I always find it interesting through Twitter and blogs to take in the differences in approaches to parent engagement and as well taking in the discussions about involving parents in the dialogue about changes in education. From province to province there seems to be both similarities and differences in these conversations. I haven’t quite put my finger on why our approaches in Canada seem different from the United States, but I do sense a number of differences. A past post on The Daily Riff examined the same and created some interesting dialogue on this. You can read it here and explore further links.
I recently blogged on this question, “Where does a parent fit in effective change in education?”. On this post, I featured a blog post and an article from the United States. I sensed some shift in the conversation about the role and potential of parents in educational change south of us.
I have also become aware of the recent efforts of the BC Education Ministry to engage in the discussions about parent and community partnerships as part of their new education plan for province. The link to that part of the plan can be reviewed here.
Parent engagement is never an easy topic, but I think our provinces can still learn a lot from each other in this area — in and for education and students. I thought I would post here in hopes to provide a place to bring together some Canadian threads or “connective tissue” for sharing and learning in this area ahead.
It has been my experience that the level of parent engagement in a school is dependent on the attitude of the principal. The principal sets the tone in the development of a school’s culture. He/she has guidelines and policies to follow but when push comes to shove it is his/her attitude that determines the nature of the environment. Some principals are intimidated by parents and keep them at arm’s length because they feel that they are under a microscope.These are the people who are concerned more about personal image than they are about building community. An open and inviting school environment is the result of a principal doing his/her job to encourage parents to be actively involved in the “village” concept. The school principal who recognizes the importance of the parental role is the one who will engage parents in meaningful ways that do not include bake sales and pizza lunches. Opening the doors to welcome parents into the school is a nice place to start. A school where parents must undergo a security screening at the door is not particularly invitational in nature. If the principal and staff make the effort to get to know their parents, the security screening would not be necessary. If a principal desires a vibrant community that includes all of the stakeholders he needs only to throw open the doors and say to his parents, “Come on in, and together we will do great things for your child”.
So, Michael, why is it that you are retired? You know, in working with parents and educators across the country over the past year, I can tell you that this is exactly the type of environment that people are craving. I think that it was Neil Lyons that wrote earlier about how parents and the community are shut out from many schools these days.
I love the idea of throwing the doors open, both literally and figuratively. I believe that Patrick Tucker is doing some wonderful things in attempting to make a “grand entrance” in his school.
Let’s keep this type of thinking going…let’s not assume that it is no longer possible. It’s possible! It’s healthy! It’s necessary!
Some may not see the necessity of opening the doors in their immediate situation/circumstance, but I think it is necessary for public education….as a whole…in the long run. Does that make sense?
Thanks, Michael, for sharing your perspective. I think a lot does depend on a principal’s vision and comfort level in terms of working with parents. There are often lots of policies in place to guide parent participation, but one’s philosophy or postion about where a parent’s place is and isn’t would affect what takes shape, as well as have implications to which parents may feel more invited/accepted perhaps too.
I agree and will expand this idea to include the leadership culture of a district. If the culture embraces family engagement, then the opportunity to truly engage and build parental efficacy will be sustained over time
Thanks, Steve! It has been great to become aware of your own efforts and leadership in this area as well by following you on Twitter!
In my teaching “career” (ugh) I’ve taught in many places and situations and I’ve noticed that parent engagement isn’t just one thing, it varies based on the background and attitudes of the parents. Some parents feel uninformed about what’s best for their children and are looking to schools to do what’s best. They didn’t have positive experiences with schools and are nervous about returning to the scene of the crime. Some parents are supportive and trust schools. They had generally positive experiences themselves and things have worked out well for them. They want the same for their kids. Some parents are very distrustful and feel the need to hold the school accountable. Some parents see schools as a legal requirement and they resent it. All of these things suggest that, just like students, we need to differentiate for parents too. Using an approach to engage parents may be useful for some parents in some situations, but not for all in every situation. Educators need to be free to find out the approach that works best for the parents they are working with.
