Cultural Capital, Boundary Crossing, and Parent Involvement: A Case Study of Involvement by Low-Income, African-American Parents at a Charter School

Although the research literature shows mixed relationships between different types of parent involvement and student outcomes, public rhetoric suggests that parents are integral to their children's education. While much of the research literature has examined the role of parents' attributes in explaining parents' rates of involvement, less research has focused on the role of the school in parent involvement. This study uses the concepts of cultural capital and boundary crossing to understand how one charter school works to involve parents and how parents respond. Using a case study methodology, the author found that the school's parent involvement program included a wide range of activities that were executed with varying degrees of success. Most of the activities at the school were traditional parent involvement activities, though the school also offered a handful of more innovative parent involvement activities.;The results from this study suggest that gaps in teachers' and parents' cultural capital as it manifests in schools persist, even at schools that may be identified as inclusive. Despite the school's attempts to institute practices that helped parents and teachers to cross boundaries, the school and home domains remained separate. Teachers and parents generally agreed that the school offered parents many opportunities to become involved, and parents seemed satisfied with the school's staff and academic program. However, teachers and parents diverged in their satisfaction with levels of parent involvement. While teachers wished that parents could be involved more, parents indicated that they were frequently involved with their children's education in ways that were developmentally appropriate and logistically possible.;Further research on parent involvement should examine how schools determine the design of parent involvement programming and the relationship between degrees and types of parent involvement and student achievement. Such studies could inform how schools may best make use of their resources to bring parents and schools together to improve student outcomes.