“The teacher said that at school”: Negotiating epistemic and deontic rights in parent-child homework conversations

Abstract

Parental involvement in education is commonly viewed as a ‘good practice’, however little is known about its interactive unfolding. Based on videorecorded homework sessions and drawing on conversation analysis, this article focuses on a discursive activity occurring during parent-assisted homework: epistemic and deontic negotiations, i.e., interactive sequences whereby parents and children negotiate who knows best and has the right to decide about the assignments. The analysis illustrates the structural features of such negotiations, showing how children make relevant their first-hand knowledge of school experiences to claim epistemic and deontic rights over homework. The article argues that parent-child negotiations are relevant arenas for investigating the interactive dynamics of parental involvement in homework and the situated ways in which parents manage the ‘distance-involvement’ dilemma.