Educators' Expectations of Parent Participation: The Role of Cultural and Social Capital

Developing educators' attitudes toward and skills in working with families is vital, given both legislative mandates and the different and potentially difficult experiences with homeschool collaboration for families. This study explores 17 educators' expectations of parents'acquisition and use of cultural and social capital through focus group interviews. Results indicate that teachers considered disability acknowledgement and acceptance of disabilityrelated information to be essential capital for parent participation. Increasing educators'understanding of the role of capital can augment teachers'positive attitudes toward parents,their ability to engage them in productive home-school collaboration, and their skills as advocates for students with disabilities and their families.