Journal of Education & Social Policy

Social Change and Legitimating Voices: an Integrated Framework to Understanding Parent Involvement in Their Children’s Education
Nichole M. Stitt, Elena Polush

Abstract
How is parental involvement framed and studied in educational research? Whose voices are privileged? Why? How can our understanding of parental involvement be extended to be relevant to complex educational environments? This conceptual paper describes an integrated research framework to gain a deeper understanding of parental involvement in children’s education. The authors provide an argument for the need to search for alternative approaches and propose a new research framework that integrates transformative epistemological stance and feminist theoretical perspectives within mixed methods thinking. The merging of all three perspectives could provide a means to unpack the complexity and re-think the concept of parental involvement as well as empower parents as they engage in their children’s education both within and outside school settings. The proposed research framework potential significance is also discussed.

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