Families and school: the different discourses about the participation

Abstract

Families are one of the pillars that compose the educational community. Their participation in Education has been acquiring a greater dimension, as it is being recognized not only by means of legislation, including the 1978 Spanish Constitution itself, but also thanks to the many different measures to achieve family involvement in the educational institution. However, participation is a complex phenomenon that shows various aspects of family-school relationship, from the most formal and institutional ways (AMPAs, School councils, etc.) to other informal ways such as social movements; from those of individual nature (personalized tutoring) to other which have a collective character (school projects). Besides, participation also depends not only on the role and involvement of families, but also on the rest of the educational community, especially school management teams and teachers, which are crucial for this process. This paper discusses how discourses focusing on participation have evolved, implementing qualitative field research.