Full Parent Partnership
Dr. Ayize Sabater @AyizeS
Many have recently returned to school. With that return, many schools hope that, this year, parents and/or families will be involved with the school in a greater way than in past years. However, the question is `how are schools positioning themselves to be in full partnership with parents?’ I begin by pulling from the work of Auerbach (2010) to define `full parent partnership.’ In discussing a power-sharing relationship between educators and parents, Auerbach presents an assertion that forms the basis of this essay’s discussion of full parent partnership, when stating that “respectful alliances among educators, families, and community groups that value relationship building, dialogue, and power sharing” (Auerbach, 2010, p. 729).
This presents a picture of full parent partnership, which includes not only parents but any that serve as the student’s care-taker(s), and features a two-way respectful teamwork approach between parents and educators. Goodall and Montgomery (2014) present a model relational continuum, between schools and parents, where parents move from superficial involvement to deeper levels of engagement. This essay posits that Goodall and Montgomery's second level on the continuum, further helps to inform this idea of `full parent partnership.’ Goodall and Montgomery's (2014) work, describes a second level within their relational continuum, which features a two-way “dialogue between parents and [school] staff” and educational interventions occurring after “jointly planned and [sometimes] led by parent…consultations” (p. 407). Indeed, the works of Auerbach and Goodall and Montgomery offer some important concepts (such as: respect, teamwork, power-sharing), which support full parent partnership.
To be clear, full parent/family partnership is different from the deficit-based `parental involvement’ model that far too many educators regularly utilize as their modus operandi. The deficit-based `parental involvement’ model often has educators superficially involving parents in pleasantries such as: bake-sales, or `donuts with dad’ gatherings or if parents volunteer, then they are principally seen decorating the bulletin board (Auerbach, 2010). This `scratch the surface’ deficit-based `parental involvement’ model holds that parents are empty vessels and that schools must fill them up with ways to be `involved’ in their children’s education. This is the banking concept of education, which was discussed in relation to students by Freire in his watershed book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and I am pointing out that it also applies to how many educators relate to parents (Freire, 1968).
Freire (1968) continues that educators, many well-intentioned, attempt to do `for’ the students instead of engaging in the learning process `with’ students. Again, I am extending Freire’s ideas to parents and I am asserting that this is how many educators, also, relate to parents. This point of doing `with’ parents is one of three key elements of `full parent partnership.’ The working `with’ parents framework notion asserts that educators support, encourage and include parents in decision making roles that relate to their children’s learning and the overall school. The working `with’ parents framework concept pre-supposes that educators have the visionary leadership that is willing to set the tone, tempo and is willing to share `power’ with the parents. In short, willing leadership is the second key element to full parent partnership.
The final element is resources. Educators and parents need to allocate resources to enact this teamwork approach and the resources to evaluate this full partnership model. By putting resources to fully support, encourage and train, then parents might participate fully in their child’s learning as well as the decision making processes within the school. Together these three elements (visionary leadership, a working `with’ parent framework and dedicated resources to enact and evaluate full parent partnership), hold the potential to truly involve parents in greater and transformative ways.
Now, parental involvement is a topic that I have researched extensively but moreover, I have recently been moved to testify before Maryland state legislatures to advocate for “full parent partnership.” For the last eighteen months, Maryland policy-makers have been engaged in a process of recalculating the state’s public school funding formula. This process is known as the Commission on Innovation and Excellence, is also known as the “Kirwan Commission” (named after the Commission’s chairman, William Kirwan). This is a critical educational matter, because in Maryland this Commission is expected to recommend that elected officials allocate two-three billion dollars per year for funding the state’s public schools. While I am not asking for billions but I am recommending that policy-makers allocate a modest but dedicated funding line-item for “full parent partnership,” because I believe that this may help to positively transform the educational landscape. However, I write this essay, at the start of this school year, to share some thoughts about some effective ways that schools might engage parents in the learning process, but moreover I write to ask that others to consider joining me by contacting their local policy-makers to advocate for “full parent partnership.” Positive educational transformation, according to the legendary educational researcher Ron Edmonds, is possible when society “encourage[s] parents’ attention to politics as the greatest instrument of instructional reform extant…” (Edmonds, 1979, p. 23).
References
Auerbach, S. (2010). Beyond Coffee With the Principal: Toward Leadership for Authentic School-Family Partnerships. Journal of School Leadership, Vol. 20, 728-757.
Edmonds, R. (1979). Effective Schools for the Urban Poor. Educational Leadership, 15-24.
Freire, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: The Seabury Press.
