This report describes the methodology used by ISOTIS researchers to conduct structured interviews with parents with a Romani, Turkish, North-African, and native low-income background on their views and experiences with educational and support services, and experiences of integration and inclusiveness.

The goal of the interviews was to collect information regarding families’ cultural and linguistic resources, acculturation-participation orientation and identity construction, experiences with (early) education provisions and other services, aspirations and expectations, and wellbeing of parents and children. The ISOTIS structured interview protocol was designed to allow for comparison within groups between countries, within countries between groups, and within countries between sites. The interviews were aimed at parents with children in the 3- to 6-years and 9- to 12-years age range to capture the experiences and decisions of parents regarding the pre-primary phase and the phase prior to the transition to secondary school.

This publication details the study design, data collection procedures, and questionnaire development, and provides extensive sample descriptions. The report also summarises four case studies with preliminary findings. The interviews were conducted in ten European countries: the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Portugal. In total, 3938 parents were interviewed.

The parent interview data contributed to insights into how characteristics of national (and local) education and support policies interact with group characteristics to create educational inequalities. The parent data also informed two other ISOTIS studies conducted with families: the in-depth parental interview study and the children’s study.