Parental Involvement Across European Education Systems: Critical Perspectives (routledge Research In International And Comparative Education)

This book addresses central questions regarding parental involvement across European educational systems; exploring the commonalities and differences across European countries and the extent to which current policy and practice pertaining to parental involvement is inclusive of diversity. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the fields of education, sociology and psychology, it presents a description of the policy context and empirical research on critical perspectives relating to parental involvement. Comprising a rich varied cross-section of national experiences from eleven European countries and the contexts surrounding them, case studies provide insights into parental involvement across Europe and identify challenges in the field. This volume’s in-depth approach and comprehensive interrogation of parental involvement across European education systems make it an ideal resource for parents, teachers and academics, researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of education policy and comparative education, as well as teacher educators and policy makers. This book addresses central questions regarding parental involvement across European educational systems; exploring the commonalities and differences across European countries and the extent to which current policy and practice pertaining to parental involvement is inclusive of diversity. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of contributors 8 Introduction 10 Why this volume is necessary and innovative 10 The central questions addressed in this volume 13 How this book came to be 14 Key challenges 14 Structure of the book 15 References 16 1. Cyprus: Depicting the landscape of school–family relationships and family–school involvement in Cyprus 17 1 Introduction 17 2 Overview of the education system in Cyprus 17 3 Parental involvement in schools in Cyprus 19 4 Existing research on parental involvement in schools in Cyprus 22 5 New research perspective: Teachers’ representations of parents 24 6 Conclusions 26 Note 27 References 16 2. Germany: Parental involvement in Germany 30 1 Introduction 30 2 Basic structure of the school system in Germany 30 3 Parental involvement in Germany 31 4 Research on parental involvement in Germany: theoretical framework, empirical results and dominant discourses 35 5 New research perspective: Further research on parental involvement in Germany 38 6 Conclusions 41 References 16 3. Iceland: Home–school cooperation in Iceland: characteristics and values 45 1 Introduction 45 2 Overview of educational system in Iceland 45 3 Parental involvement in Iceland 46 4 Existing research on parental involvement in Iceland 49 5 New research perspective: parental involvement in compulsory schools 50 6 Conclusion 54 References 16 4. Ireland: Parental involvement in Ireland 58 1 Introduction 58 2 Overview of the education system in Ireland 58 3 Parental involvement in Ireland: policy and terminology 59 4 Research on parental involvement in Ireland: theoretical framework, empirical research 62 5 New research on parental involvement in Ireland: determinants of home-based parental involvement at age 17 64 6 Conclusions 69 References 16 5. The Netherlands: Parental involvement in the Netherlands 73 1 Introduction 73 2 Overview of the education system in the Netherlands 73 3 Parental involvement in the Netherlands 75 4 Existing research on parental involvement in the Netherlands 78 5 New directions: what can research tell us about the way forward? 82 6 Conclusion 82 References 16 6. Norway: Parental involvement in Norway – ideals and realities 86 1 Introduction 86 2 The Norwegian education system 86 3 Parental involvement in school in Norway 87 4 Existing research on parental involvement 91 5 New research perspective: home–school cooperation as atopic in teacher education in Norway 92 6 Conclusions 95 Notes 97 References 16 7. Portugal: Family involvement and participation in schools in Portugal: the difficulty in sharing responsibilities 99 1 Introduction 99 2 Overview of the Portuguese education system 99 3 The school–family relationship in Portugal 100 4 Research on the school–family relationship in Portugal 104 5 New research perspective: Is the school-family relationship an effective partnership or a mere approximation? 105 6 Conclusions 109 Notes 110 References 16 8. Slovenia: Overprotective parenthood: parental involvement in the educational trajectories of their children in Slovenia 113 1 Introduction 113 2 Overview of the education system in Slovenia 114 3 Parental involvement in Slovenia: policy and terminology 115 4 Research on parental involvement in Slovenia: theoretical framework, empirical research and dominant discourses 116 5 New research perspective: overprotecting parenthood? 118 6 Conclusions 124 Notes 126 References 16 9. Sweden: Parental involvement in Sweden exemplified through national policy on homework support 129 1 Introduction 129 2 Overview of education system in Sweden 129 3 Parental involvement in Sweden 130 4 Existing research on parental involvement in Sweden 131 5 New research perspective: homework support as parental involvement outside of school 133 6 Conclusions 138 References 16 10. Switzerland: Parental involvement and career decision-making: the case of Switzerland 142 1 Introduction 142 2 The Swiss education system 142 3 Parental involvement in schools in Switzerland 143 4 Existing research on parental involvement in Switzerland: theoretical frameworks, empirical research and dominant discourses 145 5 New research perspective: parental effects on achievement and school track decisions in lower secondary education 149 6 Conclusions 154 Notes 154 References 16 11. United Kingdom: Divided and United Kingdom: parents in education and the common issue of inequality across the diversity of four nations 158 1 Introduction 158 2 Overview of the education systems in the UK 158 3 Parental involvement in the UK 160 4 Existing research on parental involvement in the UK 163 5 New research direction: school newsletters 166 6 Conclusion 167 References 16 12. United Kingdom: Parental involvement: afeminist critical review from aUK perspective 171 1 Introduction 171 2 Background to the socio-political and economic developments 50 years ago 173 3 Afeminist analysis of parental involvement in education 174 4 Feminist research studies on mothers, parents and education from the 1980s 175 5 Developing acritique of pedagogies of gender & sexualities 180 6 Conclusions 181 References 16 13. Home-based parental involvement and parental perception of schools: Across-country analysis1 184 1 Introduction 184 2 Literature review 184 3 Data, variables and estimation 187 4 Results 191 5 Conclusions 196 Notes 197 References 16 14. Parental involvement across European education systems: Acritical conclusion 200 Introduction 200 References 16 Index 210