Parental involvement, cultural capital and children's performance. Practices and discoursive strategies

Abstract

We analyze family practices of parental involvement in children's schooling, through in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation. Instead of taking definitions from expert literature, we approach the concept of parent involvement from their own perspective. Results show that parental practices are conditioned by parents' cultural capital, available time and their children's prior academic achievement. Families strategically concep-tualise the meanings of involvement, so that they fit in the universe of possible practices. We conclude that parental involvement should be understood heeding the availability of resources, instead of the explanations based on familiar wishes.