ERNAPE 2025: the Future of Education that We Seek

Colourful banner reading “The Future of Education We Seek” over an abstract depiction of Verona’s Roman Arena, created for the ERNAPE 2025 conference. — *Visual identity for Parents International’s contribution to ERNAPE 2025, hosted in Verona.*

The European Research Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE) is a long-standing academic and practitioner platform focused on promoting high-quality research and dialogue around parental engagement in education. It brings together scholars, researchers, and professionals to share evidence, develop practice, and support inclusive policies. The 2025 conference in Verona centred on strengthening family-school-community partnerships for more equitable education systems.

At ERNAPE 2025 in Verona, Parents International director Eszter Salamon and project manager Luca Laszlo presented a set of interlinked research projects and practitioner insights. Together, they offered a timely reflection on the evolving relationship between families and schools—one that is, in many parts of the world, under increasing strain.

Drawing from recent international studies and European initiatives, our sessions focused on the underlying reasons for this tension, the growing disconnection between key stakeholders, and practical steps towards more equitable and effective collaboration.

ERNAPE Conferences are always a great opportunity to meet colleagues—including old friends—doing research on topics similar to ours, and this was no exception. We were glad to hear some presentations that reinforced our research-based messages. ERNAPE 2025 in Verona was also an opportunity to finally meet Karen L. Mapp in person, whose Dual Capacity-Building Framework has been part of our training for years.

Parents Are Reassessing the Role of Formal Education

One of the more concerning trends emerging from our work is the growing number of families opting out of formal education—not due to lack of access, but as a deliberate choice.

In a collaborative research project with the Brookings Institution, we engaged with families, teachers, school leaders and students across 16 countries, with fieldwork focused in Hungary, the Netherlands, and Kazakhstan. We sought to understand the level of satisfaction with current education systems, as well as the underlying beliefs driving engagement—or disengagement.

A consistent finding across contexts was that different stakeholder groups hold markedly different assumptions about the priorities of others. Teachers frequently believe that parents are primarily concerned with academic outcomes and future employability. In contrast, parents often place greater emphasis on their children’s emotional wellbeing, safety and sense of belonging. Students, for their part, frequently feel that their perspectives are overlooked altogether.

When these assumptions go unexamined, miscommunication becomes normalised. In some cases, this contributes to an erosion of trust between families and institutions.

ERNAPE 2025: Gaps Between Purpose and Experience

This divergence in expectations contributes to what might be described as a purpose-satisfaction gap. That is, even where schools are aligned with formal academic goals, they may fail to provide the broader support and relationships that families view as essential to a good education.

At the conference, we challenged the assumption—often taken for granted—that academic performance is the sole reason why families send their children to school. It may well be a starting point, but for many parents it is not sufficient. When schools are perceived as lacking in empathy, inclusion, or cultural relevance, families may feel disempowered or disengaged.

This is particularly evident in the experiences of migrant families, who often face structural barriers to engagement.

Parental Engagement Remains a Blind Spot in Teacher Training

Our Parents Engage project examined the extent to which teacher education prepares professionals to work in partnership with parents—especially those from minority or migrant backgrounds. The findings were instructive. In many cases, parental engagement remains an optional or marginal topic in teacher training programmes. Even where it is included, approaches tend to focus on technical communication rather than deeper relationship-building.

Many teachers, often from majority backgrounds, report discomfort or lack of preparation when engaging with families who do not share their cultural norms or languages. This lack of training and support risks reinforcing exclusion rather than overcoming it.

Through the Parents Engage project, we identified a range of promising practices, particularly from schools that work in collaboration with civil society organisations. These approaches typically involve flexible, community-based methods and a commitment to open, two-way dialogue.

Digital Literacy and the Challenge of AI

Technology is increasingly shaping how children learn, yet schools are struggling to keep pace. At ERNAPE, we presented the findings of the DRONE project, which explored digital literacy in the context of artificial intelligence (AI). The research, conducted in Germany and the Netherlands, focused on the experiences and perceptions of students, parents and teachers.

We found that:

Students are regular users of AI tools such as ChatGPT, and generally confident in their ability to navigate digital spaces.
Parents are aware of the risks and opportunities and would welcome clearer guidance and support from schools.
Teachers often report limited confidence and uneven attitudes towards the integration of AI into their practice.

In particular, teachers’ limited engagement with current developments in AI raises concerns about their ability to support students in developing critical thinking and responsible use. Meanwhile, many parents feel they have been left to manage digital literacy with little institutional backing.

These findings suggest an urgent need for targeted training for professional educators, not only in the use of specific technologies, but also in the ethical, pedagogical, and relational dimensions of digital education.

Adult Behaviour and Its Impact on Peer Bullying

In a related session, we shared the outcomes of a scoping review led by Luca Janka László, who examined the relationship between adult behaviours and peer bullying as part of her Doctoral research within MSCA Participate. Drawing on 88 international studies, the review identified a clear connection between children who experience or witness aggression from adults—particularly within the family or school—and those who go on to engage in bullying behaviour themselves.

While the role of parents has been relatively well documented in this regard, research into the impact of teacher behaviour remains limited. Nonetheless, examples from several countries (e.g. Norway) suggest that teacher bullying—though underreported—does occur, and warrants serious attention in safeguarding and school climate initiatives.

This work underscores the importance of viewing adult conduct as part of the broader ecology of student wellbeing. Children are highly attuned to adult models of interaction; violence and disrespect at the top often trickle down.

ERNAPE Aftermath: Towards Meaningful Partnership

The overarching message from our contributions at ERNAPE 2025 was that schools cannot address today’s challenges alone. A meaningful transformation of education systems depends on forging genuine partnerships between families, professional educators, and policymakers.

Such partnerships require:

Clear and reciprocal communication
Recognition of parents’ knowledge and perspectives
Practical training for professional educators on family engagement
Inclusion of digital literacy within a whole-community framework
Policy reforms that make room for co-creation and trust-building

In our view, these are not optional enhancements, but essential steps towards a more just, inclusive, and responsive education system.

TOWARDS ERNAPE 2027

This ERNAPE 2025 conference in Verona was a welcome opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to supporting and empowering parents, children, and professional educators across Europe and beyond. We look forward to continuing these important conversations at the next ERNAPE conference, to be held in Iceland.

If you are interested in collaborating with us on any of these topics, or would like to know more, please contact us via parentsinternational.org or explore our resources at library.parenthelp.eu.