Teachers' views of Parental Involvement in the Schooling of Low Literacy Refugee and Migrant Children: An Australian Study

This article reports on a research project that aimed to explore teachers' perspectives on parental involvement at a Melbourne based primary school with a high number of refugee and migrant children. Despite the acknowledged value of parental involvement in a child's schooling, we have found that parents are not always viewed as a valuable resource in the education of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) students, especially in the case of refugee background students. In order to contextualise teacher perspectives, semi-structured interviews were used as the main source of qualitative data collection. In addition to the interviews, the school website and observations of the school context were qualitatively analysed, which allowed for a more wholistic understanding of the matter. The results indicate that evidence of parental involvement and links to the children's home lives was low due to teachers' work demands and also culturally specific mindsets common in the school. This continued lack of opportunity for participation resulted in the marginalisation of parents, which appears to be largely unapparent to the teachers. The findings of this research project, therefore, encourage teachers to involve themselves in reflection and training to value and ultimately establish balanced relationships between the school community and parents.