The goal of this paper is to extend research on parental involvement in education and its relationship to social class and inequalities. We do so by developing a new theoretical framework that helps us to better understand and explain cross-national and cross-cultural differences in how parental involvement in education differs across socio-economic groups. We propose that giving greater analytical attention to the role of institutional factors, cultural processes, and the underlying class and economic structures of particular countries is important for understanding the social mechanisms underpinning patterns of parental involvement in education. Once this framework has been developed, we identify promising directions for future research.