Parents “voice” in schools. Contributions for the reflection on parental participation in schools formal structures

Author(s):

Susana Batista(presenting / submitting)Eva Gonçalves(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 05 B, Policies and Actions to Promote School-Family-Community Links (Part 2)

Paper Session: continued from 14 SES 04 A

Time:

2014-09-03

11:00-12:30

Room:

B326 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Satu Perälä-Littunen

Contribution

In the last four decades, there has been a general trend in Europe to implement new modes of regulation in educational systems, allowing local communities, including students’ families, to share that responsibility with public authorities (Barroso, 2003; Eurydice, 2007). Therefore, not only schools had to open to new publics, as local communities were summoned to play the role of “stakeholders” (Sliwka and Istance, 2006). These new responsibilities include accepting a chair in schools governing boards where school policies and strategies are defined, and the possibility of creating parent-teacher associations. This refers to parental participation, where parents “act collectively” in behalf of all students families through schools formal structures; in opposition to parental involvement when parents individual action is to accompany their own child at home (Davies, 1997; Silva, 2007). Several limitations have been identified in this new kind of interaction between family and school. Teachers may show some resistance accepting those new publics within schools (Silva, 2007), whereas, families may not easily accept the responsibility of being school partners or not be able to exercise it. In fact, families participation in schools was implemented through educational policies and not because parents felt that need (Ball, 2008; Whitty, 2002).

Hirschman (1970) proposed three different ways for “clients” to act towards organizations, which was later used in the analysis of families’ behaviour in schools in the context of their increased role in schools regulation. “Loyalty”, when parents chose to maintain their children in the same school even they do not agree with schools policies; “exit”, refers to transfer the students to another school; and “voice” as a way to intervene in school to support teachers, represent other parents or to present claims (Silva, 2007).

In this communication, we aim to explore parental participation in schools (“voice”), focusing in the point of view and action of parent-teacher associations and parents representatives in schools governing boards in different educational contexts. The basic theoretical premise is that educational actors are framed by structural constraints, which mould their actions possibilities and limits (Giddens, 1984). Therefore, parental participation policies emerged as normative framework and are differently reinterpreted and implemented at the school level. That may contribute to an effective increase of families’ influence and co-participation on schools decisions. Beyond the identification of formal devices, it is important to analyse their local recontextualizations (Van Zanten and Ball, 2000), also dependent on organizational structures and specific social relationships.

The analysis allows us to reflect about different forms of appropriating responsibilities at the level of parental participation attributed by legislation. Reflection is oriented by four key questions: i) how is the role and responsibilities of parent-teacher associations perceived by their leaders; ii) what is the relationship between parent-teacher association and school; iii) what is the relationship between parent-teacher association and other parents; iv) how is action of families representatives in schools governing boards characterized.

Method

We mobilized part of empirical data collected within two on going researches: i) analysis of legislation on school- family interaction reinterpretation and appropriation by teachers, families and students (both in participation and involvement); ii) analysis of families roles in schools local regulations in the context of responsibilities redistribution amongst educational actors processes. Empirical data used for analysing parental participation forms of appropriation were collected through semi directed interviews to parent-teacher association leaders and non-participant observations in schools governing boards where parents are represented, from eleven Portuguese schools. These schools have distinctive characteristics and are located in four different and far apart municipalities (Portuguese administrative local regions). Two are private religious schools, with distinct student population: one mostly socioeconomic advantaged and the other serving several socioeconomic stratums as it has an association contract with central government (which obliges to enrol all students living within geographical area as public schools do). All other schools are public. Six of them are located in two urban and littoral municipalities with higher population concentration: three belong to the municipality that has more scholar diversity (public, private and association schools), one directed to socioeconomic advantaged students and two where population is diverse; other three belong to the municipality with the higher quality of life level in the country, one directed to socioeconomic advantaged students, other for mostly middle class and the last where more than half the students are beneficiaries of social aid. Another of our schools is the only educational option in a small municipality located in the central region of Portugal, characterized by middle and lower middle classes. In the last municipality, located in the interior part of the country, two schools were chosen: one for middle and upper middle class in the urban area; and another which two main buildings are separated one in an industrial part of the city (middle and lower middle classes) and another in the interior rural dedicated to agriculture (mostly lower middle and lower classes). Through collected data, we can compare parental participation forms of appropriation in distinct educational realities of Portugal. The objective is to identify similarities and differences not only between these schools but also with some conclusions of other national and European studies.

