Family Engagement In Education Research Articles

Family engagement during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Opportunities and challenges for school social work

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic brought dramatic changes in schooling in the United States and across the world, including abrupt shifts to remote learning, immediate cessation of social contact, intensive family engagement in education and diminished school capacity for social–emotional supports. While the initial national lockdown was temporary, the long‐lasting effects of the pandemic on society are still being revealed. This study contributes to a growing body of research exploring and documenting shifts in school social work practice in the United States during the COVID era. We used qualitative methods to explore how school social workers (SSWers) practised family engagement during the pandemic and their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of increased family engagement. Analysis of interviews with 20 SSWers from three US states (Colorado, Minnesota and Nevada) revealed five primary themes: reasons for family engagement, ways of engaging with families, frequency of family contact, challenges in engaging families and SSWers' attitudes and perceptions about family engagement. Results indicated a need for a comprehensive, organized and strategic family engagement plan in schools as we move into the post‐acute phases of the pandemic. Future research should explore how SSWers may serve as leaders in the development of such plans and how interprofessional practice might advance this agenda further.

TeleNGAGE: Enhancing Collaboration Between Families and Schools

Findings in the literature strongly support the importance of family engagement in education. However, effective partnerships between families and schools are rare, especially in ethnically diverse communities where families may lack efficacy or face structural challenges for engagement. Additionally, educator perspectives toward engagement are often framed by White, middle-class paradigms. Educators often fail to acknowledge structural challenges faced by low-income families or the cultural contributions low-income and/or minoritized families can bring. To facilitate engagement between families and schools, a new ECHO® line, TeleNGAGE, was developed at Oklahoma State University, Educational Leadership program. ECHO®, traditionally used in the field of medicine, has utility for professional development for educators because it offers a platform for case-based learning where real problems are addressed in real-time. Additionally, didactic presentations provide professional development for collaborative learning. Through the lens of Communities of Practice (CoP), this qualitative case study explores how relationships between families and schools changed as a result of participation in TeleNGAGE. Tenets of CoP, negotiated meaning, mutual engagement, and a shared repertoire, support a collaborative approach to addressing complex problems. Findings suggest that a CoP has emerged through TeleNGAGE and has resulted in changes in perspectives across families and educational leaders about “what it means to be engaged,” enhanced family efficacy for engagement, and changes in engagement practice as family voice has expanded through sharing of concerns/perspectives. These findings have important implications for equitable engagement in a convenient, cost-free environment where educators and families can communicate and develop mutually supportive understandings and practices.

The concept of family engagement in education: What are the implications for school‐based rehabilitation service providers?

AbstractThe concept of family engagement within the rehabilitation literature focuses on clinic‐based therapy sessions and is not particularly relevant to therapists working in school settings. In this study, we explored the concept of family engagement as represented in the education literature to provide school‐based therapists with a better understanding of this concept in the school context. We applied scoping review methods for the literature search and screening process, and utilised concept evaluation methodology for our analysis of included articles. Specifically, we examined concept evaluation components, including definition, characteristics, boundaries, preconditions, and outcomes. The search strategy yielded 7112 documents, of which 17 met inclusion criteria. We did not find a clear definition of family engagement in the extant literature; however, there were some common characteristics. Our analysis of boundaries indicated family engagement and parent involvement are not synonymous but are closely linked. We also identified several preconditions for family engagement in education, including: an inviting and inclusive school culture; a broad understanding of engagement; positive educator‐family relationships; and families’ confidence, beliefs and supportive life contexts. Associated outcomes included academic achievement, high school completion and child social‐emotional functioning. We proposed a broad definition based on our analysis of the included articles. Adopting a broad definition of family engagement is important for educators and school‐based therapists to ensure families feel their efforts are meaningful. Educators and school‐based therapists should consider their actions in supporting the individual needs of families, and the identified preconditions that support family engagement. Context and implicationsRationale for this studyThere is confusion around the term ‘family engagement’ in education. This impacts educators and school‐based rehabilitation service providers who have a difficult time engaging with families in the school setting.Why the new findings matterThe findings are essential groundwork for the development of conceptually sound family engagement interventions in both education and school‐based rehabilitation services.Implications for PracticeThis study highlights many implications for practice. To ensure successful partnerships and engagement from all stakeholders, it is imperative that school administrators and educators establish a welcoming, culturally sensitive environment for all families. Additionally, therapists and educators need to be able to support families with diverse backgrounds around navigating the education and healthcare systems. Further training is required to provide culturally sensitive and responsive services to all families. Lastly, the findings demonstrate a need for a broad understanding of family engagement that allows families who engage in non‐traditional ways to feel welcomed and respected in the school space. ​

