The responsible parent and networks of support: A case study of school engagement in a challenging environment

Abstract

Research, policy and practice on education in recent years has focused attention on the mediating role that parents play in children's schooling. Parents have been constructed as responsible agents; as consumers, investors and partners in the performance‐oriented educational project. Much of the literature has looked at parent–school relations from the vantage point of parents, particularly parents in disadvantaged areas. Less has been written on how parent–school relations look from a school's perspective. In this article we draw on data from a case study English school in a socio‐economically deprived area and explore the nature of the construct ‘responsible parent’ from the perspectives of teaching staff. We utilise data from semi‐structured interviews with teaching staff in one case study school located on the outskirts of an English city. Through the data we outline teachers’ conceptions of parents and an emerging network of engagement incorporating parents as part of a broader social and education project in schools. We argue that a dominant construct, the responsible parent, has resonances with the ways that teachers conceptualise parents. At the same time, the case study school inhabits a dual institutional space: it is captured within a neo‐liberal discourse on the responsible parent as a key conduit for an outcomes‐oriented education project and also goes beyond the narrow confines of formal educational structures in offering ‘challenging’ parents social and emotional support in connecting with their children and their schooling.