thrupp@waikato.ac.nz
I’ve been thinking for a while now, that I would like to write a column about parents, because dealing with unhappy parents often falls to principals and I think it must be one of the most difficult parts of the role. Don’t get me wrong, many parents are nearly always wonderful and can be great allies for principals, teachers and children in all sorts of school situations. It’s just that some parents can be unreasonable and some are downright awful to deal with at times. Then there are those that veer between occasional vulnerability and frequent arrogance. Certainly, it’s important for principals to be understanding and to try to see things from the perspective of parents who are being ‘difficult’ as there might well be something further behind their dissatisfaction or antagonism. But often the attitudes and motivations of parents are just really hard to generalise about. So when principals say that ‘our parents are great’, you can be sure they are choosing to focus on
the positive and glossing over instances where parents have been extremely painful, or worse. Concern amongst principals to avoid a deficit view of parents is justified. It’s a decade on now, but some West Auckland principals will remember John Tamihere raging against local schools for their treatment of Māori. As reported by the Herald’s Simon Collins in 2010, Tamihere complained that, ‘We are sick and tired of hearing that it's our solo mothers that are failing the schools, it’s low-income families that are failing the schools . . . We know it’s our schools that are failing the families.’ This also raises the preference, in many situations, for schools to use the term whānau to cover the many extended family situations that are not captured by the nuclear family emphasis of the words parent or parents. It’s the same for educational policymakers – but in seeking to involve and empower parents and whānau, education policy typically paints them as rather saintly partners in the educational process too.
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The neo-liberal education policies introduced since the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms in the 1980s, also building on longer-term patterns of parent involvement, have created a myriad of complexities. Here are just a few examples: Parent Board of Trustee members being employers of school staff; parents and whānau being encouraged to consider themselves as educational consumers who should always demand the best for their child; the ‘right’ of parents and whānau to view a school’s student achievement data; ERO booklets about a school’s obligations around parent and whānau engagement. Such developments may look good on paper but the last few decades have also revealed some ugly truths about parents and schools. Some have used the trustee role to further their business interests. Some parent trustees think it’s nearly always better to have a man at the helm. Many parents make educational choices that serve their socio-economic or white privilege. Many care about their own child but are not very generous about the struggles of others. The problem with policymakers overlooking such concerns is that principals (and teachers, and actually everyone else in school communities, including other parents) get caught between the rhetoric and the reality. Principals sometimes end up having to do a dance around ignorant new board members when their own knowledge and experience should be being recognised. Accomplished and competent women get overlooked for the role of principal too often. Schools get dumped on reputationally when it is the classist and racist attitudes of parents that should be held up to the light.
Principals take flak from parents who are unsympathetic to their efforts to protect children with special needs. Many such issues to do with parents and whānau were signalled in the recent review of the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms and let’s hope the Government response comes to fruition. For instance, it’s good that the Ministry are looking to take more control over school enrolment schemes. I hope they will also set about educating the public to understand that deepening the socioeconomic segregation between schools is not a good thing for our society. Who knows, perhaps ERO will put out a booklet about parent and whānau obligations to schools and kura. The fact is that there are reciprocal obligations throughout the educational process, so there is no need for principals or teachers to sacrifice their souls at the altar of parental demand. It is often important to push back a bit so that entitled parents recognise where a fair boundary exists. If you are interested in a more detailed analysis of the relationship between parents and primary schools in Aotearoa then check out the 2020 article by Megan Smith, ‘Parent participation practices and subjectivities: New Zealand primary education 1988–2017’ in the Journal of Educational Administration and History. Finally, to return to the topic of teacher education tackled in my last column – my opinion that it should stay in universities has drawn a bit of criticism. To clarify, as well as the matters I was writing about because of my interests, I’m certainly also supportive of more in-depth treatment of curriculum and pedagogy in university initial teacher education. I look forward to speaking to these issues at the Normal and Model School Association conference in late May.
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