Understanding the Relation Between Family Engagement in Education and Preschoolers’ Socioemotional and Behavioral Functioning in a Primarily Latinx Sample

Limited literature assessed the relation between family engagement in education and young children’s socioemotional and behavioral functioning. This study investigated these associations longitudinally among urban and low-income, predominantly Latinx preschoolers ( n = 69) and their mothers. Initial home-school conferencing predicted lower levels of child socioemotional and behavioral difficulties about 8 months later (β = −.20, p < .05). Additionally, initial child socioemotional and behavioral difficulties predicted higher levels of later home-based involvement (β = .23, p < .05). Results highlighted bidirectional associations between these constructs and suggested potential avenues to enhance family engagement in education and reduce child socioemotional and behavioral problems.

Syncing with Families: Using Technology in Early Childhood Programs

Family engagement in education has been proven to positively support children’s learning. For many children, their first school experience is now in an out-of-home child care facility where they begin care between six weeks and six years old prior to attending kindergarten. Families of young children depend on child care programs now more than ever, and the importance of family engagement is even more apparent as children spend long hours in the care of others. Innovations in tools and devices, especially the addition of the smartphone, have allowed teachers to leverage technology to meet the individual needs of each family, bridging the gap between school and home like never before. This study, using Epstein’s Framework for Six Types of Parental Involvement examined how early childhood programs use technology to engage families. Based on data from child care directors’ survey responses, three trends emerged: 1) programs used technology mostly to communicate with families, 2) programs leveraged real-time technology to communicate with all family members, and 3) programs still find technology challenging. These findings have implications for teacher preparation programs as well as in-service professional development systems related to the use and application of technology to engage families.

Culturally Embedded Measurement of Latino Caregivers’ Engagement in Head Start: A Tale of Two Forms of Engagement

ABSTRACTPractice and Policy: The preschool years represent a critical time to foster family engagement in education for children growing up in poverty. Yet the ways in which Latino families with lower levels of income engage with their children’s education at home and at school might look different from how middle-income parents from the dominant U.S. culture do, depending on cultural values and beliefs about best ways to support children’s learning as well as on socioeconomic realities that present barriers for traditional forms of engagement. This study sought to examine further the psychometric functioning of a promising new measure of family engagement, developed with and for Latino Head Start families. Research Findings: Results of this study supported continued use of this measure, with clear caveats and directions for future research. Findings suggested that the ways Latino Head Start parents engage with children’s learning and development at home (e.g., supporting children’s social awareness and behavior, connection to cultural heritage, academic skills) might be a more culturally nuanced and salient form of engagement, while school-based engagement (e.g., volunteering at school, communicating with teachers) might be a more universal form. Findings contribute to understandings of Latino family engagement as well as to methodological considerations for culture-specific measurement development efforts, with relevance for early education researchers and professionals.

Family engagement in education and intervention: Implementation and evaluation to maximize family, school, and student outcomes

Family engagement in education and intervention: Implementation and evaluation to maximize family, school, and student outcomes

Parent involvement in beginning primary school: Correlates and changes in involvement across the first two years of school in a New Zealand sample

This study described the relations of parents' and teachers' beliefs and attitudes to forms of parents' involvement in children's first two years of primary school. Parents of children in their first year of primary school (age 5) were recruited from 12 classrooms within four schools in New Zealand; 196 families participated in their child's first year, and 124 families continued to participate in their child's second school year. Parents completed the Family-Involvement Questionnaire, New Zealand, and we archivally collected parent-documented children's oral reading homework. Teachers' rated helpfulness of parents' involvement at school (level 2) and parents' rated teacher invitations to be involved and their perceived time and energy (level 1) contributed to school-based involvement in Year 1 in multilevel models, with parents' rated teacher invitations for involvement also found to predict Year 1 home-school communication in regression analyses. Contributors to Year 1 child-parent reading in multilevel models included level 1 predictors of two or more adults in the home and parents' perceived time and energy. Longitudinal analyses suggested both consistency and change in each form of involvement from Year 1 to Year 2, with increases in each form of involvement found to be associated with increases in parents' and/or teachers' views about involvement in Year 2 in cross-sectional time-series analyses. Implications for schools wanting to engage families are that parents' involvement in children's schooling may be influenced by parents' perceptions of their capacity, teachers' engagement efforts, and the school's climate for involvement. This is a special issue paper “Family Engagement in Education and Intervention”.

