Topic: In many societies around the world, collaboration between school and families is recognized as essential to support students' educational success. This is the case in Quebec, a French-speaking province of Canada, where Epstein's typology (2011) has been widely used in research to study parental involvement and opportunities for parents to collaborate with schools. The typology is divided into six types: 1) parenting; 2) communication with the school; 3) parental involvement at school; 4) monitoring and supporting learning at home; 5) participation in decision-making; 6) collaboration and exchanges with the community.

However, some authors express reservations about Epstein's typology when it comes to studying the involvement of parents who do not represent the majority (Gosselin-Lavoie et Charette, 2024). In this regard, Bower and Griffin (2011) point out that the modes of involvement and collaboration traditionally expected of parents, such as involvement at school or support with schoolwork, do not cover the ways in which parents can be involved when they are in a low socioeconomic situation or when they represent a minority group. In these contexts, Bower and Griffin (2011) highlight the value of supporting networking among parents and their power to act about their rights and those of their children. Cranston et al. (2021), in a study focusing on refugee parents who do not speak the language of the school, also describe Epstein's conceptual framework as problematic. It does not consider the challenges that parents may face in the host society, which could affect their possibility to get involved in their children's education, such as a lack of knowledge about the school system, partial mastery of the language of school, or the time-consuming search for employment. According to Conus (2023), school expectations are governed by rigid norms that distance some parents from school by placing the burden of collaboration on their shoulders, rather than considering the structural and institutional factors that create barriers. According to Coady et al. (2015), who examine collaborations between school and Spanish-speaking immigrant families, to demonstrate inclusion in collaboration, it is essential to reconceptualize the relationship between parents and the school, as well as the resources available to them.

Research question: How do the terms of collaboration offered to refugee families or asylum seekers in Quebec enable or prevent parents from meeting their needs and addressing their realities?

Conceptual framework:  The capabilities approach theory will be used to answer our research question, which is part of a social justice perspective and was developed by Amartya Sen in the field of social economics (Sen, 2000). The author describes the concept of capabilities as a set of modes of functioning that are potentially accessible to a person, whether they exercise them (Sen, 2000). They are real opportunities available to persons that would allow them to choose to “be” and “do” what they value (Olympio, 2020; Picard et al., 2015). The capabilities approach aims to inform people of their rights and the resources available to them but also emphasizes the need for people to know how to use these resources, thereby opening a wider range of opportunities for them (Sen, 2000). The approach also draws on the concept of conversion factors, which can be negative or positive. These factors explain why individuals with the same resources do not necessarily achieve the same results. These factors can be personal, sociocultural, environmental, etc. They affect people's ability to use and transform resources (Sen, 2000).

Our research approach is qualitative, interpretive, and exploratory (Miles & Huberman, 2003). We met with seven community workers who support parents of school-aged children who have experienced refugee or asylum seeker paths. They were all women. Five of them had immigration experience, and in all cases, they were admitted to Canada under the ‘’economic immigration category’’ (as opposed to refugees or asylum seekers) (5/7). They were all based in the greater Montreal area, an urban setting. The interview framework consisted of four sections: 1) sociodemographic data on the individual, 2) their role regarding parents of refugee or asylum-seeking children, 4) their perceptions of parents' needs about school, and 4) the concrete actions taken to provide them with support in relation to school. The support proposed to parents took place over one to six meetings, depending on the needs of the parents as identified by themselves or by the community workers. They are employed by a community organization but sometimes have offices in schools. Semi-structured interviews lasting 45 to 65 minutes were conducted via the Zoom platform to document their reported practices. A thematic analysis of content using mixed coding was carried out using Nvivo software. Our analysis was initially descriptive, as we outlined the actions implemented by community workers to support families. We then analyzed the documented actions considering the conceptual framework of the capabilities approach.

Our analyses highlight the fact that community workers inform all parents of their rights, but on different topics and to varying degrees. Some of them say they inform parents by considering their immigration status, i.e, by informing them about their eligibility to daycare or health insurance. Some community workers immediately put asylum-seeking parents in touch with low-cost lawyers by giving them the name of a specific organization or lawyer. Others rights shared with parents are directly related to school, such as children's rights and compulsory schooling from ages 6 to 16. Our analyses also show that practitioners provide families with a lot of information about neighborhood resources or put them in direct contact with resources: food banks, low-cost clothing or school supplies, job search support organizations, Facebook groups for immigrant parents, etc. Community workers who speak several languages often conduct meetings with parents in a language they are fluent in, while others use interpreters or conduct meetings in French. Our analyses also revealed positive and negative conversion factors. Positive conversion factors include: accessible resources on foot or within the same facility, attentives community workers who identify families' needs and provide them with specific referrals, when structural solutions are offered to facilitate links with the school, e.g., public transportation tickets to get there. Negative conversion factors include: a one size fits all approach, long list of resources available without pointing any, lack of time with parents to build a relationship of trust. In conclusion, parents and community workers need time as they can point out the rights resources, understand how to use it and converting them into opportunities for choice. Parents have a wide range of needs, and the support offered to build collaboration with school should first address their day-to-day needs and must also be diverse as their contexts.

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