Parent Leaders Research Articles

Social Heteroglossia: The Contentious Practice or Potential Place of Middle-Class Parents in Home?School Relations

Middle-class parents have often been characterized as individualistic in their endeavors with schools and have been shown to advocate to the cultural advantage of their own children with questionable consequences or counter results for the children of others. This research paper situates the activity, influence, and multiple perspectives of the middle class upon school activity, even within a reform effort characterized by and supportive of diversity and community. School people and parent leaders in this research operated under the mandate of “promoting partnerships to increase parental involvement and school participation to encourage the social, emotional, and academic growth of children.” Findings feature contrasting elements of middle-class activity influencing and structuring home–school relations within a diverse school community. The research illuminates the tensions and possibilities within this urban community, raises questions, and offers alternative interpretations of middle-class activity to a greater degree than usual. The Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia allows interpretations of the actions and motivations among parents, providing options when parent populations comprise contrasting social groups. The conclusion not only highlights middle-class standards at work within partnership activities but also raises questions about how to best utilize leadership potential of strong cadres of parent volunteers in activities of organizations like PATHWAYS and Parent Teacher Organization.

Reaching Out to African American Parents in an Urban Community

Actively involving African American parents in their children’s education remains one of educators’ greatest challenges. The authors, representing a metropolitan university, developed and implemented parent leadership training (PLT) to assist African American parents in rediscovering their leadership skills to help their children succeed in school. This article describes the impact of PLT on these African American parents in an urban community. Quantitative and qualitative data collected provided evidence that PLT affected participants on four levels: personal, family, school, and community.

Community Development Approaches for Early Intervention

This study assessed the impact of a project that used a community development framework to implement change in early care and intervention services in two culturally diverse communities. Two aspects of community development are emphasized: the change process, which involves creating a community planning team to identify and implement change strategies; and empowerment theory, to develop and test new ways of giving consumers a voice in shaping community-based reform. This article describes how community forums and parent leadership training assisted in change efforts, reports results associated with four short-term outcomes, and discusses lessons learned from implementing and evaluating reforms in culturally diverse and traditionally underserved communities.

Participatory Action Research: Reflections on Critical Incidents in a PAR Project

This article describes a participatory action research (PAR) project designed to evaluate Parent to Parent programs in five states in the United States. The PAR team consisted of two groups: 1) parent leaders of programs that create one-to-one matches between help-seeking parents of children with disabilities and volunteer supporting parents and 2) university-based researchers. Based on a narrative record of the project, critical incidents are presented along with reflections of factors that contributed to the success of the project overall. The project successfully gathered evaluative data about Parent to Parent self-help programs. Results of both the PAR project and the study it created are presented. A process of developing a shared understanding of the programs and of the purposes for evaluating them, along with an on-going willingness of parents and researchers to compromise, led to creative solutions to difficulties that arose in meeting the needs of researchers and parents. As a result of the project, published data from a controlled experimental study are now available showing that Parent to Parent assisted parents in developing more positive views of their circumstances and a stronger sense of efficacy in coping with family and child challenges. Interviews indicated some of the reasons why Parent to Parent succeeds and fails. The study also revealed operational problems in the programs that were previously unrecognized. As a result of the project, the participating programs have made several changes to improve their services and they have begun to use the research data to support their legitimacy to funders and to expand their services to new populations.

Infant transitions: Home to center-based child care

An array of factors are examined which may encourage or impede the infant’s transition from home to center-based care. Specifically explored are the structural climate of the child care center and the inter-related needs of the infant, parent(s), staff, and administrative leadership. Utilizing the conceptual frameworks of Maier (1991) and Greenspan and Porges (1984), guidelines are offered which facilitate the infant’s transition to center-based care in a manner that takes into account the infant’s relational development and enhances attachment quality.

