Parental engagement in light of the ecosystemic foundations of the school–family–community partnership: Towards a psychosocial, dialogical and developmental perspective

Abstract

In this chapter, we take a critical stance about the way that authors generally define the concept of parental engagement, looking at its conceptual, theoretical and epistemological foundations. We situate, in particular, this concept with respect to the self, in an ecosystemic and developmental logic. Epistemologically, the investigation of ecosystemic foundations lead us to highlight the reductionist logic on which typologies that mark out parental engagement are based and, more generally, we demonstrate the non-developmental character—in the broadest sense, a developmental perspective stems from the emergence of structures and implies a processual dimension—of this concept as designed. Looking at the limits identified, we define parental engagement with respect to a psychosocial, dialogical and developmental perspective.