Thanks for adding based your experiences/observations, Andrew. Good insight into the complexity and diversity of parent participation and expectations. This also speaks to the challenges we can have in accessing and receiving feedback parents.
‘from’ parents..
I went to a fascinating presentation at the Ontario Education Research Symposium back in February and People for Education spoke on this very topic. They have put together an ingenious took kit (ingenious in my opinion, no affiliation!) they’ve considered their main “users” and differentiated the toolkit for principal, teacher and parent (in 7 languages) use. Find it here: http://www.peopleforeducation.ca/how-does-education-work/training-and-resources/helping-children-succeed-the-parent-engagement-toolkit/
Hi Michelle. Thanks for adding that resource here. It could be useful for any location/region. I hope we can get some feedback soon from the different “users”
As a parent, having children going through the education system of two different provinces in the last 35 years, in different school districts over time, I find it humorous, the onward march of creating the ‘professional parent’, singling out the various desired variables of what constitutes the perfect parent for the imperfect schools. A little bit of this, add a pinch of this , throw a dash of two or more for the diversity in differences, and the outcome results in the ‘professional parent’.
But parents will never become a cohesive group of ‘professional parents, and always will remain as individuals loosely connected around the single goal of looking out for, “what they think”, is the best interests of their children. United , they not, and yet the little industry that has built up around parental engagement, is remarkable in their lack of foresight when it comes to parents. Avoiding the simple, and choosing to make parents into complex creatures , with ulterior motives that goes against the school’s overall goals and desires. Sure, the majority of parents wish and desires schools to be a welcoming oasis for their children, fulfilling the education component, but it starts with respect and acknowledging the parents of many differences, and not transforming parents to be good little soldiers for the school and their goals.
One of the links I follow, ” Parent involvement is one of the missing links in school change, and we as educators have to find ways to activate parents into a collaborative role. Surely, it’s going to take a cultural shift in resources, job stability, and language acquisition to even approach 100 percent reliability on the parent voice, but the tide is starting to shift in that direction. As parents learn how to use their own voices for positive change about their child’s education, teachers need to learn how to harness that power into a well-rounded accountability system for all people involved.”
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_ahead/2012/04/activating_parents_in_their_childrens_education.html
Parental involvement works both way, and yet the onward march to have parents become ‘professional’ parents, lack the respect and acknowledgement of the differences of parents. Parents know it, even if it is never openly expressed, and never truly become engaged with the school and the teachers.
It gives rise to the many different parental engagement programs, discussions, and debates that run along, making the parent a better fit, adapting to the operations of the school based on the deficits of parents. Much like the discussion here, talking about the deficits of parents, and how to improve the deficits of parents.
So as Vilson, has stated in the above link, “Other teachers ask me how I do it, and I tell them it’s simple: Stay proactive and maintain your professionalism.” And perhaps the money saved from the parental engagement files, can be redirected to benefit the students and their education.
Great to have your thoughts and perspective, Nancy!
Personally, I don’t sense there is that much of a march for the “professional parent” or the “this is how you should fit/do” in Canada overall. Just my perception maybe. I do relate to what you mean about the “parents as deficits” approach though. And good point about “avoiding the simple”, although I am not sure if parents have been made to become complex or they have been expected to participate and navigate very complex structures and committees in order to process/channel their voice and input. What do you think?
For Nancy and others: What ways can we make this less complex? Parents can be criticized for only being concerned about their own child interests. Parents can also be critized for going beyond to make a difference in the community. Can it be less “messy”, or is that just the way it is regardless?
In my own observations and experiences, parents whether engaged or not engage, in between – parents are only listened to, if they take on the professional persona. Parents cannot be themselves, comfortable within their skins in a school setting. Taking on the professional persona, that is composed of the bits and pieces of the ideal parent but is as foreign to most parents to adapt to.
