What does education mean for us and how do we get involved? Parents’ accounts in a Mexican rural community

This paper analyses parental involvement in their children’s education in a Mexican rural community. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of social and cultural reproduction, the key concepts under investigation are field, habitus, social, cultural and symbolic capital. The values they transmitted to their children were important objects of study. Investigating parents’ background and their interaction with the community school was crucial in order to understand their constraints in getting involved in their children’s education. The paper analyses parents’ satisfaction with the provision of formal education in their community and, families’ limitations in getting involved. It also illustrates that parental involvement was regarded mainly as a mothers’ task