Abstract
Recent years have borne evidence of a resurgence of calls for schools to include families in school decision-making as part of a broader movement for equitable family-school partnerships; these partnerships require strong parent-teacher relationships characterized by mutual trust. However, such relationships are inevitably shaped by systems and histories related to racialization and power. This article explores how culturally and linguistically diverse families alongside teachers from the dominant school culture can begin building trusting relationships in spite of inequity. Its basis is an in-depth analysis of family-educator interactions in a participatory design-based research project in Salt Lake City, UT. We extract what we call moments of connection — moments when participants connected with one another despite the personal, historical, social, and institutional forces that so often divide them. We utilize these moments to suggest avenues for building trust, solidarity, and increasingly humanizing forms of engagement in our schools and communities.
Highlights
Recent years have borne evidence of a resurgence of calls for schools to include families in school decision-making as part of a broader movement for equitable family-school partnerships; these partnerships require strong parent-teacher relationships characterized by mutual trust
The remainder of the participants were educators from various levels of the K–12 system; the majority of these were White and and worked in west side schools while living outside of that area. These individuals and others had gathered 3 times over the course of a month to discuss how families and educators could better collaborate regarding shared decision-making at school sites. They were engaged in redesigning a form of site-based school decision-making called School Community Council (SCC), a body legislated to include parents in the development of school improvement plans and the disbursement of state funds
Building such relationships between culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families and educators from the dominant school culture requires more than opportunities for families and educators to become acquainted with each other (Park & Paulick, 2021)
Summary
Recent years have borne evidence of a resurgence of calls for schools to include families in school decision-making as part of a broader movement for equitable family-school partnerships; these partnerships require strong parent-teacher relationships characterized by mutual trust. The remainder of the participants were educators from various levels of the K–12 system; the majority of these were White and and worked in west side schools while living outside of that area These individuals and others had gathered 3 times over the course of a month to discuss how families and educators could better collaborate regarding shared decision-making at school sites. Collaboration requires strong, positive relationships between families and professional educators; these relationships must be characterized by mutual trust, understanding, openness, valuing of each other’s assets, and shared power (Bryk & Schneider, 2003; Clarke, Sheridan, & Woods, 2010) Building such relationships between culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families and educators from the dominant school culture requires more than opportunities for families and educators to become acquainted with each other (Park & Paulick, 2021). We reflect on our first project together
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