I lost track in both provinces, of the parents who took on the professional persona, and became the ideal parent for other parents to model. “I should have done what you did Nancy, it would have been less effort, even if it mean, being seen as one of those parents. Lost track, because it came up so many times in my adult life, in the different settings and situations at school, where I simply refuse to volunteer in schools, because of the complexity of the legal liability that has been imposed onto the schools. Thus, forcing to adapt to the increasing complexity, by donning the professional parent persona, and accept the downloading of responsibilities that was once the exclusive domain of the school.
Today, putting a professional smile, happily handing out a total of $45, of where $25 was for transportation fees so my youngest could attend the regional track and field event. Happily signing away liability on the school’s part, and than expected to enjoy the benefits that are derive when children attend athletic events. For parents there is benefits, of where parents who are willingly pay for their children, because that set of parents, rises in stature in the sub-culture world of parents in the bigger school culture. But overall, despite the new orders of a school board, who decided that the school board will no longer pay for transportation fees for any extra-circular events, such as track and field meets, it was a nice feeling driving into the school’s parking lot, as I became part of the who’s who, as to what parents had the means to send their kids to the track and field meet.
The complexity and the advent of parental engagement programs merges, to create a repeating pattern of reinforcing the cultural status of parents – a pecking order emerges based on social cultural status rather than the abilities and skills of parents. Of which all parents have no matter who and what they do in their lives, and unfortunately the abilities and skills of parents are skipped over, opting for parental engagement models encouraging professionalism traits of parents, rather than encouraging parents to become open about themselves, their skills and abilities to enhance and improve the school culture and its environment.
Sheila, you mentioned that you don’t see the march for the ‘professional parent’ from your perspective. Take a yonder in the halls of special education, and parents who are donning the professional façade, to advocate for their children. There is always one or two parents in any school, paving the way and in the present school culture, there are labelled as the ‘trouble makers’ by the school staff and parents. To advocate for children with special needs, the parents must act and behave as professional parents, skilled and knowledgeable in law, school acts, psychology, and become the wearers of many professional hats. The day that I donned the professional parent façade, I finally started to earned respect from the school staff, and a few battles, that made it easier for children that came after my child.
What will make it less complex? Dropped the edubabble, because the edubabble does its job chasing away the parents, thus disengaging them from the education system, separating the parents into the individual camps based on social status versus understanding of the education system versus the skills and abilities of parents.
Parents have been made into these complex creatures that is not of their own making, but by the bureaucracy of the education system, who desires only the ideal parent who approaches parenthood in the education arena as professionals, and as serious as a teacher does conducting their job. I was never the ideal parent, and I never did live up to the expectations that school administrators who love to pigeon-hole parents in. I could not afford the luxury to disengage concerning my youngest, and in the process learned how parents whose children struggled in learning, become the new scapegoats for the problems that arises in schools. All of sudden, opening up my pocket book, signing away liability, and to be expected to freely volunteer and that is if a parent wants to become part of the in-crowd, took on new significance to me, especially when my youngest was paying the steep price of remaining a low achiever. and lower social status. Not the fault of the teachers, but the ever expanding bureaucracy above the school level. who actually do demand that parents take on the professional parent façade of the bureaucrat’s making, if the parents want respect from the over all education system, and the people who work within the system. Teachers end up handling the fall out, and parents deal with it that best suit their own personal lives, and best interests.
I am not all that complex as a parent in the education system. I just get a little testy when the education system fails to deliver a standard of education for my children, and than expect me to become the happy engaged parent, willing to open up my pocketbook, volunteer, and heed the edicts that reigned down from the education system on the dos and don’ts for parents. And if not, be prepared to be labelled as one of those parents, the difficult parent.
I am understanding where you are “coming from” a bit more now, Nancy. I am reflecting on a few points and will add again later.
I have the joy of looking at this issue from two perspectives. When I first came to Canada I did try to volunteer as a parent volunteer and the paperwork was a little off putting. I did it, only to be ignored as a volunteer. Apparently they had lots of volunteers.
