Spotlight on parent engagement: Practice and research - using Science inquiry to engage parents in student language and literacy learning

In this article we—Linda, Beryl and Sonja (the authors)—reflect on an ongoing research project over the past four years which explores how to engage parents/carers in inquiry curriculum using social media (see Exley, Willis, & McCosker, 2017; Exley & Willis, 2016; Willis & Exley, 2018). The EPIC—Engaging Parents in Inquiry Curriculum—project uses a contemporary understanding of parent engagement as a cumulative process that can be represented on a continuum where traditional forms of involvement such as parents helping in the tuckshop are at one end and parents playing active roles in their child’s learning are at the other. This understanding of parent engagement requires schools and teachers to reimagine existing practices as well as imagine new ways to bring parents closer to their child’s learning (Goodall & Montgomery, 2014). This view of parent engagement rests on the international literature (e.g., Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development [OECD], 2017) which has consistently shown over the last half century that students whose parents are engaged in their child’s learning experience increased motivation, wellbeing, achievement and success at school. Although parent involvement is often an essential precursor to engagement, it is parent engagement that gets the gold star when it comes to improving student learning and wellbeing.