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.
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.
What do you think teachers and schools can realistically do in order to improve school-family objectives?
ReplyDeleteThis is a difficult question, it is kind of like how to get an unmotivated reader to read. The parents with great children come to the PTA, and conferences, perhaps even bring you a little gift or treat when they come; however, too often it seems that parents of struggling students do not attend. I believe that may be a positive correlation.
I'm not sure how to specifically apply my idea that I will share . . . but I think the principles surrounding it are true. We don't have interactions with parents, but we certainly do with their kids. In some form it would be a great opportunity to teach the children how to effectively engage their parents into home/school work rather than trying to inspire a parent to do so in a 10 minute teacher conference while they are holding a screaming 2 yr old with donuts all over its fingers and the Mom doesn't speak English int he first place. There must be a way to help this situation but have it be student led in some form. Any ideas?
We did some observations of Taft Elementary. For every parent teacher conference each teacher was required to visit with every parent, even if they didn't come in. The visit was also to be led by the student. Before the conferences the teacher somehow worked with the students so they were prepared to lead a three way discussion with the teacher and parent. Many times the students then spoke with the parent before hand so they knew what was coming. I don't know how this would work in a High School setting but it was very interesting
DeleteI think one of the most important starting points is self-assessing our underlying assumptions about parents and students and then critically examining if our assumptions will support positive relations. Then we can move forward with an understanding and recognition of what each person can bring to the table in order to support students in a collaborative effort.
DeleteAt my last school, we had a group come in to talk to us about parent engagement at school (I wish I could remember who the group is). It was a very interesting presentation that made me rethink parental involvement in schools all together.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, parent involvement has mainly been viewed at PTC groups fundraising, party planning, and doing some kind of volunteering in the classroom (helping in computer labs, reading to kids, cutting things out, etc.) Though these things are helpful, I've always thought there has to be a more meaningful way to engage parents as partners in the schooling process. I love the idea of 'empowering parents and fostering social change!'
Amanda, It sounds like you had a great group visit your school! Did you notice any shifts in practice or discussions about practice as a result of the meetings?
DeleteWhat do you think teachers and schools can realistically do in order to improve school-family objectives?
ReplyDeleteI truly believe that teachers have the capacity to reach an entire family through the student. There are three ideas I believe will help in the efforts of parent engagement
1. As a teacher be prepared to teach. If we come every day prepared to teach students and not just lessons there will build a relationship that naturally carries over to the home. Often students talk about the teachers they love or hate
2. Reach out to the family. When possible send a card home or make a quick phone call to just tell the parent how much you appreciate their student and share a specific example of something that student has done that impressed you. In the same conversation ask the parent if they have any feedback from their knowledgeable point of view how to better reach and help their child
3. As a school we can make sure every parent is contacted at parent teacher conference. Those parents who don't come can still be contacted for a short visit, in a high school setting where there are hundreds of students per teacher over the phone in an elementary setting in person
These are just a few ideas that could be implemented
Alex,
DeleteIt sounds like an underlying theme between your ideas is respect and a genuine interest in the student and family. I agree that these are excellent starting points to show students/families that we are all on the same team.
Having never thought about the difference between involvement and engagement before, I would have been happy if someone had said to me, “We are trying to get the parents in our school involved in their children’s education.” After all being involved is a whole lot better than being apathetic. What is the percentage of parents who come to Parent Night? I don’t know. However, I am sure that it isn’t very high. I agree whole heartedly that we need to “transform our schools into authentic institutions of learning and tools for social growth.” I definitely see a need for the ideas expressed in this book.
DeleteHow 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?
ReplyDeleteThe role of the parent in my school is one that would be considered traditional. We have a very active PTO and parents do volunteer as chaparones and in some classroom, however, it is generally the same group of parents each time. We have two back to school nights and try to make it fun with student participation but only see about 25% of the parents at these nights. One outreach area that I think our school does well is to sixth graders entering Hillside. We have a back to school night at the end of the year for those students and their families. Teachers set up little displays of student work from their classroom and stand in the hall in front of the class to answer questions about their class as well as taking students and parents on a tour of their room. The National Jr. Honor society conducts tours of the facility showing off lockers, the library, the gym and the other general facilities to help the students navigate the school better. I do not beleive our parent envolvement is at the colloborative stage dipicted in the videos but I think we are trying to move in that direction.
It sounds like the event you are describing is a great way to help ease anxiety for 6th graders gearing up to enter the school and to welcome families into the school community.
DeleteJust wanted to share the free state tool that is free to all Idaho schools and can be found at http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/parentInvolvement/ Matt Hyde is the coordinator for the SDE for parent involvement and this tool is awesome and aligns to the Wise Tool for School Improvement. The PIA tool is user friendly, provides a needs assessment to see where you need to start with parent involvement leading to parent engagement. Check it out!! You will need to get a password from Matt to login but share with your administrator. It is based on ADI's work at http://www.adi.org/
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the resource Gina. I would be interested to see this tool and the suggested starting points based on a context specific assessment. Since I am in Oregon we won't have access to the tool, but it is great to know that it is available for Idaho. Do you have any idea how much awareness there is about the tool and how many districts utilize it?
DeleteHere's a link to a recent Ed Week article that I just noticed that aligns with our discussion this week: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/04/04/27engagement_ep.h31.html?tkn=WLQFZ8L6%2F2xBW7zto2dLwrfe988OSc45WEpZ&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1
ReplyDeleteI went out and read the EdWeek article. Thanks for this extra thought.... The article takes a look at one of the earlier discussions mentioned above: how do we involve parents?
DeleteThe article discusses how NCLB carefully defined parental involvement and even attached parent involvement to financial gains through Title I. Yet, after a decade, even mandates from the federal government has still fallen short of the original NCLB goal.
I'm not sure if I've got many answers, but I do like the idea that parents need to be integrally involved before a PLC can totally be effective. Great piece to our big picture!
Thanks, Amanda for sharing this book with us. It gave me pause to think as well as stretch my thinking to encompass an important piece of effective learning communities that often gets overlooked: the parents of our learners.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 8 of our TLP text, there is a section on "Shared Responsibility." It quotes Lee and Smith (1996): "Available evidence suggests that students' academic achievement is greater in schools where teachers report high levels of collective responsibility for student learning. " (p. 238). Then, the text goes into detail about how teachers and staff need to share the responsibility for student well-being. But it never mentions the parents.
I enjoyed watching the first video that you posted about Citizen's Academy in Cleveland. It modeled the terminology shift that you mention in your review: It is a huge shift in our thinking to engage, not just involve, parents in the process of forming effective PLCs.
What it would be like to be a parent of color? I suppose it would depend on where I lived and what kind of school was available for my children. It becomes a challenge for parents to advocate for their children when social and economic issues get in the way of education. I admire those educators and parents who are able to establish collaborative relationships as were portrayed in the video clips. This book looks like one I need to read. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDelete