The Covid-19 pandemic particularly highlighted the value of involving parents in the education of their children at all school stages (OECD, 2020; Unicef, 2020). This is not a new topic in educational research: since the mid-1960s literature provided hints that children’s cognitive, social and emotional development relate also to parental commitment in in-school activities. Indeed, the parents’ role in education has been inquired through different means: several investigations referred to parental involvement as one of the most important variables for pupil achievement (Flouri, 2006; Flouri and Buchanan, 2004; INTO, 1997; Ma et al., 2017), able to influence a child’s whole academic development (Christian, Morrison and Bryant, 1998), as well as its evolution of learning processes and self-awareness (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001). Moreover, parental engagement has been understood as a multidimensional construct influenced by personal elements, contextual components, and chances for learning (Mendez & Swick, 2018). Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2005) included family socioeconomic status, parents’ knowledge and skills in helping their children, time, and energy as important dimensions of parental motivation to involvement.      

Such literature already highlights that different expressions concurred to define the parents’ role in their children education: for instance, Hill et al. (2004) defined ‘parental involvement’ as any activity performed by parents within schools’ boundaries, aimed to promote the academic success of their children. Lately, there has been a shift towards the term ‘parental engagement’, focusing on the interactive process through which a positive relationship between staff, family members, and their children is built, offering a sense of ownership (Goodall and Montgomery, 2014). Stefanski, Valli and Jacobson (2016) criticized the use of these two expressions, arguing that in literature they are often used interchangeably and not consistently. These authors propose a broadening of the concept by using the term ‘partnership’, that includes empowerment and involvement as parental agency’s core elements. This perspective is based on the work of Joyce Epstein (1995, 2001, 2009, 2011): her Model identified a framework of six types of parental involvement: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community. The standpoint assumed is based on the ecological perspective and it highlights distributed responsibilities in sharing educational goals among school, parents, and the community, as overlapping spheres of influence (Epstein, 2018).  

Therefore, the focus of the current research is school-parents partnership in light of contemporary multicultural society composition, considering specifically culturally diverse school contexts in an intercultural perspective (Agostinetto, 2016). In Italy, the multicultural composition of classes is no longer a novelty (Agostinetto, and Bugno, 2020). A recent Italian investigation in these highly socio-culturally complex contexts (Zoletto, 2019) highlighted how teachers complain about a lack of parental involvement in scholastic education. In general, the teacher interviewed reported issues on school-families communication, contrasting considerations of helping students at home (e.g. in organisational tasks or with homework), and poor parents’ participation in meetings where school-related decisions were taken. Moreover, teachers underlined particularly difficulties in creating relations with non-native parents' commitment (Bugno, 2018). 

These difficulties (Bugno 2018) were the starting point for the study we are going to present at ECER 2021. It aims at expanding the knowledge about parents’ participation in children’s education. The research wants to explore equity issues in parental involvement in scholastic education to understand what teachers and educators need to know to define effective initiatives for engaging parents, especially migrant and refugee families.

The study involved parents of children attending three primary schools in three different Italian cities: Rome, Milan and Padua. The schools share the characteristic of being installed in a neighbourhood reflecting the contemporary features of a dynamic and ever-increasing multicultural oriented society. Here, the number of students with migration background rose during last decades, making equity and inclusion issues even more challenging and compelling. As anticipated, the Epstein Model of Parental Involvement provided the foundation for the study. After a review aimed at investigating in the literature how the issue has been conceptualised and examined (Bugno and Zampieri, in progress), a mixed-method design was put in place to gather evidence in the format of narrative commentary (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2018). Initially, the research was conceptualized according to a qualitative approach: data should have been collected through semi-structured interviews proposed to volunteering parents. However, after conducting the first 3 pilot interviews, redesigning the study methodology became necessary: being face to face with the researcher sparked awe and embarrassment in the volunteers, due to their level of linguistic proficiency, as declared by a participant. One of the characteristics of the Italian multicultural context is the plurality of origins and, therefore, of languages. Involving linguistic mediators while respecting the timing of the research, and foremost including everyone willing to participate, was deemed unrealistic. The research group tried then to solve this situation through the use of focus groups. Collective interviews where both Italian and non-Italian parents participated proved to be the right choice: the potential feeling of embarrassment was neutralized as each participant had the opportunity to intervene if and when they found it appropriate. With the aim of further facilitating participation, an online questionnaire was carried out before the focus group meetings: the questions initially planned for the interview were transformed into multiple choice or short answer questions to collect data to be used as stimuli for conversation during focus groups. According to the answers, the topics and aspects to be investigated further during the focus groups were then selected. The questionnaire was created on LimeSurvey and composed by 16 items. More than a hundred parents in each primary school filled it, for a total of 326 respondents. After a content analysis, the most significant topics were collected in a PowerPoint and shared during focus groups to facilitate those parents who would have benefited in their understanding by a written text.

The study aims to investigate the obstacles that make parental involvement in scholastic environments/education/activities complicated. Once revealed and acknowledged the possible barriers, a first step can be made towards better parental involvement, key factor for pupils' cognitive, social and emotional development, as well as academic success. Furthermore, from an intercultural point of view, this study allows to investigate the needs and obstacles most closely related to being a non-native parent with one or more children attending school in Italy. It also is pointed out that these clues are essential to create and provide strategies, tools, and ultimately a welcoming educational environment for all families. Data analysis is now at its final stage and we plan to present the full results and the following reflections during the ECER, in September 2021.

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