In coming to a conceptualization of parent knowledge, new possibilities will emerge to shift the positioning of parents on school landscapes.  Can what parents know, given that it is different from what teachers know, enhance schooling experiences for children?  Can parent knowledge, used alongside teacher knowledge, inform decisions about school programs, policies, procedures and routines?

My questions about parent knowledge emerge out of, and further, my doctoral research – a narrative inquiry into the positioning of parents in relation to the landscapes of schools.  In analyzing attempts made to engage parents meaningfully in curriculum planning and implementation, I came to the realization that the parent expertise drawn on in this strand of my research came from the parents’ craft or professional knowledge, knowledge developed in their careers outside of home or in their extracurricular activities.  It struck me that the knowledge parents had gained from living with children in complex and ever-changing situations was not the knowledge drawn on in the research.

Clandinin and Connelly have conceptualized teachers’ “personal practical knowledge.”  I see the potential of using their conceptualization to research parents’ personal practical knowledge.  They describe personal knowledge as the teacher’s knowledge gained from lived experience in all aspects of life.  Practical knowledge is the teacher’s knowledge of the classroom gained through experiencing the dynamic interaction of persons, things and processes in the situation or environment of the classroom.  It is more than knowledge of theory; it is knowledge arising from the teacher’s experience which enables the teacher to make thoughtful, contextualized decisions about practice in a complex, dynamic and multifaceted situation.  Drawing a parallel between teachers and parents, it strikes me that parents too have personal practical knowledge.  Determining what that knowledge is, and how it is held and used, is the focus of this program of research.

The methodological approach for this program of research is narrative inquiry.  Dewey’s expression of the need for a philosophy of education based on a philosophy of experience is foundational.  The focus of narrative inquiry is “lived experience – that is, lives and how they are lived.”  The intention in this inquiry is to understand parents from their own perspective, to have them give accounts of their experience in their own terms – terms which will give insight into their stance in the world.  The intent in this inquiry is to search into the personal experiences of three parents in order to understand their knowledge as it becomes apparent through what they do and what they say, possibly in the form of temporal rhythms and cycles in their lives, in images and metaphors, in rules and practical principles, in personal philosophy and in narrative unity.

Current literature on parent involvement perpetuates the hierarchical structure of schools and the privileging of teacher knowledge.  It does not bring into question the ways parents are involved, or not involved, in schools.  Instead, it generates possibilities for doing the ‘same old things’ with parents in new ways. As there is no body of literature on parent knowledge, new understandings arising from this program of research have the potential to shift thinking about parents and their positioning in schools.  If parents are seen to be knowing, can they continue to be excluded from decisions about their children’s schooling?

Looking at what the three parents/parent partners in my narrative inquiry do and say, I see within their parent knowledge their intimate knowledge of their children – the children’s skills and abilities, emotions and responses, qualities and characteristics, their ways of being in the world. I see the parents’ facility with intimate teaching in moments when they are engaged with their children in such things as conversations about body development, personal relationships or curricular lessons which are sometimes school-related. I see how they bring their knowledge of self into what they do as parents and how they do it. I see their knowledge being enacted as they consciously determine parameters and boundaries to guide the daily living and decision making within their family and as they make apparent their values in response to specific situations and experiences. I see how their passions are central to the way they live their lives and share their lives with their children. I see arising from their experiences a figuring out and living out of rhythms, patterns, temporal cycles, routines and rules around holiday and cultural traditions, and such things as bedtimes and meals, allowances and household tasks, and friendships and curfews.  I see personal philosophy and narrative unities in their principles to live by, the conscious and unconscious beliefs that underlie all they do as parents, principles expressed, as examples, as “My children’s childhood is so important to me,” “I’d rather do things with my children than buy things for them,” and “I follow the Red Road.”

My program of research, in developing an understanding of parent knowledge, has the potential to introduce a new story of parent engagement into schools. As parents become seen as holders of knowledge about children, teaching and learning, there is potential for them to be positioned alongside educators in decision-making processes regarding school policies, procedures and programs – having a perspective which enriches and extends the perspective of educators. There is potential for parent knowledge to be seen to be seen by educators as legitimate – even valuable.