Authentic Partnerships with Families
The Charge
Situate families as authentic partners with school-based educators, nurturing two-way communication and valuing the contributions across stakeholders in homes and schools.
RESEARCH FINDINGS:
Families and educators stepped up during the pandemic, developing empathy for one another’s realities and communication systems spanning home and school.
Parents had Zoom windows into US schools to understand children’s daily experiences, as they provided structure and support for distance learning and nurtured learning through an array of activities at home, in the community, and for online schooling.
Educators found sites and apps to translate into multiple languages, built relationships and nurtured engagement in response to work schedules and home languages, and charted paths for family engagement that did not exist prior to the pandemic.
Potential Action Steps:
Recognize and elevate the unique ways that students and families learn and use language in their homes and communities.
Embrace education as a partnership between home and school, where families and educators both make valuable contributions.
Continue offering online options conferences between educators and families. Use these as opportunities to learn about one another.
Continue using tools that worked during the pandemic to maintain daily communication between home and school.
