Being a “Good Parent” in Parent–Teacher Conferences

This research advances our understanding of what constitutes a “good parent” in the course of actual social interaction. Examining video‐recorded naturally occurring parent–teacher conferences, this article shows that, while teachers deliver student‐praising utterances, parents may display that they are gaining knowledge; but when teachers' actions adumbrate student‐criticizing utterances, parents systematically display prior knowledge. This article elucidates the details of how teachers and parents tacitly collaborate to enable parents to express student‐troubles first, demonstrating that parents display competence—appropriate involvement with children's schooling—by asserting their prior knowledge of, and/or claiming/describing their efforts to remedy, student‐troubles. People (have to) display competence generically in interaction. By explicating how parents display competence, this article offers insights for several areas of communication research.