Living with parental involvement: A case study of two 'open schools'

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This account is based on case study data collected in two first phase schools (5-8 years) in England. The focus is the response of parents and teachers to a supposed opening up of schools through increased parental involvement in schooling. With acknowledgement of appropriate education policy and critical educational research, the authors argue that government policy depoliticises both educational outcomes and parent-teacher relations. The idea of the 'open' school dominates the data; it emerges as a metaphor of convenience and is pivotal in the way in which parents and teachers use it to explain and sustain parent-teacher relations of a mutually acceptable kind. Value is placed by both parties on an atmosphere of open communication, informality and routine. In the process of parent-teacher relations the advantage lies with the teachers, and parental empowerment is something of a myth. The metaphor of 'openness' is not questioned by parents and teachers, and it covers a process where trading is taking place between routine parental needs and the professional power and control of the teachers. There are clear indicators in the data which show that what drives parental involvement in these schools is teacher priorities coupled with some parental compliance, under the cover of the 'open' school, and not government policy imperatives.