Abstract
This research advances our understanding of what constitutes a "good parent" in the course of actual social interaction. Examining video-recorded naturally occurring parent-teacher conferences, this article shows that, while teachers deliver student-praising utterances, parents may display that they are gaining knowledge; but when teachers’ actions adumbrate student-criticizing utterances, parents systematically display prior knowledge. This article elucidates the details of how teachers and parents tacitly collaborate to enable parents to express student-troubles first, demonstrating that parents display competence -- appropriate involvement with children’s schooling -- by asserting their prior knowledge of, and/or claiming/describing their efforts to remedy, student-troubles. People (have to) display competence generically in interaction. By explicating how parents display competence, this article offers insights for several areas of communication research.
Department
Communication
Publication Date
Winter 2-2015
Journal Title
Journal of Communication
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
doi:10.1111/jcom.12146
Document Type
Article
Recommended Citation
Pillet-Shore, Danielle M., "Being a "Good Parent" in Parent-Teacher Conferences" (2015). Journal of Communication. 20.
https://scholars.unh.edu/comm_facpub/20
Included in
Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, Educational Sociology Commons, Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons, Organizational Communication Commons