ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the influence of Bourdieusian habitus on teachers’ attitudes towards, and engagement with, parents in designated disadvantaged schools in Ireland. Semi-structured life history interviews were conducted with 24 teachers drawn from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. Reflective of the generative quality of their habitus, the working class teachers’ engagement with ‘risky’, democratic and reciprocal relationships with parents is evidential of their collective acceptance of personal responsibility for the well-being and education of ‘students like them’. In contrast, the more structuring and limiting qualities and influences of the middle class group’s habitus were at play in some participants’ engagement with institutionally embedded discourses of parental deficiency. The findings raise concerns about unequal power dynamics within the social field of the school and the limiting influence they can have on teacher–parent relationships.
