Parents and Family as Partners
Use of parenting knowledge and skills is one way in which teachers can encourage parent and family involvement in the education process. This involves encouraging the parent to become involved in their child’s education because early parent involvement has the most powerful effect on a child’s education. One way in which teachers can do this is by educating parents of young children on the skills they need to help them nurture their children’s educational success. This could include literacy training as well as child development studies. Research shows that when parents are involved in a child’s learning, children receive higher grades, have better school attendance rates and show increased motivation in the learning process (Morrison, 2009).
Of importance too is the communication between the home and school regarding the child’s education. This involves either home visits by the teachers or the traditional parent teacher conferences. In whichever approach taken, teachers can encourage communication by adequate planning to allow for flexibility on both ends, creating a rapport with the family, giving the family a chance to speak, keeping the meeting positive, and following up on the conference or home visit. Research shows that when there is adequate communication between the home and school, the children become more involved in their education and their self-esteem increases, as the focus of these meetings is their development (Morrison, 2009).
Teachers should also encourage family involvement in schools and communities by encouraging volunteerism. This involves familiarizing oneself with parents, professionals, and other community groups, who can volunteer in the school and in the community towards the students’ education and encouraging their participation. This can be done by coming up with a list of professionals and other people in the community, including the parents themselves, who can speak to or work with the students. This kind of interaction between the community and the students is important as it shows as well as creates opportunities for the students to reach their full potential (Michigan Department of Education [MDE], 2002).
Because school going children spend more than 70 percent of their time outside home, it is important that teachers encourage and support student learning at home (MDE, 2002).This involves parents helping their children with their homework, projects and other school-related activities. Teachers can encourage this by providing families with information on what is required of the students at each level, as well as facilitating family participation in setting of the student’s goals during the academic year. Encouraging and supporting home learning is important as it encourages better academic performance for the students as well as family involvement in the student’s education process (Morrison, 2009).
Schools should also encourage involvement of parents in decision-making and advocacy. This including parents in decisions made about their children at school as well as developing them towards becoming parent-association leaders and representatives. This can be done by providing networks where all families are linked with parent representatives, as well as encouraging parent activity in parent organizations. Additionally, schools can encourage involvement by facilitating formation of independent groups that advocate for reform and improvement in schools. Involving parents in decision-making is important as parents get a voice in the school’s development, encouraging involvement in their children’s education (Morrison, 2009).
Finally, teachers should encourage family collaboration with the community, aimed towards the child’s education progress. This involves identifying community programs and resources that strengthen students’ learning and development. This can be done by providing information about cultural, health, recreational, and other community programs that are aimed at honing the students’ talents as well as improving their academic performance. Such collaboration with the community is important as it creates opportunities for students to develop their talent, as well as improves their social skills (MDE, 2002).
References
Michigan Department of Education. (2002). What research says about parent involvement in children’s education: In relation to academic achievement. MI.
Morrison, G. S. (2009). Early childhood education today (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]