Changing understandings and expectations of parental involvement in education
ABSTRACT Parents, especially mothers, have been increasingly positioned as a central determinant of children's educational outcomes. Analysing articles from a Canadian parenting magazine, this study explores and compares understandings of what it means to be an involved parent in a child's education during two time periods: 1993 1995 and 2013 2015. Findings suggest that involved parenting with respect to children's education is complex and intensive, occurring in both the home and the school. Over time the necessity of parental involvement became more taken for granted and the ideal parental role moved from one of providing direct assistance to children to one of creating the right environment for children to take self responsibility; a shift that involved more emotion management on the part of mothers. These changes are analysed in the context of neoliberal understandings and intensive mothering with attention paid to class and gender implications.