ABSTRACT
Parental engagement with children's learning' is made of up many elements, any listing of which is bound to be incomplete due in no small part to the variations among families. While there is a difference between engagement and involvement, the two most commonly used frameworks for parental interaction with children's learning use the term 'involvement', and the term is retained while examining the frameworks proposed by Hoover-Dempsey and Epstein. Arnold (2007) describes the concept of the home learning environment as, simply, 'activities that offer learning opportunities to the child'. Schools develop a two way relationship with parents based on mutual trust, respect and a commitment to improving learning outcomes. There is a wide range of and increasing literature around the barriers parents face in engagement with their children's learning. Deficit thinking, if put into practice is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
