Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Over the past week I have been musing on my feelings about the Parents as Partners webcast with Dr. Pushor. A wonderful lady with a vision for schools that describes a shared relationship between parents and schools. I shared my frustration about how hard it would be to bring people to the table in embracing the approach that she is advocating. There are so many barriers to be overcome. She talks about the protectorate approach the education system exhibits in working with families.
I can understand how that happens. Teachers and Principals encounter daily the short comings of society. Pushed into a role they don’t ask for. We put a lot on the shoulders of schools in taking care of our children. Teachers are tired. Principals don’t have a minute to spare. It is easy to take an approach that guards against interference by parents.
So the mountain seem pretty high. What is it going to take to make a shared world? It sounds too good to be true.
My first thoughts were that parents as a collective force can be a influential force in petitioning for change. Wisely Debbie suggested that everyone has a role to play and she is correct. Cindy Seibel writes about her thoughts on the webcast and here final words ring true for me.
Don’t just make pretty what isn’t working, truly change the landscape. That is the challenge for school leaders. I think the bigger challenge is finding ways to support them at the district level and in pre-service training to do that work.
I’m putting it out there for your ideas. How can we develop a program, professional development for schools and families that reflects both the needs of parents and schools in creating a shared world. Are you willing to work on such program? Dr. Pushor’s thesis
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is the first time that I have visited your site, but I am pleased to have found it. Thank you for your advocacy of parental involvement – particularly when ‘parent involvement’ is too often misconstrued as volunteer work from parents in schools, instead of active parental interest and input in education.
The school that I do most of my work with – I.S. 339 in the Bronx, N.Y. – just hosted a Parent Expo for the first time. The teachers, students and parents were ecstatic about the success of this event, and they are now looking to host more such events in the future. It gave the students the opportunity to teach their parents about the technology they were using, the projects they were completing, and about what they had been learning.
We will be much more successful though, when we give our parents even more voice – which, I believe, is what you’re encouraging.
I think that all partners in education need to come to an understanding about what the purpose of education is and how their visions of each other work to move to that purpose with all pulling in the same direction.
We also need to understand what each partner sees as the definition of “partnership” because often I feel that roadblocks happens because we’re singing from two different songsheets.
Pat raises part of what I mean in her post re: parents looking at involvement as volunteer work, when it can be much more for those who might choose to be committed to the partnership in a way that see them at the table as equals, rather than nice bookends or coming with the education territory.
I’d love to be a part of this, primarily for the challenge it presents. As the two replys above have stated, we approach this from two very different views. Parent involvement or engagement HAS to move beyond cooking hot dogs… parents are demanding that their involvement become more meaningful in planning, visioning and much more important ways than the traditional roles have allowed. This has to stem into district planning and trustees need to recognize this shift.