NEW SKILLS FOR NEW SCHOOLS:
Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement
(from the U.S. Department of Education news service)
PARENT PARTICIPATION in children's schooling is so important that it was
established in 1994 as a National Education Goal. Yet "Teacher preparation
in family involvement lags far behind school efforts to promote family involvement,"
according to a 65-page report, "New Skills for New Schools," released
by the U.S. Department of Education in November 1997.
The report examines reasons for -- and the status of -- teacher preparation
in family involvement. It also provides a *framework* that illustrates various
kinds of teacher training for family involvement. Unlike other family involvement
typologies, this framework focuses not on actual family involvement activities
carried out in schools, but on the attitudes, skills & knowledge teachers
need to work effectively with parents.
Below are the framework & an excerpt from Chapter 4. The chapter, "Promising
Methods for Teacher Preparation. " You can read
the full text of the report at the Education Department website.
"New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family
Involvement," 1997, Harvard Family Research Project
NOTE: This framework begins with general knowledge about
family contributions to child development & school
achievement, & then builds toward specialized knowledge such
as ways in which schools can support families & families can
support schools.
Family Involvement Framework for Teacher Training
General Family Involvement
Goals: To provide general information on the goals of, benefits of, &
barriers to family involvement. To promote knowledge of, skills in, &
positive attitudes toward involving parents.
General Family Knowledge
Goals: To promote knowledge of different families' cultural beliefs, childrearing
practices, structures, & living environments. To promote an awareness
of & respect for different backgrounds & lifestyles.
Home-School Communication
Goals: To provide various techniques & strategies toimprove two-way
communication between home & school (and/or parent & teacher).
Family Involvement in Learning Activities
Goals: To provide information on how to involve parents in their children's
learning outside of the classroom.
Families Supporting Schools
Goals: To provide information on ways to involve parents in helping the
school, both within & outside the classroom.
Schools Supporting Families
Goals: To examine how schools can support families' social, educational,
& social service needs through parent education programs, parent centers,
& referrals to other community or social services.
Families as Change Agents
To introduce ways to support & involve parents & families in decision
making, action research, child advocacy, parent & teacher training,
& development of policy, programs, & curriculum.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Promising Methods for Teacher Preparation (Chapter 4)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The nine programs featured in this report shared common innovative
practices. These practices focused on developing prospective
teachers' problem-solving skills by exposing them to challenging
situations which required them to negotiate sensitive issues.
The programs also provided them with opportunities to work in
schools & communities -- often under the guidance of experienced
professionals -- where they were able to gain valuable
communication & interpersonal skills, especially when dealing
with families with very different backgrounds from their own.
These community experiences also gave them the opportunity to
develop collaborative skills with professionals from other
disciplines. In addition, the programs emphasized the
application of research skills to develop a better understanding
of families & communities. They encouraged the use of
information about families to develop family involvement
activities & to create supplemental materials for classroom use.
These programs utilized guest speakers, role play, the case
method, community experiences, research with families &
communities, self-reflection, & interprofessional education.
GUEST SPEAKERS. Attending guest lectures & discussions
led by
parents, practicing teachers, experts from other disciplines, or
co-instructors in teacher education courses provides prospective
teachers opportunities to learn from & interact with key players
in children's education. Program faculty & researchers alike
attested to the benefits of drawing upon the expertise of
parents, school personnel, & faculty in other disciplines to
enrich teacher preparation.
Examples of Guest Speakers
* Program graduates, who researched family involvement during
their own teacher preparation programs, talked about what
they had learned from their projects & how they had applied
that knowledge to their first weeks of teaching.
* A parent-school coordinator, parents with special needs
children, social work faculty, & special educators described
how Individual Family Service Plans are developed with
families. A home-school coordinator spoke to prospective
teachers about her work & discussed ways in which teachers
could promote family involvement.
* A human development counseling specialist presented a parent
effectiveness training model & discussed skills to use in
parent-teacher conferences.
ROLE PLAY. Role play requires students to act out situations
that they might face when working with parents. Role play gives
prospective teachers simulated experience in communicating,
handling difficult or threatening situations, & resolving
conflict. By dramatizing situations, prospective teachers become
emotionally engaged & learn in a "hands-on" manner about the
situations that they will face in their classrooms.
Because role play usually takes place in the university
classroom, teacher educators can analyze their students'
reactions & responses, & peers can give feedback. By alternately
playing the roles of teacher & parent, prospective teachers can
gain a better understanding of each perspective.
Examples of Role Play Scenarios
* Negotiating differences of opinion with a parent
* Communicating with a parent about his or her child's poor
performance or behavior
* Conducting a parent-teacher conference
* Discussing a student portfolio with a parent
* Explaining a new curriculum to a parent
* Talking with a parent who is angry or upset
CASE METHOD. In the case method, prospective teachers read
about
dilemmas or ambiguous situations that could arise in working with
parents. After reading the cases, these students analyze &
discuss them, referring to their own relevant experiences & to
the theories & principles covered in class.
Because the case method approach encourages prospective teachers
to examine many possible responses to a particular situation, &
to evaluate the merits & drawbacks of each of these responses,
they are able to understand the complexities of home-school
relationships. Students' analyses of these situations help them
develop crucial problem-solving skills. The case method also
offers students the opportunity to integrate their beliefs with
known theories as they respond to complex & problematic,
real-life situations (Hochberg, 1993).
