Schools as sustainable learning environments: a framework for enhancing parental engagement

English: The democratic dispensation in RSA since 1994 brought hope for parents to take their position alongside the teachers in the education of their children. The expectation was that more parents would engage themselves and also be welcomed into the school to shape the direction of their children‟s education and thus help change the traditional school landscape. However, the realization of full parental engagement, especially in township schools, was just a utopian dream in that many schools found this very elusive because of intransigent, deep-rooted power inequities between the teachers and parents. The study is couched in critical emancipatory research (CER) paradigm which recognized parents as equal partners in the education of their children. Through CER parental engagement which is about equitable power sharing and responsibilities in teaching the learners is actualized. This is opposed to „involvement‟ which allows parents to speak through the mouths of the teachers by simply doing the things that teachers tell them to do. Through the principles of Free Attitude Interview technique (FAI) by Meulenberg- Buskens, one big open-ended question: “How can we enhance parental engagement such that it is sustainable?” was posed to initiate the discussions. This question opened a communicative space between the parents and other community members regarding their engagement. This question was followed by clarity-seeking questions in order to fathom the nature and extent of parental engagement at the participating schools. This open-ended question allowed the previously marginalized parents to speak for themselves regarding their engagement and what they would like to see happening in their children‟s education. Through CER and FAI parents and other community stakeholders with interest in education, were regarded as assets instead of adversaries who can co-construct knowledge regarding the direction that the schools should take. The study used the critical discourse analysis (CDA) by van Dijk to analyse data from the participants. This allowed the study to have access to rich data in the form of spoken words from the participants which were transcribed verbatim into text. The CDA allowed the study to analyse data at three levels; namely, the textual, discursive and structural levels. This broad analysis allowed the study to uncover subtle power relations between the teachers and the parents and which accounted for low parental engagement at the participating schools. Through CDA the study found that parents have invaluable knowledge which if recognized can benefit the participants such as school, teachers, learners, other parents, and the community in general.