Parental engagement
Parental engagement in schools is something I never really thought about before this week's readings and class. When I was in school my parents were very engaged and did their best to attend any kind of school event my sisters or I may have been involved in. It wasn't always easy for my parents to make it to everything. They are divorced. My mom worked during the day and my dad worked at night. Two sisters and I are a year apart, so there was always some kind of overlapped. But we knew that our parents cared about our education and what/how we were doing in school. I guess it is naive, but when I was in school I never really thought about what it would be like to have parents who were not actively engaged in the school community for whatever reason.
In the article Finding Ways In: Community-Based Perspectives on Southeast Asian Family Involvment with School in a New England State Collingnon notes that "for members of the Southeast Asian communities, family involvement with school is a new concept" (p.32). This provides an extra challenge for us as educators. There is already a possibilty that language will hinder our attempts to communicate with some of our students' parents/guardians. Then there is the fact that it may part of their culture not to be involved in the school community. So how do you get these parents to come to events or volunteer to help in class. This does not mean that the parents don't care about their kids, they just don't know that this is how American schools work. That here parents are encouraged to participate.
The readings and the panels from this week really made me understand how important it is for us a teachers to do everything we can to reach out to parents and encourage them to come to events. Just as I think it is important for teachers to make appearances at events that students patrticipate in, it is equally, if not more, important that parents or any family member is there as well. The encouragement and confidence that students get from seeing family members in the crowd or in their classroom is immeaasurable and can do wonder for students.
I too had parents that were incredibly involved in whatever they could be. I never thought about what it would be like to have parents that were not at all of my events. I can always remember looking out into the crowd and seeing my mom sitting there. It made me feel good because I knew that she cared. I think it is important for us to realize that not all cultures practice parental involvement in education. It will be hard to accept this coming from a family that was incredibly involved in my life, but I will have to understand it at least. This does not mean the parent doesn't care or that education is not valuable, but rather they express or show their involvement in other ways. They are not hands on supporters-- they are more stand offish, letting their children figure it out for themselves. I do agree, however that parent involvement is very important. As educators, we will have to try to connect to the parents while also creating a relationship with the students.
ReplyDeleteMuch like you I had never put much thought into the topic of parental engagement. I alway had assumed my parents were the norm which is of course naive. After the panels and the reading I realize how fortunate I am and I will no move forward planning to be a ver yaccesible teacher to parents because I realize how much of an impact it can have on the child.
ReplyDeleteBrittni, I am glad that this week's articles were informative for you. I agree with you that teachers should be seen in the student's lives and community outside of school. I purposefully choose to go to the YMCA for my gym option when I taught in Long Beach since that is where my students and their parents were involved in. I felt that it made me more approachable to parents if they couldn't catch me during school hours; they knew that I also worked out afterschool.
ReplyDelete