Changing the face of the school : parental empowerment in a working class community

Abstract

It would be politically naive to assume that greater involvement of parents is the panacea for the problem of school achievement of "at risk" students (Apple, 1996; Fine, 1993). Some of the more critical literature in the area has indicated how polices in this regard are fraught with problems. One of these is that the State abdicates its responsibilities in providing that to which all pupils are entitled , guided by the principles of equity (see, for instance, Darmanin, 1994, p. 29; Smyth, 1994, p. 132; Mansfield, in Symeonides, 1996). In a similar vein, others have indicated how, in this present Neo-liberal climate, it has become fashionable to promote the idea of community involvement, within the context of ‘active democratic citizenship' (Ledwith, 1997, p.148), especially in a scenario characterised by attempts to cut back on public spending (Apple, 1996; Kachur and Harrison, 1999). Parental involvement constitutes one such form of community action which runs the danger of reflecting the all pervasive market ideology, the parent being the consumer in this case (Smyth, 1994, p.131). The neo-liberal agenda in education is also informed by a near-hysterical concern with falling standards, loss of ‘values', violence in schools, league tables, streaming/tracking and special programmes. It has had the effect of superficially addressing the oppressive reality in which disenfranchised families are living, turning parents and their children into ‘objects' for rehabilitation. This is very much apparent with respect to the whole issue of ‘values'. There has always been a connection between parent education and the recovery of lost or the promulgation of new values. For instance, Karl Mannheim considered Parent Education to be a very important vehicle for the much desired process of social reconstruction in post-World War II Europe, a reconstruction which involved the fostering of certain values to avoid a repeat of the advent of Nazism (Mannheim, 1943, p. 29). The present historical conjuncture is characterised by the co-existence of neo-conservative values, emerging in reaction to welfare states, especially ‘in metropolitan state formations" (Torres, 1998, p. 46), alongside others entailing liberalisation of the economy. This co-existence, as Apple (1993) and others have argued, lies at the core of the New Right ideology. The call for Parent Education becomes louder as part of an attempt to recover the perceived loss of ‘traditional values'. The blame for perceived loss of values is often laid squarely on the parents of today's youth [Excerpt].