Parents' perceptions of social responsibility: A case study of social responsibility in one elementary school

The primary aim of this study is to examine how parents describe the notion of Social Responsibility as an educational objective and to engage them in discussions of its practice in one suburban elementary school. This thesis also considers parents' understanding of their roles in teaching social responsibility to their children. The history of the moral education is reviewed, as are theoretical notions of explicit and implicit curriculum, communities of practice and desired identities. This study adopts a case study methodology. It relies on open-ended interviews with a group of parents whose children attend the school. The analysis reveals that: parents had different interpretations of the concept of social responsibility; they believed the primary role of teaching social responsibility to children was theirs; the school's role was to reinforce what is taught at home, and children were passive recipients of social responsibility education.