Goodall, J. a. (2014). Parental involvement to parental engagement: a continuum. Educational Review,
Vol. 66(4), 399-410.
Wasserman, D. a. (2018). Toward Authentic Family Engagement with Counter-Narrative and Self-Determination. Journal of Underrepresented and Minority Progress (JUMP), Vol 2 (1), 32-43.
This presents a picture of full parent partnership, which includes not only parents but any that serve as the student’s care-taker(s), and features a two-way respectful teamwork approach between parents and educators. Goodall and Montgomery (2014) present a model relational continuum, between schools and parents, where parents move from superficial involvement to deeper levels of engagement. This essay posits that Goodall and Montgomery's second level on the continuum, further helps to inform this idea of `full parent partnership.’ Goodall and Montgomery's (2014) work, describes a second level within their relational continuum, which features a two-way “dialogue between parents and [school] staff” and educational interventions occurring after “jointly planned and [sometimes] led by parent…consultations” (p. 407). Indeed, the works of Auerbach and Goodall and Montgomery offer some important concepts (such as: respect, teamwork, power-sharing), which support full parent partnership.
To be clear, full parent/family partnership is different from the deficit-based `parental involvement’ model that far too many educators regularly utilize as their modus operandi. The deficit-based `parental involvement’ model often has educators superficially involving parents in pleasantries such as: bake-sales, or `donuts with dad’ gatherings or if parents volunteer, then they are principally seen decorating the bulletin board (Auerbach, 2010). This `scratch the surface’ deficit-based `parental involvement’ model holds that parents are empty vessels and that schools must fill them up with ways to be `involved’ in their children’s education. This is the banking concept of education, which was discussed in relation to students by Freire in his watershed book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and I am pointing out that it also applies to how many educators relate to parents (Freire, 1968).
Freire (1968) continues that educators, many well-intentioned, attempt to do `for’ the students instead of engaging in the learning process `with’ students. Again, I am extending Freire’s ideas to parents and I am asserting that this is how many educators, also, relate to parents. This point of doing `with’ parents is one of three key elements of `full parent partnership.’ The working `with’ parents framework notion asserts that educators support, encourage and include parents in decision making roles that relate to their children’s learning and the overall school. The working `with’ parents framework concept pre-supposes that educators have the visionary leadership that is willing to set the tone, tempo and is willing to share `power’ with the parents. In short, willing leadership is the second key element to full parent partnership.
The final element is resources. Educators and parents need to allocate resources to enact this teamwork approach and the resources to evaluate this full partnership model. By putting resources to fully support, encourage and train, then parents might participate fully in their child’s learning as well as the decision making processes within the school. Together these three elements (visionary leadership, a working `with’ parent framework and dedicated resources to enact and evaluate full parent partnership), hold the potential to truly involve parents in greater and transformative ways.
Now, parental involvement is a topic that I have researched extensively but moreover, I have recently been moved to testify before Maryland state legislatures to advocate for “full parent partnership.” For the last eighteen months, Maryland policy-makers have been engaged in a process of recalculating the state’s public school funding formula. This process is known as the Commission on Innovation and Excellence, is also known as the “Kirwan Commission” (named after the Commission’s chairman, William Kirwan). This is a critical educational matter, because in Maryland this Commission is expected to recommend that elected officials allocate two-three billion dollars per year for funding the state’s public schools. While I am not asking for billions but I am recommending that policy-makers allocate a modest but dedicated funding line-item for “full parent partnership,” because I believe that this may help to positively transform the educational landscape. However, I write this essay, at the start of this school year, to share some thoughts about some effective ways that schools might engage parents in the learning process, but moreover I write to ask that others to consider joining me by contacting their local policy-makers to advocate for “full parent partnership.” Positive educational transformation, according to the legendary educational researcher Ron Edmonds, is possible when society “encourage[s] parents’ attention to politics as the greatest instrument of instructional reform extant…” (Edmonds, 1979, p. 23).
References
Auerbach, S. (2010). Beyond Coffee With the Principal: Toward Leadership for Authentic School-Family Partnerships. Journal of School Leadership, Vol. 20, 728-757.
Edmonds, R. (1979). Effective Schools for the Urban Poor. Educational Leadership, 15-24.
Freire, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: The Seabury Press.
Goodall, J. a. (2014). Parental involvement to parental engagement: a continuum. Educational Review,
Vol. 66(4), 399-410.
Wasserman, D. a. (2018). Toward Authentic Family Engagement with Counter-Narrative and Self-Determination. Journal of Underrepresented and Minority Progress (JUMP), Vol 2 (1), 32-43.