To become a parent does not require a formal education which imparts theoretical and professional knowledge. Parents, necessarily then, draw on their “personal practical knowledge” (Clandinin, 1986) in their parenting practices. They learn about children and children’s learning experientially (Connelly & Clandinin, 1985). They come to know over time, their learning shaped by past experiences, by present contexts, by future hopes (Clandinin, 1992). They come to know in relation with their children, possibly with a partner, possibly with extended family members and friends (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995). They may also come to know from reading materials on parenting, from watching television programs, from attending workshops, in consultation with child-related professionals. It is the knowledge which parents construct about children, teaching and learning, “the complex, practically-oriented set of understandings which they use actively to shape and direct the work of [parenting]” (Elbaz, 1983, p. 3), which is the focus of my program of research on parent knowledge.
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.
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