@article{Neild_2010, place={Washington DC: American Sociological Association.}, title={Sociology of Families and Schools}, url={https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/sociology-of-families-and-schools}, abstractNote={During the 1990s, parents of schoolchildren moved closer to center-stage in education research and practice in the United States. Schools, particularly those serving disadvantaged populations, developed parent-involvement programs to encourage better communication between teachers and parents and to increase parental participation in their children’s learning. Large-city systems tried to incorporate parents into formal school governance structures. A number of states have charter school experiments that "empower" parents to choose their children’s schools. The machinations of middle-class parents who seek admission for their offspring to prestigious schools, and who suffer through the stiff homework/project load when their children do enroll, is the stuff of newspaper articles and tongue-in-cheek essays. This course provides an opportunity to examine the interactions of these sometimes-partnering, sometimes-competing institutions. We will consider the relationship between schools and parents as individuals (that is, on behalf of their own children) and as a group (that is, influencing educational institutions through collective organization). Specifically, we will address changing understandings of childhood; issues of power and authority; the effects of parent behaviors on children’s educational outcomes; differences by class, race, and ethnicity in parents’ relationships with teachers and negotiation of educational systems; and the school context of parental involvement. }, journal={TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology}, author={Neild, Ruth}, year={2010}, month={Apr.} }