Examples of the Case Method
* One program used a case study example in which a young girl
in a program for migrant workers had difficulty being
understood because she always held her hand over her mouth
when she spoke. A month into the program, the girl's
teacher met the mother & discovered that she also spoke with
her hand in front of her mouth, to hide the fact that she
had no teeth. This case demonstrated that the child's
communication problems were the result of her modeling her
mother's behavior. The class looked at this case from
multiple perspectives. The goal was for students to avoid
jumping to conclusions or making assumptions about children
or families.
* Another program presented a case in which a parent & teacher
had different agendas for a parent-teacher conference. To
analyze the case, students wrote a 15-page response to the
parent, drawing from 1 of the developmental frameworks
presented in class. Responses were read aloud to classmates
acting in the role of the parent, who then gave feedback
from that perspective.
CULTURAL IMMERSION. One way to learn about children from
diverse
ethnic backgrounds is to live as they do. Cultural immersion is
especially helpful when the teaching force & student body come
from different cultural and/or economic backgrounds.
Examples of Cultural Immersion
* In a former program at Clark Atlanta University, prospective
teachers, along with social work students, had the option of
living in housing projects with the children & families whom
they would one day serve.
* At Northern Arizona University, prospective teachers in
special education can live & student teach on a Navajo
reservation.
COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES. During placement in community settings,
such as human service agencies, children's homes, & community
centers, prospective teachers can learn about services in the
community & form relationships with family & community members in
a nonschool context.
In programs that prepare teachers to work in urban schools or in
communities with linguistic & cultural diversity, community
experiences tend to be emphasized. These experiences allow
prospective teachers to see children in a variety of settings,
become more visible in the community, & understand children's
sociocultural contexts.
Examples of Community Experience
* At UTEP, the community experience component was designed by
parents who were asked what they thought teachers should
know about their children's community. The experience began
with a tour of major service agencies in the community,
including libraries, urban leagues, & community centers with
educational components.
* Community experiences can also include helping families &
communities. Working in a neighborhood center, teaching ESL
to parents, & providing weekend respite care for a family
with a disabled child are some of the numerous ways in which
prospective teachers are able to assist families &
communities.
* The "Parent Buddy Project" arranges for prospective teachers
to visit a family's home several times a semester.
Sometimes "buddies" will offer to babysit so that parents
can go to PTA meetings. In this way, the project not only
helps prospective teachers learn about family life, it also
helps parents become more involved with their children's
education.
RESEARCH WITH FAMILIES & COMMUNITIES.
Research with families & communities can range from parent
surveys to in-depth ethnographic interviews with families.
This method offers teachers the opportunity to understand issues
from the perspective of families & communities & to utilize their
expertise & insight. Teachers can learn from & interact with
families of different cultural & economic backgrounds as they
conduct their research.
According to one program respondent, this method sends the
message: "I want to get to know you," rather than "I'm here
to
teach you something."
Examples of Research Projects with Families & Communities
Prospective teachers have:
* developed a parent questionnaire or entrance inventory after
working with at least 5 parents of children with special
needs & written a summary of findings.
* interviewed their own parents about their respective
childhood experiences.
* interviewed families who had a child with special needs.
The prospective teachers then reflected on what they had
learned from the family & on the implications for working
with children.
* conducted ethnographic interviews in children's homes to
gather & document household knowledge. The information
collected was then used to develop lesson plans.
* "shadowed" a child to gather information about the child's
health, physical education, & social development & asked
parents & family & community members for information.
* produced a book of research abstracts based on the
prospective teachers' research with parents.
SELF-REFLECTION. Self-reflection techniques include journal
writing & other assignments that ask teachers to think about
their own family backgrounds, their assumptions about other
families, & their attitudes toward working with families. The
goal is for prospective teachers to consider how their own
perspectives will influence their work with families, especially
those very different from their own.
Self-reflection can be combined with other methods used to teach
family involvement. It helps teachers process what they are
learning & make the experiences personally meaningful. Self-
reflection is also useful for addressing cultural differences.
Finally, this method helps prospective teachers uncover any
negative feelings & assumptions that they might have which may
inhibit them from building positive relationships between home &
school.
Assignments for Self-Reflection
* When discussing social development, prospective teachers in
one program reflect on their own social development & on the
ways in which their teachers influenced them. This
introspection helps prospective teachers examine their own
beliefs & learn how these beliefs might influence their
future work with families.
* One faculty member teaches about issues of power in society
(gender & minority status, for example) by asking students
to analyze their own cultural perspectives (such as their
cultural history, language, & literacy).
* In one program, prospective teachers are asked to look at
their own cultural experiences & history, think about the
match between their family community culture & their school
culture, & then discuss ways in which some children's home &
school cultures differ.
INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION. Interprofessional education
is a
new trend in preparing human service professionals. Schools of
nursing, social work, & other disciplines join with schools of
education to prepare teachers & other professionals working with
children & families. The purpose of this strategy is to train a
range of human service professionals to work more closely with
one another, to work in an increasingly collaborative
environment, & to deliver services more effectively to families
by placing them at the center of the human service system.
Examples of Interprofessional Education
* One program unites a school of education & an anthropology
department to find new ways of working with families.
* Another program brings teachers, administrators, &
counselors together in an intensive family involvement
training experience.
Comprehensive interprofessional training programs have the
potential to prepare teachers & other human service professionals
to work effectively with families. For example, teachers
involved in such training programs will be better prepared to
identify children's & families' nonacademic support needs & refer
them to appropriate outside agencies & personnel. Promising
models are currently being developed at Ohio State University,
the University of Washington in Seattle, & Miami University in
Ohio.
NOTE: The views expressed in this report,
developed with contractual support from the
U.S. Department of Education, do not
necessarily reflect the position or policy of
the Department, & no official endorsement by
the Department should be inferred.
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