Why a Re-theorisation of More-than-Parental Involvement in ECEC Is Needed

This introductory chapter begins with the critical presentation of the concept of parental involvement (PI) as one implying a “democratic deficit” that builds on educational experts’ protectorate approach towards families. This aspect of PI is traced back to its history, and regardless of its colonial roots, we argue that we should not give up on this sense of PI. Based on a strong political will that can be traced in policy documents in all regions of the world, together with existing research reporting on the importance of acknowledging the democratic and culturally responsive practices of PI, we redefine PI as part of a search for theocratisations of hope, by which we mean the conceptual toolkits that acknowledge parental participation and provide room for more-than-parental involvement and agonism/disagreements. This introduction concludes with an overview of the remaining chapters in the book, as well as some information about the ethical details related to the empirical examples used later in the book.