As a teacher in the UK I loved having parents involved in my class and school. I was lucky to work with two principles who actively welcomed parents and had great success doing so. Both schools were in L.S.E. areas and the parents were varied but taking the differentiated approach, a wee bit like Michelle describes, worked. We ran lots of opportunities to welcome parents into the school and tried to cater to all needs.
Having a more collaborate feeling in schools here, as teachers, schools and districts would open up the discussion. We have so much to learn from each other and our parents.
Thank you for sharing these experiences, Chris! It is great to understand about the different “formalities” that may be involved and the impact on parent participation. There has to be a good balance to this, or like you said, support to take differentiated approaches would be advantageous.
The challenge at many schools, mine included, is how to generate engagement or get parents to engage at all. Many parents are suspicious of schools. The didn’t have positive experiences in their schools days, and many in fact feel a cultural divide there. That schools are really middle class institutions they have to send their kids to, but they don’t reflect the culture of their family or the reality of their world. In addition many parents are overwhelmed with other responsibilities and not able to engage because of work, illness, etc. The only way we get parents through the door is to bribe them with food and make sure their children are performing something. Our current parent council has 2 members. It’s demoralizing for everyone involved and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
True, Andrew, food and student performances are often used as “hooks” to invite parents into the school. We can often wonder if this leads to what may be desired or defined as “parent engagement”. Those kinds of activities can help support “community-building” but I can understand the question as to “what now from there?”.
As for the number of members on a school council, I think I have gotten past worrying about how many parents. I assume you mean 2 parents in addtion to the principal, teacher rep, non-teaching rep? Regardless, I have seen just as much get done by a team of 2 or 3 as a team of 10. Even a small group could come up with a few realistic goals for their school community, I would think. What do you think? Is it possible for the small group at your school to use technology to outreach and engage other parent and community members in initatives at your school? Each school can have very unique barriers though – I respect that. The school council structure and/or lack of clarity of the roles can contribute to that as well.
It can become too complicated when it really shouldn’t be…..
I hope approaches and attitudes like this don’t ever become a part of our Canadian theme…
http://engagingparentsinschool.edublogs.org/2012/05/18/mayor-bloomberg-insults-parents-again/
Well entrenched in the Canadian system, although in stealth mode. but sorry to burst your bubble, a lot of it takes place in the one to one principal and school board staff conversations between parents advocating for their children.
Let me count the ways that a parent is insulted? I can’t because it is so entrenched in the Canadian education system, masked by the very insults hurled by the New York mayor – “that some parents don’t understand the importance of an education.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/mayor-michael-bloomberg-parents-care-kids-skip-school-article-1.1076877#ixzz1vS9SIK2e
It works so beautifully, that it has become a time honoured tradition among the people who hold the power to the purse strings of the education system. Keep the parents divided, and make some believe that there is parents who will never understand the importance of education, let alone have the brains to understand what an education is.
Happen to me, so many moons ago that the words are still bouncing inside my head, wishing when I heard them first, that my voice box responded but I was too stunned and I remained silent. Apparently I did not care enough about my youngest, because I dared to criticized without a university degree. Never mind, my mind and knowledge could do circles around those who have fancy letters behind their name, and more importantly a teacher’s certificate, that they threw in my face to end the conversation of my child’s problems in reading and math in grade one. She was developmentally delayed, and not the preposterous suggestion of mine, that she has a learning disability. You see Sheila, being developmentally delayed opens the doors to blaming the parents, but a learning disability opens the door to providing the legal and correct remediation of learning disabilities, and where the school and the board becomes legally responsible to provide over and above beyond the inclusive classroom.
All my child ever needed was about 150 hours over and above to correct her reading and math problems. Did my child ever received it? No, but over the years I certainly was blamed for all my child’s troubles in learning, but thankfully the front line teachers thought differently, and thanked me for all the work that I did at home, to helped my child. If not, my child would be sitting in a basic class thinking of many different things, besides obtaining an education, and looking forward to forensics studies at university.
