Parent Engagement Discussion

Welcome ED-CIFS 661 Group! For my self-selected book review, I chose to read Bicultural Parent Engagement: Advocacy and Empowerment, edited by Edward M. Olivos, Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos, and Alberto M. Ochoa. I look forward to discussing how we as professionals view and enact our visions of the role of parents in schools, as well as a close examination of values inherent in our actions. General blog readers that are not in ED-CIFS 661, please feel free to join in the conversation. We would love to learn with you!

In the book, the editors made a distinction between parent involvement and parent engagement, stating, "The generic term parent involvement therefore conjures up a passive one-way connection that benefits the school and places the accountability of student success and failure exclusively on the parent/family. In contrast, parent engagement, in our view, is a school-community process designed to bring or construct an open relationship between school personnel and the parent community in support of the student's social and academic development," (p. 11). 

Below are different avenues to consider/think about the content of the text. Please post one comment in order to respond to any of the prompts. Then post at least one reply to someone else's comment in order to engage in a professional dialogue. Feel free to leave links to relevant resources.

Questions to consider:

• How would you describe the role of parents in a school with which you are familiar? Does it seem to align with involvement valuing school-identified needs or does it seem to be an engagement model that fosters a collaborative process?
• Does the culture of parent-school interactions present "serve to replicate the status quo" (p. 4), or does it seek to empower parents and foster support for social change? To whose values are the interactions aligned - solely to the dominant culture or does it recognize the value of a range of cultures represented in the school community?
• What do you think teachers and schools can realistically do in order to improve school-family objectives?
• What is an idea that you have experienced or heard of that appeared to be especially beneficial? 
• How can educators build their capacity about the needs of parents and families in order to have culturally responsive models of parent engagement?

Video Responses:

What is your reaction to the way parent engagement is portrayed in either of these videos? Note that both videos portray public charter schools; however, the ideas shared are also present in some regular public school contexts, such as Taft Elementary in Boise.

A Model for Parent Engagement:

The UCLA Parent Curriculum Project is featured in Bicultural Parent Engagement (Johnson, 2011). View the following site providing background about the program. Reflect on the possibilities when such a program is in place or any other university-community partnerships that can support school-parent interactions. The link is to the general program overview. Once at the site, you can click on Who We Are and Programs Offered on the left hand side of the page for further information.

Response to a Comment in the Book Review:
Feel free to share any other thoughts about something that stood out to you or that you thought about while reading my review of the text. 

Johnson, M. (2011). A parent advocate’s vision of a 21st-century model for bicultural parent engagement. In E. M. Olivos, O. Jiménez-Castellanos, & A. M. Ochoa (Eds.), Bicultural parent engagement: Advocacy and empowerment (pp. 145-158). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Olivos, E. M., Ochoa, A. M., & Jiménez-Castellanos, O. (2011). Critical voices in bicultural parent engagement: A framework for transformation. In E. M. Olivos, O. Jiménez-Castellanos, & A. M. Ochoa (Eds.), Bicultural parent engagement: Advocacy and empowerment (pp. 1-17). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 

Change Leader

This summer I first heard about Michael Fullan and read one of his books, What's Worth Fighting For in Your School?, for a course. His professional voice and insights automatically hooked me because I could relate so much. Earlier phases of my career clicked into place as I thought about why the difference between school cultures that foster a value of building capacity vs. those that focus on one-size-fits-all programs felt so different.

When I was recently searching Amazon for some PD leadership books, Fullan was one of the names that came to mind. Over spring break I read his Change Leader: Learning to Do What Matters Most. When I first pulled it out of the box, I thought that I probably had not selected the best of all of his available books for my purpose. I realized that there was a pretty heavy focus on the business world, rather than being mainly an education leadership book. However, as I started to read, I was glad that I got this book. The About the Author section stated, "Fullan bases his work on policy and practice drawn from both the public and private sectors, finding and increasing convergence in the best of this literature," (p. xvii), and that was apparent throughout the text. Even when it was a business example, there was so much cross-over into educational context relevancy.

After a brief preface to frame the book, Fullan broke this book, which is the third in a set of three books he wrote for Jossey-Bass, into seven chapters. Each chapter highlights core practices of change leaders. He illustrates why each is vital, while always emphasizing that the different components are interrelated and even though they appear simple, it can be complex. There were also links to texts that I have previously read, both directly (such as Pink's Drive) and indirectly. Fullan included a self-assessment on page 63 to support self-reflection and to facilitate implications for future practice. What I appreciated most about the book was the constant emphasis once again on the merits of building capacity, as well as highlighting the value in professional experiences to drive practice. He had many statements to prompt thoughts about the role of theory, research, and practice.

Fullan's books are direct and to the point, written in an easy to read/clearly organized format, thought provoking, and inspiring. While reading this book, I made a note of one of his earlier books that he referenced that I wanted to read, All Systems Go. Then I received a Teachers College Press catalog in the mail and saw that he and Andy Hargreaves (who was actually a co-author of What's Worth Fighting For in Your School? as well) have a new book that was just released in March, Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. One of my colleagues who was very familiar with Fullan before this summer talked about how his books have a lot of cross-over or ideas that are restated. Based on the titles and thinking about core ideas in the two I have already read, I can see how that is the case. And yet, I still added both to my Amazon cart and will be receiving them this week. There's just something about his voice and the examples he uses that make so much sense. I know that there is still a lot that I can learn with him by reading his books.