Mentoring New Leadership Roles for Parents of Children with Disabilities

Parent leaders were asked to discuss their experiences in being mentored and in mentoring others. mentoring is viewed as a special relationship that develops between two individuals, where the mentor recognizes a uniqueness or potential in the less experienced person and takes a special interest in the growth of that person. likewise, the proteagea admires or values the experience, knowledge, skill, or behavior of the mentor and wishes to emulate this. seven themes are identified relative to effective mentoring of parents of children with disabilities. mentors model desirable qualities or behaviors; they teach and share knowledge; they provide guidance or advice; they actively listen to thoughts and feelings; they provide support and encouragement; they promote proteageas to others; and mentors make a special commitment of time, energy, and interest in the proteagea's growth. specific mentoring activities are provided. barriers to mentoring are also identified.

Comparison of parents' leadership styles: perceptions of parents and student leaders.

The Parent Leadership Style instrument was completed by 99 students enrolled in a leadership program and also by 129 of their parents. Data were analyzed and reported according to predominant leadership style (Telling, Selling, Participating, and/or Delegating) and effectiveness of leadership. A comparison was made between the parents' self-perceptions and how their children as student leaders perceived their parents. Some suggestions for parents are made relative to the development of leadership skills in students.

Careers in Caring: Mothers of Children with Disabilities

ABSTRACT This study concerns 14 women, mothers of children with disabilities, who have extended their family care-giving responsibilities to disability-related public work. Recognized as parent leaders on the local and state levels, the women described their experiences and talked about their work during in-depth interviews. The women's stories offer testimony to the power of experience in personal change and vocational calling. However, the findings from the interviews suggest that the mothers' public missions represented the ambiguities and contradictions present in women's work of caring for others. One problem described by the women concerned the socially devalued status accorded their activities in terms of economic compensation. Although the women received little or no pay, they reported satisfaction and personal fulfillment with their work. Another dilemma existed for some women who desired professional status and credibility, even though they recognized the unique contributions that parents of chi...

Syllepsis in Larixlaricina: occurrence and distribution of sylleptic long shoots and their relationships with age and vigour in young plantation-grown trees

Production of sylleptic long shoots by 102 young Larixlaricina (Du Roi) K. Koch growing in three plantations was monitored for 5 successive years. Sylleptic long shoots were readily discernible both during development and in subsequent years because of their location, growth pattern, and distinctive morphology. Percentages of trees with current-year syllepsis increased from 67% at age 3 years to 90% at age 6 years. Mean numbers of sylleptic long shoots per sylleptic leader also increased as trees aged. Leaders with heavy syllepsis (21–39 shoots) elongated at a mean rate of 14 mm/day for 60 days; whereas, leaders without syllepsis elongated at 12 mm/day for 60 days. The former then continued elongating for a longer period. Distribution of elongation along the leaders also differed. More segments of equal initial length were marked on sylleptic than on nonsylleptic elongating leaders. Early segments elongated more on the latter than on the former. Sylleptic shoots became evident in late June and more formed acropetally until late July on some trees. They elongated at rates up to 10 mm/day and some continued elongating for as long as did their parent leaders. Syllepsis gives trees apparent advantage as they have greater capacity for foliage production.

A Semester's Tryout of the Preschool Curriculum

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Semester's Tryout of the Preschool CurriculumPaul R. PiercePaul R. Pierce Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Elementary School Journal Volume 54, Number 2Oct., 1953 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/458552 Views: 6Total views on this site Citations: 2Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1953 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Franz Wever, Werner Jellinghaus, Toshimori Shuin Literaturverzeichnis, (Jan 1958): 74–76.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-04851-0_7A. Harry Passow Chapter IV: Organization and Procedures for Curriculum Improvement, Review of Educational Research 24, no.33 (Jun 2016): 221–236.https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543024003221

Doing a Parent's Job

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsLeRoy E. BowmanA parent organization's most important function in bringing home and school together is to provide effective parent education under parent leadership for a large number of mothers and fathers. Mr. Bowman is Director of the United Parents Associations of New York.