The course, EDAD 6589 Engaging Communities, was an extremely eye-opening and thought-provoking course that challenged my views on community engagement, particularly that of parental involvement. This was the first Teacher Leadership focused course I took that gave me an honest, realistic perspective at how complex and challenging a principal’s role is within the school setting. By the end of the course, my appreciation for everything that a principal does to engage a variety of stakeholders grew tremendously.
On our first day of class, my cohort and I were asked to brainstorm a list of all the stakeholders involved or impacted by a school community. There are, of course, the obvious stakeholders including students, teachers and parents. But then, you have to consider all of the surrounding community members, organizations and businesses that are in some way affected by what goes on in and around the school. By the time our brainstorm session was complete, we had developed a complex and lengthy list of stakeholders, including local businesses, churches, after-school day care providers, physicians, non-profit organizations and more. By the end of that first day, I came to realize my understanding of community engagement was limited as my lens primarily consisted of students, teachers and parents. I also realized this course was going broaden my understanding of what community engagement means and how teachers can take action to become more engaging within their school community.
Throughout this course, we were asked to analyze the topic of community engagement by reading a wide variety of case studies. Although not all of the readings necessarily applied to my particularly circumstance, it was easy to relate to elements of them all. Reoccurring themes surrounded cultural diversity and parental involvement and engagement.
One of many big take-aways I had included the differences between involvement and engagement. Involvement includes volunteering, helping with projects, supporting homework time, school improvement teams, one-way communication and participating in one-time events. Engagement involves building relationships by conducing home visits, listening, showing that you are welcoming, sharing the decision-making as well as partnering by being co-leaders, having two-way communication and remaining family centered (Epstein (1995), Ferlazzo (2011), Buquendano-Lopez et al. (2013)). In considering these differences, I determined that I am very good at encouraging parental involvement, but need to improve in the area of engagement. While I do have two-way communication with my families, and strive to be welcoming and listen, I don’t do enough to encourage and foster a strong sense of engagement consistently throughout the school year. This is an area I realized I need to take time to improve within my own classroom.
Not only did I learn how parental involvement can be different than parental engagement, but I also learned that parental involvement can take on many different forms. More importantly, that we need to break free of the traditional definitions of parental involvement in schools. “The traditional definition of parental involvement includes activities in the school and at home. Parental involvement can take many forms, such as volunteering at the school, communicating with teachers, assisting with homework, and attending school events such as performances or parent-teacher conferences (Bower & Griffin).” Furthermore, “Traditional definitions of parental involvement require investments of time and money from parents, and those who may not be able to provide these resources are deemed uninvolved (Bower & Griffin).” Under this definition of parental involvement, several groups of parents would be characterized as uninvolved and could be left feeling alienated from the school community. This definition does not consider the many perspective of what parental involvement means and can look like.
A huge shift in my own thinking was that just because parents don’t fit the traditional definition of parental involvement doesn’t mean they are uninvolved and more importantly, that they do not care about their children’s success in school. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the school to help find ways to engage parents, and in order to do so, school leaders must have a complete understanding of the cultural norms and perspectives of all stakeholders around engagement. Furthermore, it is a school’s responsibility to be clear and intentional about informing the community about the school’s philosophy and purpose of the structures, procedures and policies set in place. In doing so, the school will likely find greater parental support and interest in helping to promote the school’s vision and mission. This notion can and should be extended to what we (teachers) do within our classrooms. It is vital for teachers to be clear and intentional when communicating to students and parents about what is being taught, how to best support student learning and why it is important. When more aware of the goals of the teacher for his/her students and how to be effective in supporting student learning and growth, parents will be more likely to step in and get involved.
The idea of cultural differences was something that repeatedly surfaced in my reflection posts and in discussions with my cohort. It also struck a chord as the school in which I work, while not socioeconomically diverse, is very ethnically diverse with families from cultures around the world. When an educational leader considers ways to engage a variety of stakeholders, it is imperative that he or she consider the backgrounds and cultures of all stakeholders. As I learned, how families perceive the role of the school, the role of the student, the role of the teacher and the role of parents can vary greatly.
