The Role of Parents in Schooling : Focus Groups as a Tool for Reflecting on Social Expectations and Individual Perceptions

Abstract

In this article, I discuss how parents understand and perceive their role in secondary school education. With increasing expectations in contemporary society regarding successful life courses, most parents feel pressured to support their child's education and well-being in schooling. To examine the dynamic of social expectations and the perceptions of individuals' roles I used data from a German focus group study (N=25) and deliberately selected a group of three mothers with contrasting social and educational backgrounds. In addition to grounded theory methodology, I opted for methodological triangulation and included theoretical concepts from symbolic interactionism. Regardless of their background, I found the mothers had internalized the same high role expectations, but they differed in their perceptions of being able to fulfill them. Role conflicts were most obvious when there was a lack of knowledge and social resources. In these cases, help from the fathers as well as tutor and teacher contact supported meeting the demands of schooling. However, the mothers preferred to solve problems by themselves before contacting teachers. This could be due to distant or distrustful feelings towards teachers, which is important because the mothers' satisfaction with the school's performance was related to their concern for their child's well-being.