Abstract
<p>Parental involvement has become a key component of local educational policies. Despite its growing importance, however, little is known about how parental involvement initiatives shape parents’ educational strategies and help reduce inequalities in superdiverse migration contexts. In developing a larger research project, we searched for data in the German context and conducted preliminary analyses using data from the ReGES study (“Refugees in the German Educational System”). Building on a review of parental involvement concepts, initiatives, and their effects, the empirical part of this paper examines the relationship between the availability of parental involvement initiatives in early childhood education and refugee parents’ attitudes towards educational responsibilities. The findings indicate that refugee parents perceive both parents and teachers as responsible for ensuring children’s success at school. Parental involvement initiatives are hardly associated with these perceptions, but fewer parental involvement initiatives seem to correlate positively with the attitude that teachers are responsible for children's success at school. Although these results may suggest some beneficial effects, the evidence remains preliminary due to low statistical power and limitations of the cross-sectional research design. Further research is needed to better understand how educational policies shape schools’ and parents’ educational strategies and, ultimately, children’s educational outcomes.</p>