Discourses of the good parent in attributing school success

Abstract

Recent education policy places a heavy emphasis on parents in relation to students' success at school. This paper explores how parents and teachers account for school success. Using membership categorisation analysis, it interrogates data collected in different interview situations across sites over a period of 20 years. The analysis shows how parents and teachers use talk as moral work to conversationally constitute particular agreed versions of the category 'parent'. This category is interactively assembled through the use of category-bound attributes that construct deficit discourses of parents that explain student achievement. The analysis demonstrates that parents are complicit with teachers in producing versions of being a good parent wherein they are held responsible for their children's school success and that minimises the responsibility of the school. These findings raise questions both about who is responsible for schooling and about current contradictory policy emphases on parent and teacher responsibility for school success.

Teacher Identity as a Root of Teacher Selves: Professional Identity vs Personal Identity

“…In the article, the relationship between parents and teachers is also discussed in order to create a good strategy in stimulating the improvement of students in school. This statement is also supported by a study from Thomas, Keogh, & Hay (2014) which explains the role of the teacher as a parent in school and relations to students' success at school. The reason why the participants in this study tried to become parents to the students was that the family environment was actually the most important factor in the success of the students (Thomas et al, 2014).…”

“…This statement is also supported by a study from Thomas, Keogh, & Hay (2014) which explains the role of the teacher as a parent in school and relations to students' success at school. The reason why the participants in this study tried to become parents to the students was that the family environment was actually the most important factor in the success of the students (Thomas et al, 2014). Therefore, participants also would like to create a "family" situation in the school environment with the intention that students can…”

Parent involvement in education? A Foucauldian discourse analysis of school newsletters

“…'Good' parents make education a parenting priority Efforts to improve parent involvement presume that parents will be unable to adequately provide for their children's learning needs without expert advice from schools (Crozier, 1998;Dahlstedt, 2009). While the newsletters have plenty of suggestions for how parents can improve their performance, there is virtually no mention of the role of teachers in improving the home-school partnership beyond that of directing parents' participation (see also Antony-Newman, 2019; Thomas et al, 2015). The advice in the newsletters is not limited to academic matters, such as reading and math, but instead, parents are presumed to need direction in virtually every facet of 'good' parenting.…”

Discours publics sur le programme d’évaluation nationale en Australie

“…Il est intéressant de constater que ce discours s'aligne sur le discours de la politique officielle, fondé sur la responsabilité et la transparence, selon lequel les enseignants ont besoin à la fois d'être aidés dans l'exercice de leur jugement professionnel et d'être tenus pour responsables de l'amélioration des résultats des élèves. Comme le font remarquer Thomas et al (2014), cette représentation des enseignants sert à faire porter la responsabilité de la réussite des établissements aux individus et, ce faisant, à exonérer de cette responsabilité les administrations en charge de l'éducation ainsi que le système scolaire.…”