Building virtual interaction spaces between family and school

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is twofold: firstly, to highlight how school strategies and priorities relate to family participation practices through social media and, secondly, to further our knowledge of the basic aspects involved. The concept of cultural capital is used to discuss how parental resources affect virtual family participation and how these virtual family participation practices can unfold and enable families to participate in each school we researched. We observed how the schools seemed to prioritise virtual family participation practices based on information practices. The study also raises questions concerning a digital divide, in terms of the possibilities that virtual space offers to extend parental participation in schools and to extend the study of this participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual parental involvement
• virtual ethnography
• digital divide
• primary school

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Belén Dieste-Gracia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7262-896X

Notes

1 R&D: ‘Families and schools. Discourses and everyday practices concerning participation in compulsory education’ (Ref. EDU2012-32657) 2012–2015. Sub-programme of Fundamental Research Projects of the Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness.