Family engagement has long been held as an important component of the educational experience for our students. This study is about how schools tend to aim towards the middle when looking to engage families in their child's school life, and future implications for how educators need to shift from the lens of the middle-class to reach our…

This research focuses on the social pressures experienced by parents at schools identified as middle class across southern California. The literature review of school finances, the LCFF, funding levels, and studies stretches all the way back to the Coleman report. Within this vast body of prior research remained a void in the data. This missing…

Amid the intensifying phenomenon of educational "involution," parental anxiety regarding education has become a widespread social issue, prompting parents to engage in reflection and adjust their educational strategies accordingly. This paper, framed by Archer's reflexivity theory, employs the method of digital ethnography to examine the…

Drawing on a 2022 survey of home education of junior secondary school students in China's eight provincial administrative regions, this study seeks to examine the chief factors influencing the generation of education anxiety in Chinese middle-class parents using a moderated mediation model. Research findings include that: (1) education anxiety is…

In recent years, Innovative Schools in Dali have received increasing coverage in Chinese social media and have also attracted middle-class parents from cities, as viable bottom-up educational initiatives. This paper explores the rationales for Chinese middle-class parents' choice of Innovative Schools in Dali. Analysis of data from online…

This interview study examines the school choices of white middle class parents who live in a large Northeastern city. Interviewees identify as progressive urbanites and express an appreciation for racial diversity. Simultaneously, interviewees draw on anti-Black stereotypes when evaluating school options and avoiding majority Black schools. While…

Parental involvement in children's education often prescribes strategies to align with educational authority. Prevailing perspectives view compliance with educational authority as subjection and its rejection as a form of autonomy. However, there is autonomous parental involvement that accepts educational authority but results in opposite…

School choice policy in China aims to achieve educational equity by limiting school choice. Synchronous Admission Reform (SAR hereafter) is a recent school choice reform in China, which continues to limit parents' autonomy and strengthen the equal distribution of school resources. This study explores Chinese middle-class parents' (n = 21) justice…

Children spend most of their time at home in their early years, yet efforts to promote human capital at home in many low- and middle-income settings remain limited. We conduct a randomized controlled trial to evaluate an intervention which encourages parents and caregivers to foster human capital accumulation among their children between ages 3…

In this paper we focus on two types of middle-class families: those who avoid air travel for environmental reasons and those who choose to live nomadic lives, travelling with their children around the world and staying weeks or months in certain locations, mainly in Asia, South America, and Africa. We analyse data gathered from interviews with…

This qualitative study employs a Bourdieusian framework to explore how urban middle-class parents in Pakistan support their daughters' education while transmitting cultural capital. Parents emphasize "talim-o-tarbiyat," referring to education and nurturing. I argue that, owing to the availability of educational resources and the…

While many school choice studies focus on individual parents' preferences, we simultaneously address the structural context within which families make decisions and the strategies they develop in response. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 24 Black middle-class parents of young children, we demonstrate that they sought well-funded, academically…

This study seeks to understand the role of family language policy (FLP) in the process of language shift from Bantu languages into Portuguese, the powerful and prestigious language in Mozambique. The study is based on thematic analysis of semi-structured focus group interviews with urban middle class parents of young citizens born after the…

Education research demonstrates that positive and trusting family/school relationships support academic achievement but for many Indigenous parents in Canada legacies of residential schooling have made it difficult to develop strong bonds with schools and teachers. Drawing on interviews with 69 Indigenous parents and eight non-Indigenous parents…

This article examines the educational strategies of Shanghai Chinese middle-class parents who intend to raise their children to be cosmopolitans. It is based on a 2-year interview study of a group of Chinese parents who send their children to accredited international bilingual schools in Shanghai. Drawing on the concept of ordinary…