‘Simply the best for my children’: patterns of parental involvement in education

Abstract

This article explores parental involvement in the educational trajectories of children in Europe. The analysis is embedded in the framework of the three dominant contemporary social processes that have been acknowledged as crucial factors for the educational and life trajectories of young people today, i.e. familialization, institutionalization, and individualization. The article draws on qualitative data gathered during interviews with parents of lower secondary school students in disadvantaged city areas within the research project, GOETE, in eight European countries. The analysis focuses on specific behavioral aspects that were identified as the most relevant in our empirical evidence: parental educational aspirations and future plans for their children, the role of parents in decision-making in educational transitions and trajectories, parental participation in the school, and parental support with schoolwork. The most striking finding is the persistent emphasis on individual responsibility for both students and parents in terms of education. Parents realize that the future of their child not only depends on the work of the teacher but also to a great and growing degree on parents as coeducators. This parental awareness results in a high level of confidence in the power of education, which is met by parental skepticism when they experience a lack of school support and distant parent–teacher relationships and communication.

Keywords:

• parental involvement
• parental support
• educational trajectories and transitions
• decision-making
• educational aspirations
• future plans
• home–school relations
• familialization
• institutionalization
• individualization

Notes

1. The case study schools were lower secondary level schools, located in deprived city areas (socioeconomic disadvantage and/or higher rate of migrant population), lower-track schools (in countries with selective educational systems), and if applicable, schools that are experiencing transition problems.

2. As only one parent was interviewed in the UK, this interview has been excluded from the analysis presented in this article due to the sample bias.

3. Research in local school spaces also included interviews with students, teachers, principals, and internal and external school experts. Although the main reference group in this article are parents themselves, some issues cannot be discussed without referring to the other groups.