Parental involvement (PI) is widely acknowledged as a key factor in students’ academic achievement, motivation, and social development (Epstein, 2018; Hill & Tyson, 2009). International research consistently demonstrates that effective school–family partnerships contribute not only to improved learning outcomes but also to the reduction of educational inequalities and the strengthening of inclusive school cultures (Hornby, 2011; Bacskai et al., 2024). Despite this evidence, teachers’ attitudes toward collaboration with parents often remain ambivalent or deficit-oriented, particularly in relation to families from disadvantaged backgrounds and parents of adolescent students (Pusztai et al., 2024; Hornby & Lafaele, 2011).

Teachers frequently interpret parental involvement primarily as a mechanism for control or problem-solving, rather than as a form of partnership based on shared responsibility and mutual trust (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011). Research indicates that such orientations are deeply embedded in teachers’ professional beliefs and are only weakly influenced by traditional, theory-driven teacher education programs (Denessen et al., 2009; Willemse et al., 2018).

Teacher education and professional development often fail to provide opportunities for experiential and reflective engagement with the complexities of school–family collaboration (Povey et al., 2016). While targeted training programs have shown positive effects on teachers’ family engagement practices in some contexts (Smith, 2017), such initiatives remain rare in Central and Eastern Europe, where empirical evidence on effective interventions is still limited (Pusztai & Csók, 2023). This gap highlights the need for innovative, practice-oriented learning environments that address not only knowledge but also teachers’ attitudes, role perceptions, and professional dispositions toward parental involvement.

This study addresses this need by examining the potential of a purposefully designed analogue board game as an intervention for developing partnership-oriented attitudes toward PI among teacher trainees and practicing teachers. The research is situated at the intersection of parental involvement research (Epstein, 2018), inclusive education (Hornby, 2011), and game-based learning in higher education (Sousa et al., 2023; Noda et al., 2019). From a theoretical perspective, the study draws on Epstein’s framework of school–family–community partnerships, which conceptualizes parental involvement as a multidimensional and shared responsibility, as well as Hornby and Lafaele’s (2011) model of barriers to PI, emphasizing personal, perceptual, institutional, and societal factors shaping teachers’ practices.

In addition, the study is informed by experiential and transformative learning theories, which emphasize the role of authentic experiences, reflection, and cognitive dissonance in reshaping professional beliefs (Mezirow, 1997; Avalos, 2011). Game-based learning, particularly analogue board games, has been shown to support reflective dialogue, collaboration, and the development of social and communicative competences in higher education contexts (Karbownik et al., 2016; Sousa et al., 2023). However, empirical research on board games explicitly designed to influence teachers’ attitudes toward parental involvement remains scarce.

Against this background, the study is guided by the following research questions:

1. To what extent does participation in a board game-based intervention influence teachers’ and teacher trainees’ perceptions of parental involvement as part of their professional responsibility?
2. How does the intervention affect the perceived importance of different forms of parental involvement at the primary and secondary school levels?
3. What differences can be identified between teacher trainees and practicing teachers regarding attitudinal change following the intervention?

By presenting empirical findings from Hungary, this study contributes to the European and international discourse on innovative approaches to teacher education and professional development, offering evidence on how analogue game-based learning can support reflective engagement with complex relational dimensions of teaching that are often marginalized in formal training programs.

The study employed a quasi-experimental pre–post research design without a control group to examine the impact of a board game-based intervention on attitudes toward parental involvement. Data collection took place between September 2024 and January 2025 in two settings: university-based teacher education courses and in-service professional development sessions in schools. Participants included both teacher trainees and practicing teachers. After data cleaning, the final sample consisted of 116 respondents (54 teacher trainees and 62 teachers). Due to the voluntary and anonymous nature of participation, not all respondents completed both the pre-test and post-test; therefore, analyses were conducted on the combined pre- and post-intervention samples to ensure sufficient statistical power. The intervention consisted of a facilitated gameplay session lasting approximately 70–100 minutes. The board game is a cooperative, thematic game in which participants take on professional roles within a school and collectively respond to monthly challenges related to parental involvement. Gameplay requires negotiation, joint decision-making, and the strategic use of communication, expertise, connectivity, and innovation resources. The game integrates “good practice” cards presenting empirically grounded examples of effective school–family collaboration from Hungarian and international contexts. Attitudes toward parental involvement were measured using a self-developed questionnaire grounded in international and national literature. The instrument included demographic questions, open-ended items, and multiple Likert-scale items rated on a 10-point scale. These items assessed: – perceived professional responsibility for supporting parental involvement, – the perceived importance of various forms of parental involvement at primary and secondary school levels, and – views on the role of teacher education in preparing teachers for collaboration with parents. Given that normality assumptions were not met, non-parametric statistical analyses were conducted. Mann–Whitney U tests were used to compare pre- and post-test results, and effect sizes were calculated to estimate the magnitude of observed changes. Ethical standards for social science research were fully observed, including informed consent, anonymity, and voluntary participation.

The findings indicate that the board game-based intervention contributed to meaningful, though differentiated, shifts in attitudes toward parental involvement. Positive changes were primarily observed among practicing teachers, particularly in relation to perceiving parental involvement as part of their professional responsibility and valuing parents’ participation in school-level activities and decision-making processes. These shifts were most pronounced at the primary school level, while parental involvement in secondary education remained consistently undervalued, reflecting deeply rooted professional assumptions about adolescent autonomy. Teacher trainees showed more limited attitudinal change, suggesting that professional experience plays a crucial role in enabling reflective engagement with the realistic dilemmas presented in the game. This finding aligns with experiential learning theories, which emphasize the importance of prior practice for transformative reflection. Overall, the results suggest that the board game functioned not merely as an instructional tool but as an attitude-shaping learning environment that fostered social sensitivity, perspective-taking, and reflective dialogue. The study highlights the potential of analogue game-based learning to address relational and value-laden dimensions of teaching that are often neglected in traditional teacher education. From a broader European perspective, the findings underscore the relevance of innovative, experience-based methods for strengthening inclusive, partnership-oriented approaches to parental involvement, particularly in contexts where such collaboration remains underdeveloped. The research on which this paper is based has been implemented by the MTA-DE-Parent–Teacher Cooperation Research Group and with the support provided by the Research Program for Public Education Development of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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