'Teacher Martina wants you to write in cursive': Parents invoking school morality in directive sequences during homework

In: Research on children and social interaction: RCSI, Band 7, Heft 1

Abstract

The concept of 'family–school partnership' has been extensively investigated from a macro and theoretical perspective, but it is still little explored at the micro level of interaction. Based on video-recorded homework sessions collected in Italian family residences and drawing on conversation analysis, this paper shows how parents enact what constitutes the core meaning of the family–school partnership (i.e. the sharing of values between home and school). The analysis shows that parents invoke what they frame as 'school morality' as an account in directive sequences. It is argued that, in so doing, parents increase their own entitlement while reducing the assertiveness of their directives. At the same time, they display their orientation towards aligning with school morality and discursively construct a moral order common to family and school.