From Family Engagement to Equitable Collaboration

Policy makers have long seen parents and families as key levers for improving U.S. student outcomes and success, and new cross-sector collaborative policy and initiatives provide a promising context for innovations in efforts to engage nondominant families in educational equity reform. Drawing on a lens of equitable collaboration, this study examined the strategies in three organizational efforts to improve family engagement in education within a common cross-sector collaboration initiative in a Western region of the United States. Although conventional approaches persisted amid regular exchanges across organizations, we identified more reciprocal, collective, and relational strategies: (a) parent capacity-building, (b) relationship-building, and (c) systemic capacity-building efforts. Despite promising strategies, the dynamics of implementation in the cross-sector collaborative constrained change and mirrored limitations in family engagement practice and policy. The article concludes with next steps for research, practice, and policy in the journey toward more equitable collaboration.

Discouraging partnerships? Teachers’ perspectives on immigration-related barriers to family-school collaboration.

This study investigates barriers to facilitating family-school partnerships with immigrant families as identified by teachers in an urban school district with high rates of immigration. Participants consisted of 18 elementary teachers who identified predominantly as Hispanic (38.9%) or non-Hispanic White (33.3%), were frequently bilingual (55.6%), and were mostly female (94.4%) with an average age of 36.5 years. Participants engaged in focus group interviews that were transcribed and open-coded. Barriers to engagement for immigrant families fell into 3 broad areas: language and culture, family resources, and families' undocumented status. Many teachers attributed the barriers preventing parental collaboration to school policies (94.4%) and ineffective communication strategies (83.3%). Teachers also identified barriers as emanating from the families themselves, including families not attending school functions (88.9%) and being unresponsive to school-initiated communication (72.2%). Teachers noted that many families lacked resources necessary for school engagement (88.9%) and were hesitant to become engaged with schools due to required screening procedures (55.6%). Overall, numerous barriers to effective family engagement were identified, several of which are directly related to immigration and residency status. Given the strong evidence suggesting that family engagement in education mediates risk for children of recent immigrants, strategies to foster meaningful engagement for all families are desperately needed (Naughton, 2004). Roles for school psychologists to facilitate effective family-school partnerships are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Centering Family Knowledge to Develop Children’s Empowered Mathematics Identities

Researchers and educational leaders have long debated the appropriate roles and forms of family engagement in education. Although, in recent years, scholars have sought to understand how racially and linguistically diverse communities should participate in their children’s education, the field has struggled to recognize and engage families’ expertise and disrupt the dynamics of inequity that shape disengagement. In this article, we highlight recent understandings regarding the development of disciplinary identities and cultural practices in learning to offer new approaches to the field of family engagement for conceptualizing the untapped potential of nondominant family knowledge and cultural practices in learning settings. By highlighting examples from mathematics learning that center families as legitimate sources of knowledge, we suggest avenues for engaging diverse family leadership in co-designing equitable learning environments that foster students’ empowering disciplinary identities and learning.

Family Engagement Within Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Parent educational involvement is an important avenue for enhancing student outcomes. Schools seek myriad ways to include families; however, the parent involvement practices used by schools lack coordination and are disconnected from existing school approaches. Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a systematic and coordinated framework used in more than 19,000 schools to support student behavior. Despite its success, PBIS implementation underemphasizes comprehensive systems for engaging families. The purpose of this article is to present a framework of family engagement within PBIS. The purpose of coordinating and sequencing family engagement within PBIS is to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, and durability of PBIS by supporting students across settings. Furthermore, this model extends current parent involvement frameworks by coordinating systematic family engagement in education.