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?

In a research study into parent engagement and leadership at Princess Alexandra Community School (pre-Kindergarten through Grade Eight) in the Riversdale community in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, I established a research team in which, together, we examined the conditions that enabled school practices to move along the continuum from parent involvement to parent engagement and leadership. We also examined why some parents remained distanced from the school, and how more parents might become engaged at the school.

Working with co-researchers – parents, teacher assistants, teachers, community and adult education coordinators, administrators – meant Claudia Ruitenberg (research assistant) and I could do research with the school rather than on the school.

Three significant themes from this research help to inform a move toward greater engagement of parents on school landscapes. The first relates to assumptions and beliefs. Doing the work necessary within a school community to make conscious and explicit assumptions and beliefs about parents is a critical starting place. Consciously working to live positive assumptions about parents and beliefs about the engagement of parents in processes of schooling, in practice, is then the next step. The second theme relates to invitation and hospitality. Hospitality is not about teachers and administrators inviting people to their place, but about creating a place that is owned as much by students, parents and community members as it is by staff and administrators. The third theme is about developing trust and relationships. Trust and relationships are often formed when we move away from the institutionalized, ritualistic, and often public interactions between teachers and parents typical of most school landscapes to interactions which are much less formal and more intimate. I believe attending to these three aspects of schooling will change the school landscape. They have the potential to bring educators and parents together in a very different way in the work of schools.