Theorising parent participation in school decision-making processes : a Foucaultian inspired exploration of school councils

Abstract

The inclusion of school councils in family-school partnerships frameworks and the widespread application of these councils as part of site-based management in schools has resulted in the formation of school councils in most schooling systems in Western democratic nations (ACER, 2008; World Bank, 2008). As a form of parent involvement, school councils are positioned as a way in which parents are able to participate in the decision-making processes of their children's schools. There is, however, little research to support this positioning of school councils or the inclusion of this construct within family-school partnerships frameworks and policies. Therefore, this research investigates the naturalisation of school councils within Western schooling systems, providing a Foucaultian inspired genealogical exploration of the discursive construction of parent participation in school councils. Informed by Dewian understandings of the purposes of schooling in modern society and drawing on research and policy literature and the experiences of parent school council participants, this research applies the methodologies of Foucaultian discourse analysis in identifying the discursive construction of parent participation in school councils. The results of this analysis reveal social democratic, representative democratic and advanced liberal constructions of parental participation in school councils as dominant in modern Western society. In doing so, some of the discursive marginalisations that produce significant equity and social justice issues in relation to these existing constructions of school councils are exposed and reintroduced into the discursive context. The theoretical foundations of the field of family-school partnerships are contested within this Foucaultian inspired (post)critical exploration of school councils as a form of parental involvement and participation. Based on the findings of this research, this thesis argues for a reconceptualisation of the field of family-school partnerships in order to develop the robust theoretical foundations required to inform the formation of policy and practice that is inclusive of the differing families of the children we teach in our schools, in order to support these children's schooling experience and education. The thesis concludes by offering a way forward in this process, providing suggestions for the (re)theorisation of the field of parent involvement and participation in their children's education. The thesis therefore presents an applied theorisation of school councils as a construction of parental participation in school decision-making processes.

Date of Award	2008
Original language	English