SOCIAL NETWORKS AND HOME-SCHOOL RELATIONS

Although parental participation in schooling is a common topic in the rhetoric of educational reform, few researchers have looked at the pro cess by which people learn to become parents. This article describes h ow parents in two communities constructed their roles in a social cont ext shaped by economic resources, local notions of home-school relatio ns, and information networks. Framed from a Vygotskian perspective, it examines parenting as a social activity that is internalized by indiv iduals through their daily interactions. It connects the actions of pa rents with the activities of schools, showing the relationships betwee n family ideas about their roles and the practices of school as interr elated.