Building bridges between schools and families

Abstract

Engaging parents in school is an aspect of the teachers’ role that remains a white spot in their official training. COVID 19 and the refugee crisis has shifted school focus and increased the challenges teacher face in both the classroom and the communication with the parents. Migrant parents, often coming from different cultural backgrounds, not having a shared language with the teachers or not being confident enough due to their lack of education, are even more often excluded from participating at school, as teachers are not equipped with tools and methodologies to overcome the barriers. The Parents Engage project focuses on supporting teachers in engaging parents of various cultural backgrounds in school successfully. Based on our research, in most countries parental engagement is not a topic covered in initial teacher education, and even if there is a course, it is an elective one, while working with families belonging to the majority population is already flagged as challenging for many schools. The conference presentation will introduce the outcomes of the research done in Parents Engage on the training needs of teachers as well as on successful practices that can serve as inspiration. The presentation will also introduce our evidence-based training for in-service teachers to help them understand the main concepts and benefits of parental engagement and to provide them with support on different obstacles whilst reflecting on their own environment. The main topics of the training cover concepts of parental engagement, managing relationships in diverse school communities, and clarify the role of teachers and parents in the process. The training also offers practical tools and competence development related to these. Parents Engage builds on the experiences and resources of NGOs and community organizations, suggests innovative education methodologies and addresses alternative policies to decision makers to introduce pluralism and diversity in schools.