Just how involved is ‘involved’? Re-thinking parental involvement through exploring teachers’ perceptions of immigrant families’ school involvement in Cyprus

Abstract

Parental involvement has been increasingly gaining support among education theorists and policymakers across many countries (Kelley-Laine 1998 Kelley-Laine, K. 1998. Parents as partners in schooling: The current state of affairs. Childhood Education, 74(6): 342–45. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] ) as an effective way to improve student academic performance. However, the cultural assumptions underlying calls for parental involvement have received little attention (De Carvalho 2001; Lareau 1987). Drawing on ethnographic data, this paper attempts to explore the culturally specific nature of current practices and ideologies of parental involvement in Cyprus and their effect on the marginalisation of potentially socially vulnerable groups. This endeavour is undertaken through the examination of elementary school teachers’ perceptions of the involvement of immigrant parents in their children's education. In adhering to narrowly conceptualised notions of parental involvement and subsequently perceiving the immigrant parents as ‘disinterested’, teachers at a Cypriot public elementary school perpetuated and furthered the social marginalisation of immigrant families.