The Missing Person: Student Roles in Home-School Interviews

Abstract

In British secondary schools the ‘Parents' Evening’ is held annually for each year group to allow parents and subject teachers to meet and discuss a child's progress. This article draws from two qualitative studies of Parents' Evenings and focusses on the difficulties faced by parents, teachers and students in trying to integrate the young person into this type of home-school liaison. Much of the data consisted of tape-recordings of Parents' Evening interviews made by teachers or parents. Key analytical concepts include the parent-teacher-student interview characterised as ‘institutional talk’, where the participants struggle over control of personal information, definition of problems and follow-up action. Even though it is becoming more common for students to attend these events, the article brings out their relative powerlessness and concludes that, while parents and teachers contest authority within the interview, the role, power and identity of the young person is even more problematic.