Expected Outcomes

Through the analysis of the interviews made to parent-teacher associations leaders and of the notes written during meetings of schools governing boards in schools mentioned above – located in different geographical, social and economic contexts -, we aim to characterize different parental participation forms within schools. Empirical results, synthesised as “ideal-types”, will show distinctive configurations for appropriations and uses of parental responsibilities attributed by legislation. For that, we mobilized theoretical contributions from other studies, generally in the form of typologies (Ferreira, 2011; Machada, 2011; Sebastião, 2007). Also we intent to discuss different interpretation lines of variations on legally attributed responsibilities and parental participation forms (re)interpretation. Beyond socioeconomic differences (Silva, 2007), distinctive organization frameworks and specific relational aspects are expected to contribute in explaining hypothesis. For instance, participation in schools organizations that promote these processes will be different from participation within schools that do not. Collected data are, as seen above, related to qualitative studies conducted in only one country characterized by a highly centralized educational system, a long tradition of families’ distance from schools (Sá, 2000) and specific recent policies on families participation (Gonçalves, 2013). Confrontation with results of researches conducted in other European contexts will allow launching clews for the discussion on the forms of parental participation. Especially in a time where, as a general trend, the possibilities of parents “voice” in schools formal structures are being increased. If some questions in this matter can be considered similar to another European countries, others are certainly due to differential historical paths.

References

Ball, Stephen (2008) the education debate, Bristol: Policy Press. Barroso; João (2003) “Regulação e desregulação nas políticas educativas: tendências emergentes em estudos de educação comparada”, in J. Barroso, A Escola Pública: Regulação, Desregulação, Porto: Edições ASA, pp. 19-48. Davies, Don, Marques, Ramiro e Silva, Pedro (1997) Os Professores e as Famílias – a colaboração possível, Lisboa: Livros Horizonte. Eurydice (2007) School Autonomy in Europe. Policies and Measures, Brussels: European Comission. Ferreira, Sara (2011) Envolvimento parental e práticas dos educadores na rede privada, Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro. Hirschman, Albert (1970) Exist, Voice, and Loyalty. Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Machado, Fernanda (2011) A participação dos pais na escola: o caso de jardins-de-infância da Misericórdia da Maia. Porto: Intituto Superior de Educação e Trabalho. Sebastião, João (2007) “Famílias, estratégias educativas e percursos escolares” in Sociologia (Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto), nº 17/18, pp. 281-306. Sá, Virgínio (2000) “Políticas educativas e participação dos pais na escola: novos direitos ou velhos deveres?”, trabalho apresentado do IV Congresso Português de Sociologia, in Passados Recentes, Futuros Próximos, Coimbra. Giddens, Anthony (1984) The constitution of Society. Outline of the theory of structuration. Cambridge Polity. Gonçalves, Eva (2013) “A regulação parental nas escolas na perspetiva dos diretores de escola e dos presidentes das associações de pais”, in CIES e Working Papers, 158. Silva, Pedro (2007) “Associações de pais, interculturalidade e clivagem sociológica: algumas questões”, in Revista Electrônica de educação, V. 1, nº 1, São Carlos: UFSCar, pp. 3-30. Sliwka, Ann and Istance, David (2006) “Parental and Stakeholder ‘voice’ in schools and systems”, in European Journal of Education, 41(1), pp. 29-43. Van Zanten, Agnès e Ball, Stephen (2000) “Comparer pour comprendre: globalisation, réinterprétations nationales et recontextualisations locales des politiques éducatives néolibérales, in Revue de l’Institut de Sociologie, Bruxelles, ULB, 1(4), pp.112-131. Whitty, Geoff (2002) Making Sense of Education Policy, Londres, Paul Chapman Publishing.

Author Information

Susana Batista (presenting / submitting)

CESNOVA, FCSH-UNL

CESNOVA

Lisboa

Eva Gonçalves (presenting)

CIES - ISCTE/IUL