Beyond the veil of parents: deconstructing the concept of parental involvement in early childhood education and care

Parental involvement (PI) is one of the major narratives in educational reform. When exploring the literature on PI, we observed that it is unclear (i) how parents themselves are viewed within these conceptualizations and (ii) to what extent parents are being included in the conceptualization of PI. In this study, we explored both questions by conducting a thematic content analysis on the plethora of research on the theme of PI. We found that in most of the literature PI seems to function as a concept of convenience which can be used whenever it fits. We found that when attempts are made to conceptualize PI, parents are seldom involved, even though they are key stakeholders. Furthermore, our study shows that PI is almost always conceptualized as a means for promoting academic success. We call for a shift from instrumentalizing and silencing parents towards a reciprocal, symmetrical dialogic relationship between teachers and parents.