Parents and parenting have become the focus of attention in educational and social policy as well as in scientific discourse (cf. Fegter et al., 2015). Especially in the context of the neoliberal economization of pedagogical fields and re-negotiations of private and public responsibility for education, parents are (re-)discovered as actors and families as places where education takes place (cf. Bauer et al., 2015, 27; Bischoff-Pabst & Knoll, 2020, 227; Jergus, Krüger & Roch, 2018). Framed by the human capital oriented logic of investment in children, parents’ educational actions become of public interest. They are addressed as responsible for the ‘good childhood’ and the educational trajectories of their children (cf. Jergus, 2019, 35). But the promise of a rise in chances and improved justice via increased parental engagement with schools leads to a shift: An increased responsibility for societal imbalances and discrimination contexts gets placed as the responsibility of the individual or the family – parents become ‘responsibilized’ (cf. Jergus, Krüger & Roch, 2018).

In this context, a declared cooperation on a level playing field of parents and schools – which has been described within the scientific debate as an important factor for successful learning in school, increased school quality as well as a way towards more educational justice – often proves to be not very tenable (cf. Betz et al., 2017). As schools are significantly shaped by societal power relations and contexts of inequality, the relationship between parents and schools is embedded in these complex power relations. Parental options to endure the (new) attentions and to fulfil institutional expectations are not distributed equally (cf. Jergus, Krüger & Roch, 2018). In deprivileged social contexts parents are exposed to the hegemonial norms of ‘good parenthood’ in a highly charged way (cf. Jergus, Krüger & Roch, 2018; Jergus, 2019, 36). Their options and possibilities of engaging and negotiating in the educational context are dependent on their social positions (cf. Betz et al., 2017; Gomolla, 2009, S. 22). This is especially the case, if parents are not positioned within a normality assumed by schools – a fairly high educational level and belonging to the middle class (cf. Fegter et al., 2015, S. 5).

This international symposium therefore aims at bringing papers from three officially German-speaking contexts together. They look, with qualitative empirical research, at discursive orders and interpellations of parents in the institutional context as well as at parental perspectives on school, from a critical perspective with regard to power relations and inequalities. The focus is on the relationship between parents and schools: How this relationship can be shaped, which positions and positionalities are produced and adopted in this context, which circumstances and constellations enable or impede specific experiences, positionings and abilities to act. The papers explore the negotiations, shifts, and reinterpretations which take place.

Bauer, P., Neumann, S., Sting, S., Ummel, H., & Wiezorek, C. (2015). Familienbilder und Bilder ‚guter’ Elternschaft. Zur Bedeutung eines konstitutiven, aber vernachlässigten Moments pädagogischer Professionalität. Neue Praxis, Sonderheft 12, 25-37. Betz, T., Bischoff, S., Eunicke, N., Kayser, L. B., & Zink, K. (2017). Partner auf Augenhöhe? Forschungsbefunde zur Zusammenarbeit von Familien, Kitas und Schulen mit Blick auf Bildungschancen. Bertelsmann Stiftung. Bischoff-Pabst, S., & Knoll, A. (2020). Eltern im Fokus pädagogischer Institutionen: Beobachtung, Zugriff und Widerständigkeit. Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung und Sozialisation, 40(4), 227–232. Fegter, S., Heite, C., Mierendorff, J., & Richter, M. (2015). Neue Aufmerksamkeiten für Familie Diskurse, Bilder und Adressierungen in der Sozialen Arbeit. Neue Praxis, Sonderheft 12, 3–11. Gomolla, M. (2009). Elternbeteiligung in der Schule. In S. Fürstenau & M. Gomolla (Eds.), Migration und schulischer Wandel: Elternbeteiligung (pp. 21–49). Springer VS. Jergus, K. (2019). Eltern als Bildungsakteure und die Familie als Bildungsort. Kontinuität und Wandel des Verhältnisses von Familie und Bildung. In M. Schweder (Eds.), Bildung und Erziehung im Abseits: Erste Annäherungen (pp. 31-47). Beltz Juventa. Jergus, K., Krüger, J. O., & Roch, A. (2018) (Eds.). Elternschaft zwischen Projekt und Projektion: Aktuelle Perspektiven der Elternforschung. Springer VS.