parse='inward' not working correctly for me

Hello, I am currently calling my own plugin like this:

<pre><code>{exp:academy:search_user parse='inward' keyword="{keywords}” users_already=”{exp:user:results}{username}|{/exp:user:results}</code></pre>

the problem is {keywords} is not being parsed before being called to my plugin although users_already is

my plugin code has this:

<pre><code>$users = $this->EE->TMPL->fetch_param(‘users_already’); $keyword = $this->EE->TMPL->fetch_param(‘keyword’);</code></pre>

if i var_dump $users I get the correct string (ie not the tag but actually the parsed data returned from the exp:user:results tag

if i var_dump $keyword all i get is “{keywords}” as the string even though if i just print out {keywords} in the template it prints the correct keyword.

any help would be greatly appreciated.