Collective social norms within family learning support groups
Family learning (FL) is a legal educational option regulated by the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec (MEQ). State monitoring of this option presents several challenges, particularly in terms of evaluating students’ educational experience. From a reflexive governance perspective, local and self-organized family support groups, given their intermediary and collective position, could play a complementary and more accepted monitoring role than that of ministerial authorities. This study draws on group interviews and document analysis of two support groups in Quebec to describe their collective explicit and implicit social norms surrounding socialization, parental engagement and the enrichment of students’ educational experience. The goals they share with the existing legal framework suggest that support groups can be a tool in facilitating the governance of FL.