ABSTRACT
With the implementation of school-based management in Hong Kong, important aspects of governance are delegated to parents, principals and teachers. They face new challenges as a result of their changing roles and responsibilities. However, many teaching professionals have serious doubts as to whether parental involvement in school governance will facilitate or impede school operations. The purpose of this chapter is to report on an exploratory study designed to illuminate the micro-politics of parental involvement in school governance. By analysing the qualitative data collected in two case study schools, four propositions with regards to power distribution emerge from the interviews with parents and school professionals and observation field notes in the scene. The findings reveal that parents were regarded as policy-followers and treated as instruments of school initiatives when invited to participate in school governance. School professionals intentionally or unintentionally marginalised parents’ governing roles. The notion of ‘parents-as-governors’ was of symbolic rhetoric and parents ultimately became pseudo partners. Parents as partners in school governance may thus be only a theoretical ideal if school professionals are not willing to disperse actual powers of school management to parents.
