ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on an ethnographic study of the home–school relationship in two unaided low-fee-paying private schools. It documents and discusses the role of school principals in establishing and maintaining the image of their schools. The chapter examines various interactions at the school level to understand how their expert authority and the uniqueness of the school is established as a part of strategy to retain both parents and teachers. It critically discusses the ‘deficit’ notion held by school principals regarding parents and how the process of ‘branding’ is undertaken by them. The chapter highlights two main findings: first, the cultural notions of the school principal which shapes the home and school relationship; and second, the increasing involvement of the school as an ‘expert’ in parenting, earlier restricted to the domain of the family.
