
• Parents should consider the education of learners with hearing impairment as rewarding investment and make all necessary provisions to train them to become productive citizens to themselves and the society at large
• Teachers, parents and caregivers should learn sign language and inculcate the habit of using signs like American Sign Language “ASL” and Nigerian Sign Language “NSL” in communications and expressions of deaf culture with their wards

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