Transactional school-home-school communication: Addressing the mismatches between migrant parents' and teachers' views of parental knowledge, engagement and the barriers to engagement

Applying organisational communication theory, this article advocates transactional systems for school-home-school communication with parents of pupils who have English as an Additional Language (EAL). The article draws on a mixed-methods case study of two secondary schools in England, including survey data from 64 parents of EAL pupils and from 407 EAL/non EAL students, plus data from semi-structured interviews with 10 recently arrived migrant parents and 18 teachers. The findings highlight deficiencies in transactional school-home-school communication, reflected in mismatches between parents’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding parental knowledge of their children’s schooling, levels of parental engagement and barriers to parental engagement.