Recently on the new BC’s Education Plan website the following posting was made:
“While parents I am sure need/want a lot of information on their child’s learning, what teachers would like to know is WHAT actions/plans parents WILL take AND how can we measure the effectiveness of those plans in the future!” and “I think that an effort by parents to advise/communicate teachers about what they will be doing with what they read in report cards would greatly benefit teachers. How? I am thinking about a specific plan (like a business plan) to effect change.” The posting in its entirety can be found at: http://engage.bcedplan.ca/2011/10/question-2
As we begin to move our conversation, and hopefully our actions, from parent involvement to parent engagement now is not the time to be considering changes that would mandate parents to have a more formal responsibility whether it be a business plan model, as suggested, or legislation. This will not fix the problems we have in our schools with respect to parent participation. There have been instances in the USA where they are trying to formalize the responsibility of parents in schools with dismal results time and time again so this is not the answer. Right now we have parent involvement in our schools but we do not have parent engagement. Involvement and engagement is not the same thing. We believe that parents want to be engaged rather than involved. We also believe it can be done without having to legislate it. It will take time and effort by ALL (not just the parents and not just the educators) to change to engagement because involvement is what our education system knows.
Parents want to be engaged, but many times that is not the case. The knowledge that parents bring to the table needs to be valued, listened to and enacted on if need be. Parents need to have as many opportunities as possible to share their thoughts and feelings, to provide input, to have a voice in decisions which impact their children. Do educators truly listen – and hear – what parents are telling them about their children, without believing that they, the teacher, already hold the answers? Many parents do not believe educators are truly listening and hearing what they are saying with respect to their child. Many parents feel stupid after a conversation with their child’s teacher. A lot of times, educators alone determine what the child needs, they then tell the parents what they need to do and expect it to happen. If you feel you are not being heard and that your knowledge and experience is neither respected nor wanted you disengage. The communication becomes only one way (from school to home) and the support in the home diminishes.
How do we develop the trust needed between parents and educators to allow them to be actively engaged? How do parents and educators become equal partners to ensure success of the child? The change from involvement to engagement will take time, effort and in some instances education for parents in order to be effective. What support/education do the parents need in order to provide support to their children or to stay engaged with the teacher? We all need to explore authentic parent engagement together. We all need to put our personal and professional agendas aside, ask the difficult questions of each other and not be defensive of the answers. We need to identify the hurdles and figure out how to get over them. We need to start a conversation and be willing to change together. Rather than mandating parent participation we would be further ahead spend our energies building positive relationships based on trust and respect.
4 Moms
ReplyDeleteAs always, I love your passion for parent education and I continue to learn from you with every post. I realize that you have stated "many times"... but I am a bit concerned that there is generalizations within this post that make it seem like NO schools are working on parent engagement.
From speaking with you, I understand you have struggled with your experience in some schools and that is why your work is so important.
I am wondering... is there a way you can write about your experience working with schools to encourage more engagement. We would love to have one of you work with our School Planning Council as one of our school goals is "Parent Engagement". Maybe highlight the successes that you see will encourage others to do more?
Just a thought...
Thanks for your post...You could not "mandate" parent engagement just like you could not "mandate" student engagement. Obviously it does not work that way.
ReplyDeleteI really believe in your thoughts about building a culture of mutual respect. I often discuss that as educators, we could serve both students and parents giving a 1:2 ratio. What would work better however, is that if parents and teachers worked together to serve the child, creating a 2:1 ratio to serve each student. The math tells you right there that you would double the chances of success.
Although I am not sure of your experience, I am seeing many schools reach out and try to build a two way point of communication with parents to get them in on the learning process. I am sure that "many" parents feel that they are not listened to, but I also believe that "many" feel the opposite as well. I think to build this culture of mutual respect, we have to start by looking for positives in each other first. Many school divisions (proudly I can say my own would be in the list) are trying to create opportunities for parents to jump in on the conversation through blogging, twitter, facebook, etc., while also using the more traditional routes (face to face, student led conferences, etc.). Parent engagement (not simply involvement as you point out) in the learning of their child at school is the highest factor shown for success and many realize that, and are trying to foster that in our school environments.
I think that if as educators, we can bring expertise on learning, and parents can share expertise of their child (they obviously know them best) we can do some amazing things for our future. Working together and seeing our gifts will help us to move forward.
Thank you Chris for your kind comments. And you are right in your comments. We recognize that we may have generalized maybe more than we should have. We know that in order for our children to be more successful with their education, we need to move from involvement to engagement. There are a number of schools that are working and succeeding with Parent Engagement. Unfortunately, we don’t hear enough of those success stories. We need to find ways to share and celebrate what these schools are doing.
ReplyDeleteAs for your request about us writing about our experiences with engagement – we can do that! Stay tuned.
Again, I applaud you for your work in moving this conversation forward. There are a great number of educators out there writing about these topics, but it is so refreshing to read the parent perspectives. I agree that engagement can't be forced. It really begins with building a culture of student and family ownership of learning which, in my view, is at the heart of personalizing learning.
ReplyDelete4 Moms
ReplyDeleteI am an elementary school teacher who understands parents should be actively involved in their child's education. Thank you for continuing the dialogue around increased parent engagement in schools.
I look forward to reading future posts which help me and my school better understand what increased parent engagement looks like in classrooms and school community.
I use restorative circle practices in my classroom to build community and allow my students to have voice. I think I can use this process to engage more of my student's parents. I'll let you know the results...
roamingeducator:
ReplyDeleteThanks for the posting. We would be very interested to to hear more about using restorative circle practices to engage more parents. Please keep us posted.