Family school partnership discourse: Inconsistencies, misrepresentation, and counter narratives

Abstract

Fostering families' connectedness to their children's learning has become a focus for schools, based on growing evidence that family engagement positively influences student learning outcomes. This paper highlights ways in which teachers' family engagement practices can be adversely impacted by limiting and ambiguous terms of reference for family school partnerships. The experiences of four primary school teachers, working within a low socio-economic and culturally and linguistically diverse school community in Melbourne, Australia are the focus of this small-scale study. Teacher participants undertook a two-cycle process of Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), where they examined school family engagement practices to identify opportunities to rethink and ultimately improve practice. The theory of practice architectures provided a scaffold for critical reflection, where the teachers' ways of understanding (sayings), facilitating (doings) and connecting (relatings) with students and their families were critically examined. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, transcripts of reflective practice meetings and reflective practice tools utilised throughout the CPAR cycles. Data analysis was underpinned by a practice architectures framework of cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements to allow for consideration of factors which enable and hinder practice. The study found that the teachers' self-described family engagement strategies initially stemmed from a parent involvement discourse that situated school as the central learning platform, with family and community contexts seen as peripheral. Throughout the CPAR cycles, facilitated reflective practice meetings supported the teacher participants to be able to differentiate family engagement from parent involvement. Teacher participants adapted their homework practices to provide opportunities for informal learning, occurring within family homes and community contexts, with the aim to connect with school curriculum. This study highlights opportunities for teachers to enhance family school partnerships through distinguishing and reconsidering parent involvement and parent engagement practices.