Research acknowledges the positive outcomes of family-school partnership (FSP) and parental involvement in education, both in Sweden and internationally (Cottle & Alexander, 2014; Harju et al., 2013; Markström & Simonsson, 2017). However, the practice and process to achieve these positive outcomes are described as complex and sometime resistant by practitioners (Albaiz & Ernest, 2020; Eriksson, 2009; Hedlin, 2017). Potentials and obstacles for parental involvement are identified in line with changes in society, not least when Swedish society has become more multicultural and multilingual in various contexts (Bouakaz, 2007; Tallberg-Broman, 2009; Vuorinen & Gu, 2023), and the digitalization in the Swedish school (Gu, 2017, 2018). On the one hand, digital technologies provide the potentials for increased opportunities for communication and access to educational resources and cultural values. The term parental e-nvolvement is introduced to address parental involvement that is strengthened by technology (Şad et al., 2016). On the other hand, because parents are not a homogeneous group, their access to Web-based information and communication, and their ability to exploit resources online are affected by their socioeconomic and linguistic conditions, which can be a challenge for FSP.

Recent research has found that the digitalization of society has brought about a growing gap, a new form of differentiation, gradually separating those who can derive many benefits from the new information society and those who cannot. The concept of digital exclusion has been used to refer to the situation where people cannot participate in society duo to lack of access or ability to use digital technologies (Internet Foundation in Sweden, 2020; Park & Humphry, 2019). Digital exclusion and social exclusion are intrinsically intertwined that put disadvantaged families at higher risk for exclusion. Much of the discourse is around how existing social exclusion such as income, education, region, gender, age, and ethnics, is reinforced by digital exclusion. In the field of FSP, parents’ socioeconomic condition, their education and literacy level, and language are closely associated with material and information access, digital skills and usage diversity (Helsper, & Reisdorf, 2017; Van Deursen and van Dijk, 2015) that affect their possibilities to be involved in education. Earlier literature on digital divide focused mainly on the haves and have-nots of digital technology, e.g., the difference in rates of access to computers and the Internet (Sciades, 2002). More recently, attention has shifted to the multiple dimensions that create inequalities in the uses and benefits of technology (Park, & Humphry, 2019). Furthermore, the power relation between family and school is still uneven (Kingston, 2021). How digitalization plays a role in this power relationship is still unexplored.

This presentation thus aims to gain more knowledge about whether and in what way digitalization in schools may affect FSP and parental involvement in school. In particular, it will focus on challenges that may arise when digital media are introduced to the relations that have traditionally been characterized more as face-to-face encounters, such as the parent-teacher meetings. Whether digitalization in school serves as a tool of increased inclusion or the opposite in terms of parents’ interaction with school will be discussed. Bourdieu's concept of social field and different forms of capital will be applied as an overall theoretical framework (Bourdieu, 1986). Education as a social field where power dynamics play out between different actors within the field, and how such power dynamics may be affected by the introduction of digital technologies.

In order to gain an insight into the area of FSP in relation to digitization in the Swedish school, this study will be based on a combination of policy analysis and a research review on selected studies made in the Swedish context. Policy analysis focuses on analyzing and discussing how the discourses on FSP and parental involvement has been constructed in Swedish education policy. The policy documents to be selected will be obtained from four main public sources: the national curricula for compulsory education, Education Act, Swedish Government Official Reports (SOU), and the Publications Series of the Ministry of Education. The curriculum and Education Act are a governing document for school’s work, which contains descriptions of goals, missions and rules that the school must follow. SOU often has a predetermined effect on the political decisions that are actually taken (Pettersson, 2013). The Ministry of Education has been responsible for the government’s education and research policy that is usually based on investigations presented in SOU. The purpose of research review is to gain an overview and understanding of the practice of FSP in relation to digitalization in schools. The analysis model suggested by Wong et al. (2010, p. 44) will be relevant for identifying critical factors regarding digital inclusion/exclusion, which could be adapted and applied to analyze how the various variables such as digital skills, affordability, accessibility, usage, and social-cultural factors etc., and the interaction of these variables can be operationalized into relevant indicators for digital literacy necessary for technology use by the parents that influence the practice and outcomes of FSP.

Schools use various digital tools to inform and communicate with parents to create the relationship with parents (e.g. Gu, 2017, 2018). The main results of this study are expected to prove the transformations of FSP brought about by digitalization. Digital technologies also pose certain benifits and challenges for partnership when it comes to the issue of digital inclusion or exclusion of immigrants and socio-economically disadvantaged families.

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