Parental Engagement in Children’s Learning: Moving on from Mass Superstition

In this article, I build on Goodman’s concept of mass superstition, which he applied to the schooling system. Goodman holds that we continue to believe in the value of this system, without clear evidence that it is working. I use this concept to apply the argument to the way the current system deals with parents. In spite of clear indications in the research that parental engagement with children’s learning is one of the best means to support educational achievement, particularly for children at risk of failure in the current system, parents are still routinely held at a distance from the learning processes fostered by the school system. I argue for a change to the foundational beliefs of the system, so that schools and families will work in partnership as co-constructors of children’s learning.