Challenge – opportunities – connections – dimensions of parental participation in the school space in the context of cultural diversity

School is an institution seen through the lens of its openness to relationships with the environment, with its partners, including the students’ parents. A desirable type of relationship between school and the family involves the families’ participation in school activities. In view of the above, this paper is focused on the determinants of parental involvement in the school life. They are structured by reference to the three dimensions of the Triangle of Participation model, which includes challenge (important matters, benefits), capacity (parents’ own abilities and circumstances), connection (the support provided). They offer a starting point for thinking about promoting and supporting parents’ participation in joint activities with teachers, accommodating for the cultural diversity of the parent community. They also make it possible to see the importance of consciously initiating and maintaining these subjects’ participation in school activities, which are adapted to suit the parents’ resources and capabilities, and the importance of showing support for their own initiatives, subject to common consent and legal regulations. Viewing parental involvement in the school life through the lens of these dimensions of participation is in line with the thinking of ‘school as a space of recognition’.