Sheila, it exists in Canada, the approaches and attitudes concerning parents, but it is done in stealth here in Canada. After all, the ones who are have the purse strings and power in their hands, I swear that they rejoice each and every time, to put parents in their place behind closed doors. and the latest example is the education heavy weights in the Moore case of the Supreme Court of Canada, Only here will the heavy weights of the education system in British Columbia and Ontario, will argued that children with learning difficulties in reading and writing, only have the right to a desk, a set of books and a right to be sitting in the inclusive classroom. What they don’t have a right under the constitution to learn how to read and write well.
I am so sorry going off on this rant, and it sure sounds like a rant, but isn’t it about time to pull down the drapes, and see the reality, the only difference between the American and Canadian education systems, is that Americans like to dragged out their laundry for everyone to see, and here in Canada, only some of the laundry gets to be shown. Kids like my child are hidden, only to be shown every once in a while, for the photo op for the educationalists, to make them look good, Meanwhile, parents suffered in silence without a voice, paying and spending quite a bit of time doing the things that a school should be doing, teaching children how to read, write and do numeracy well, no matter what the difficulties are. Did Mr. Moore have to pay out $100,000 in tuition? No, but that is if Mr. Moore was willing to settle for a desk, a set of books, and no tools and skills to access the books. He was not willing, as I was not willing to settled for what the school was offering to help my child, and neither are the New York city parents willing to settle for the offerings of an education system, willing to educate children by blaming parents.
No worries about bubbles busting, Nancy. I understand what you are saying and feeling. There may be some of this “stealth” approach as you suggested at local levels, but I haven’t heard our politicians/governments taking this approach, in a public policy way anyways.
It remains at the local levels of a education system, and like most issues and problems stays within the local levels of an education system. Until, the day the politicians and the ministries of education acknowledges the attitudes, biases underlying the decisions at the local levels of an education system, the policies will keep on reinforcing the biases, attitudes and misconceptions of parents, students and the communities, and more importantly the power relationships that favours final decisions of the education of children, rests in the hands of the education system. Often the decisions that are made are in the best interests of the education institute and not the best interests of the student or students. and parents are caught in the middle, in a place of two hard rocks. Two hard rocks of pretence, that speaks more about the pseudo-engagement of parents and building relationships and bridges to parents, rather than building true pathways to parental engagement.
Parental engagement problems remains firmly in placed at the local levels, and thus the parental engagement policies with the attached funding are the means to reinforce the power relationships between the education system and the parents, dictated by others who are not part of the community, the school, and sometimes not part of the region or district.
Parents are unlikely to inform the teachers, as I was from the beginning, because of the negative consequences that may emerged if parents were frank and honest with the teachers. It becomes a game of politics and manoeuvres for parents rather than building true pathways of parental engagement and partnerships, that honours the best interests of their children’s education first and foremost.
As for the politicians and governments, they are quite aware of it, but are not willing to acknowledge it. It was the politicians that came to my rescue at the end, over ruling the decisions that prevented progress for my child, but keep in mind it was the political power that the politicians have in their hands, and not the ability to change the governing policies at the micro-levels of the education system. The school boards and the schools have the exclusive powers and it rests in their hands. Parental engagement and seeking out partnerships with parents and their communities, become whatever the decision makers want it to be, within the power relationship and network framework at the local levels.
It brings back the original question Sheila that you posted in the blog post “Where does a parent fit in effective change in education?”
Yes indeed, where does a parent fit in effective change in education, when the power that flows through the networks of the micro-education system, forces parents to adapt in a system that works against the best interests of their children. Parents become expendable and causalities of the education system according to the social/income status of parents. It is why parents in New York City is fed up with, and they are no longer willing to tolerate an education system that prevents them from working for the best interests of their children and their education.
Thanks for sharing these points, Nancy. Lots of struggles, and disconnect and hard places to work through always. I think it leaves many stuck in the middle at times – not just parents.
I still remain hopeful that some shifts are coming in this area. It may depend on the local level to push changes in approaches. Hopefully some pathways open up without too many hard rocks for all involved.