Partnerships by Design, Essay Example

The issue of learning and development are usually taken for granted by the majority of educators; in case the person has a diploma in pedagogy, and works in a school, he or she believes that the possessed knowledge is sufficient in terms of conducting educational and education-related activities efficiently. However, the educational field is such a rich, changeable, vibrant, and unexpected sector of activity that many teachers find their skills, knowledge, beliefs, and values obsolete, outdated, and inappropriate in certain learning environments. Therefore, there is a need not to innovate, plan, and change all the time, but to explore the very nature of the learning process to become able to adapt to its changes in the course of time. I have learned during this course how limited the assumptions lying in the basis of organizing education are, and how narrow the judgments of teachers are in terms of designing the optimal, friendly, culturally sensitive, adaptable, and responsive classroom environment to let all students get the maximum of their educational opportunities.

The central issues taken for granted, actively discussed, but rarely tackled in the field of education are culture, parental cdevelopment, and literacy. The approach to literacy as teaching students to read and to write is an outdated one; nowadays the most appropriate approach to the issue is to consider literacy a continuous process (Caspe, 2003). There is a new concept of emergent literacy denoting the developmental continuum along which the child later acquires the necessary literacy skills, and it represents the knowledge, skills, and attitudes functioning as developmental precursors for a child (Caspe, 2003). Therefore, it is the task of utmost importance for parents and teachers to establish visible and realistic objectives for children, and to ensure their continuous development instead of senseless pursuit of state-wide objectives for the sake of statistics improvement. Literacy is central to the child’s development, since it will provide the basis for all subsequent academic achievements or failures; hence, the thoughtful and gradual approach to delivering literacy to the child is essential in terms of managing the modern system of education fostering inclusion, individuality, diversity, and the construct of a child as a co-creator of his or her knowledge base.

The importance of parental involvement in the child’s development at school is also a central issue in the formation of an innovative, responsive system of education; parents are eager to participate, but they feel uncomfortable in the school system due to the absence of some skills, knowledge, and expertise. Therefore, it is the task of teachers and school administrators to involve parents in the school life by means of enlightening and educating them about the ways in which they may help, participate, and contribute. The Community Conversations Project (2007) indicated that the holistic approach to child development is possible only in case the educational process involves parents, teachers, principals, community leaders, senior citizens, businesspeople, representative of higher education, etc. The present idea proves the need for the joint community formation of educational practices, from which both the community and students will benefit greatly.

The basics of parental involvement in education have been discussed by many researchers; the specialists of the Harvard Family Research Project (2006) claimed that the participation of parents in the child’s education lead to increased social competence, cognitive development, stronger communicative skills, literacy development, etc. At the same time, Ellis and Hughes (2002) assumed that the combination of efforts by teachers, parents, and school administrators leads to the increased student attendance and achievement, and the decreased discipline problems. Thus, as one can see, parental involvement is a very successful and potentially beneficial alternative for all participants of the educational process because all of them strive to increase students’ academic outcomes.

Finally, the issue of cultural responsiveness, diversity, awareness, and sensitivity acquire new shades of meaning in the field of education as well. Though the times of racial discrimination, segregation, divide, and hatred seem to have ended a couple of decades ago, there are still issues undecided for the representatives of many races, ethnicities, and minorities, especially in the USA and Canada. Historically, the countries have experienced a divide between the Native population and the European settlers; further on, the US history has been complicated by the slavery issues, and finally, both Canada and the USA have found themselves torn apart by racial conflicts. Therefore, despite the fact that the 21^st century is characterized by growing inclusion, diversity, and racial tolerance, educators’ role is to be cultural mediators, aligning various cultures, and communicating the democratic and loyal values to future members of adult societies (Trumbull, Rothstein-Fisch, & Greenfield, 2000). It is obvious that even nowadays, cultural differences are capable of blocking communication, which is the main reason for inefficiencies of education for Hispanic, Asian, or Native American students. Thus, teachers have to seek new ways of targeting the cultural differences, incorporating each child’s unique cultural peculiarities into the open and tolerant classroom, and approach parents in a culturally sensitive way as well.

Pardon, Waxman, and Rivera (2002) have noted the significant divide in academic achievement between white and Hispanic students, which is explained by the partially imposed stereotype about lower expectations about academic possibilities of such students. Thus, taking into account that prejudices and stereotypes still exist and affect the perceptions about some minorities, it is essential to follow the advice of Almanzan (2005), and to arrange courageous conversations touching upon the issue of race, white privilege and its roots, in order to increase the racial consciousness, and to stimulate the critical approach to racial issues. I am planning to incorporate all knowledge acquired during this course in my classroom routines – first to ensure that all parents and students realize that they are welcomed to participate disregarding their race, skin color, or religion, and then are shown the ways in which they can participate. I believe that such an action plan will become a great empowerment for all parents, no matter what cultural peculiarities of life modes and communication they have. Knowing how they can help their children in studies is likely to empower and stimulate any parent; at the stage when they decide to participate, I will apply the six types of parental involvement designed by Epstein to help parents choose the way of involvement most suitable, comfortable, and affordable for them.

References

Almazan, J. (2005). Courageous conversations and culturally relevant teaching. SchoolsMovingUp: A WestEd Initiative. Pacific Educational Group.

Caspe, M. (2003). Family literacy: a review of programs and critical perspectives. Family Involvement Network of Educators (FINE). Harvard Family Research Project, pp.1-10.

Ellis, D., & Hughes, K. (2002). Partnerships by design: cultivating effective and meaningful school-family-community partnerships. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Portland, OR, pp. 1-56.

Harvard Family Research Project (2006). Family involvement in early childhood education. Harvard Graduate School of Education. No. 1 in a series (Spring 2006), pp. 1-8.

Padron, Y. N., Waxman, H. C., & Rivera, H. H. (2002). Educating Hispanic students: obstacles and avenues to improved academic achievement. Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence, pp. 1-25.

The Community Conversation Project (2007). Educating the Whole Child: The New Learning Compact. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, pp. 1-8.

Trumbul, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P. M. (2000). Bridging cultures in our schools: new approaches that work. WestEd, pp. 2-16.