When school language and culture enter the home : testing children as a ‘school-aligned’ parental activity

Since Bronfenbrenner’s claims on the ecology of human development, an impressive amount of research has explored the ways in which children’s primary social worlds (i.e., family and school) connect and potentially create an osmotic ecological milieu. In the building of the so-called ‘familyschool partnership’, homework plays a crucial role. Being a school activity carried out inside the home, it is a key site for implementing parental involvement and a crucial occasion where cultural models of ‘good parent’ and ‘good pupil’ are instantiated. This video-based, conversation analytic study shows a specific activity taking place while parents assist their children with homework: testing. The analysis shows that parents deploy a ‘school-like’ interactive conduct by reproducing the standards, morality, and linguistic practices of the school. In so doing, they comply with the contemporary model of ‘good parent as school partner’ and socialize their children into the culture of the school by turning them into ‘good pupils’. Keywords: homework; family-school partnership; test; parental involvement; ethnography-informed conversation analysis.