As I read the article, Can the Epstein Model of Parental Involvement Work in a High-Minority, High-Poverty Elementary School? A Case Study, I learned about Epstein model. The Epstein model was completely unfamiliar to me. According to this model, parental involvement includes six types of family involvement behaviors: positive home conditions, communication, involvement at school, home learning activities, shared decision making within the school and community partnership (Bower & Griffin 78). Bower and Griffin state that, “Teachers and administrators should realize that cultural differences and practices, individual differences, and misunderstandings that can occur between teachers and parents and among parents themselves can impede parental involvement practices (Lopez & Stoelting, 2010) (Bower & Griffin 84).” I discovered that schools might find more parental involvement and less frustration on behalf of the teachers if the school developed opportunities for parents within the community to collaborate with one another (i.e. parent support groups, parent teams for school events, etc.). What this could lead to are parents who are more empowered to not only work to support their own children, but work together to support the community as a whole. When diverse schools with generally low family involvement provide opportunities for parents within the community to act as an ambassador between the school and the community itself, the effect on parental involvement can be very great.
Another aspect of community engagement that I explored through the articles we read was ways to assess community engagement for the purpose of creating positive change. The article, Data Collection Instruments for Evaluating Family Involvement, was focused on providing multiple stakeholders with a list of resources to be used to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of family involvement in schools. “In order to assess family involvement interventions in a high-quality way, family involvement leaders, school administrators, policymakers, and researchers need information about and access to evaluation tools – particularly standardized instruments for collecting data on family involvement practices.” By taking time to collect data on family involvement, school communities can then take intentional steps towards improving and strengthening community engagement.
One of the assignments I completed for this course was a reflection based on an interview I conducted with a teacher from a school in the Highlands School District. The teacher worked in a school that had a very different background and demographic than mine. During my interview, I was able to learn how her principal and staff worked to engage the community in order to better serve their student population. My Engaging Communities Reflection describes what I learned from this assignment.
Another assignment I was asked to complete was a Community Involvement Plan. For this assignment, I looked more closely at how my principal and staff engage the community. I took time to interview my principal so that I could gather the most accurate information possible as well as be as thorough as possible. Through this assignment, I learned a great deal about how my principal engages my school’s community. I was also able to reflect on how I might go about addressing community involvement if I were the principal of the school.
Instead of thinking, “Why are some families so hard to reach?” educators need to be thinking, “What am I doing that makes my school or classroom hard to reach, and what changes do I need to make in order to be reachable?” EDAD 6589 Engaging Communities provided me the opportunity to broaden my perspective of what it means to engage and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders. Through the case studies I explored, the discussions I had with fellow educators and the assignments I completed, I learned that I need to broaden my lens as to the definition of parental involvement and engagement. I learned that parental involvement can take many forms and that it is the responsibility of school leaders to find ways to engage and foster a sense of community engagement within their school setting and population. Sometimes, this may mean breaking away from strategies, methods or processes that we are familiar and comfortable. Moving forward, I hope to take what I learned during my time participating in this program and use it to better engage my school community through two-way communication, building relationships with families where we work together to proactively support our students.
References:
Agbo, S. (2007). Addressing School-Community Relations in a Cross-Cultural Context: A Collaborative Action to Bridge the Gap Between First Nations and the School. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 22(8), 1-14.
Bower, H., & Griffin, D. (2011). Can the Epstein Model of Parental Involvement Work in a High-Minority, High-Poverty Elementary School? A Case Study. Professional School Counseling, 15(2), 77-87.
Castagno, A. (2013). Multicultural Education and the Protection of Whiteness. American Journal of Education, 120(1), 101-128.
Elias, M., & Buzelli, C. (2013). The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Policies and Practices That Favor Incarceration Over Education Do Us All a Grave Injustice. Teaching Tolerance, 39-43.
Madsen, J., & Mabokela, R. (2014). Leadership Challenges In Addressing Changing Demographics in Schools. NASSP Bulletin, 98(1), 75-96.
Robbins, C., & Searby, L. (2013). Exploring Parental Involvement Strategies Utilized by Middle School Interdisciplinary Teams. School Community Journal, 23(2), 113-136.
Westmoreland, H., Bouffard, S., O’Carroll, K., & Rosenberg, H. (2009, May 1). Data Collection Instruments for Evaluating Family Involvement. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from http://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/publications-resources/data-collection-instruments-for-evaluating-family-involvement
Adventures in Teacher Leadership 
Mallory, Your post is an excellent summary of our class and learning. You clearly addressed the important learning points. You may consider adding how you will use this new learning in the future.