The Role of Social Inequality in Parent Engagement

This book highlights how social inequality shapes parent engagement, from resources available to parents and parenting logics to school responses to families and their engagement. It also provides multiple solutions that can help shift parent engagement from a source of inequality to an opportunity for social justice in education. The book embraces families’ funds of knowledge and advocates for family-centric rather than school-centric parent engagement. Parents’ experiences of engagement at home, in school, and in the community are inextricably tied to social class, race, gender, and immigration status, which are addressed in this collection. It draws on a rich array of theoretical frameworks and adopts a critical lens to the study of parent engagement in early years, K-12 schools, and in transition to higher education. The book brings together authors from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia and will be of interest to teachers, school administrators, policymakers, and researchers.