ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on an approach to parent involvement that is symbolically as well as materially participatory. It examines a community of learners in which low-income, Mexican-origin parents partner with members of a university research team in an after-school, computer-based activity that not only promotes the academic achievement of the children but also enhances the parents’ intellectual skills. In assuming a critical role in the design, implementation, sustainability, and dissemination of resource-rich learning environments, these parents add a participatory dimension to a project that initially had been conceived as a mechanism for enhancing the cognitive development of elementary-school-aged children (see Cole, 1996; Cole and Nicolopoulou, 1991). The heightened level of participation among parents and community members expanded Rogoff’s (1994) notion of a community of learners beyond individual transformation to a restructuring of institutional access and participation. Thus, as individual participants assume “transforming roles and understanding in the activities” (p. 209), they also acquire mainstream social and cultural capital that allows them to participate fully in the multiple worlds they traverse in everyday life. In the process, the parent-participants also transform the project, called La Clase Mágica (The magical class), into a social action endeavor.
