Relationships with families: Have educators overlooked a critical piece of the puzzle?

Abstract

While the importance of a professional teacher's collaboration with diverse families is clearly highlighted in the US Department of Education's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and in US teaching standards, research consistently reports that teachers feel unprepared to do this aspect of their work. The failure of the teaching profession to grow in partnering with families is a persistent and puzzling challenge in education. In this article, we argue that educators often overlook a critical piece of that puzzle. A foundational step in building effective partnerships with families is the development of relationships with parents. A careful review of the literature indicates that these relationships require intentional development. We offer specific strategies around six key concepts, drawn from the literature, for use by in-service and pre-service teachers. These strategies hold promise to improve professional practice through the building of meaningful relationships with families. Reciprocal communicationStrong, two-way communication is vital for healthy relationships and contributes to creating a welcoming sense of community between the school and home (Graham-Clay, 2005). Two-way communication happens when families and teachers engage in mutual dialogue. Regrettably, many teachers never receive training in the skill set that supports effective communication (Graham-Clay, 2005;Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2004). Caspe (2003) advocates for professional skill development in this area.

Supporting the socio-emotional aspects of the primary–secondary transition for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural needs: Affordances and constraints

“…As the authors state, parents need to know that they matter. Buchanan and Buchanan (2017) highlight key aspects of building meaningful parental engagement including the importance of knowledge of the child and family; a shared commitment to the child's well-being and success; a strengths based (rather than a deficit) perspective; and building trust and reciprocal communication. Parental engagement therefore needs to be central to what schools do and not peripheral.…”

Lessons Learned in the Pursuit of Social Justice in Education: Finding a Path and Making the Road

“…The concern for teacher educators is that PSTs may already hold deficit perspectives on families that differ from their predominantly white, lower-middle class upbringing (Sleeter, 2008(Sleeter, , 2017 and therefore may locate difficulties in building bridges with families and communities with parents (D'Haem & Griswold, 2017). Thus, PSTs may not be prepared to meet the needs of students, families, and communities that differ from them (Alaçam & Olgan, 2017;Buchanan & Buchanan, 2016;Kumar & Hamer, 2013;Walker & Dotger, 2012;Warren, 2017). The D-CAN work serves to highlight more diverse ways of thinking about community engagement and to account for the perspectives of individuals who may not be part of, or valued in, the traditional parent involvement roles.…”

Preparing Teacher Candidates to Collaborate with Families and Communities: Standards, Research, and Practice

“…Ramos says that "as the faces of parents change, then so should the ways in which we conceptualize parent involvement and home-school connections" (2007, p 33). Teacher educators talk a lot about culturally responsive teaching; perhaps building culturally responsive relationships may be an overlooked piece of the puzzle (Buchanan & Buchanan, 2016). Relationship building is skill-based.…”