The micro-politics of parental involvement in school education in Hong Kong: ethnocentrism, utilitarianism or policy rhetoric

The impact of parental involvement on school management has been recognized by many education professionals and policy-makers. Thus parental involvement in school education becomes one of the prime focuses in the current education reform movement in Hong Kong. Particularly, specific guidelines and p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational review (Birmingham) 2015-04, Vol.67 (2), p.253-271
Main Authors: Ng, Shun-wing, Yuen, Wai Kwan Gail
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Administrator Attitudes
Case Studies
Children
Children & youth
Cooperation
Documents
Education
Education policy
Education reform
Educational Administration
Educational Change
Educational Policy
Educational Practices
Elementary Education
Elementary Schools
Ethnocentrism
Ethnography
Foreign Countries
Governance
Governors
Hong Kong
Institutional Characteristics
micro-politics
Parent Attitudes
Parent Participation
Parent School Relationship
parental involvement
Parents & parenting
Participant Observation
Participation
Policy making
Politics
Politics of Education
Power
Power relations
Pragmatics
Principals
Qualitative Research
Rhetoric
School Administration
Schools
Semi Structured Interviews
Student Participation
Teacher Attitudes
Teachers
Teaching
Utilitarianism
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Summary:The impact of parental involvement on school management has been recognized by many education professionals and policy-makers. Thus parental involvement in school education becomes one of the prime focuses in the current education reform movement in Hong Kong. Particularly, specific guidelines and policies for involving parents at various levels of children's education have been spelled out in many governmental policy documents. This article reports on an interpretive study that explores the micro-politics of parental involvement in school education in two primary schools in Hong Kong. By analyzing the interviews with 14 parents, eight teachers and two principals, together with the field-notes of participant observations in two case study schools, three propositions of power relations between parents and teaching professionals emerge. The findings indicate that in the process of encouraging parents' participation in school education, teaching professionals demonstrated ethnocentric attitudes towards parents; the notion of "parents as resources" were for pragmatic purposes; and the conception of "parents-as-school-governors" was of policy rhetoric in the process of implementation of home-school cooperation.
ISSN:0013-1911
1465-3397
DOI:10.1080/00131911.2013.868786