What´s gender got to do with it? Gender and diversity in research on home and school relationships

Abstract

This article explores the use of gender and diversity in research on home and school relationships. The review is based on articles that were accessed through databases like Web of Science, Academic Search Elite and SCIRIUS. The articles were analyzed using a model featuring focus of inquiry and perspectives on communication. Initially describing the research field roughly as two distinct but corresponding branches, Critical Studies research and Parental Involvement research, the focus is on how the research relates to diversity and gender. The importance of a power perspective in the definition of gender is stressed while considering whether some interpretations of gender in the research field are reproducing instead of changing existing inequitable systems and structures by favoring an essentialist perspective on sex and gender both at home and in school.