Collaborating with the parents of the students in a classroom can be a very challenging task. Ms. Roberts was telling me during class that she has not had very many parent teacher meeting in the three years that she has teached at this particular school. Also, the school has not a Parent/Teacher Organization established in the school. This fact could have multiple reasons. This school is located in a low income area of the state. Parents may not have the time to make an appointment with the teacher due to the long work hours they have to put in to make the household function and put food on the table. Due to the current economic crisis that is going on in the United States, many families do not have their own transportation. A family without transportation would find it difficult to meet with a teacher even if they felt as though it was important.
If I was the teacher of this class this classroom their are some challenges that I could forsee in collaborating with the parents of my students. About fifty percent of the students in the class are Hispanic. If these parents wanted to meet with me it would be difficult to properly communicate the very important information concerning their child. The fact that I am a white American who is teaching a one hundred percent Hispanic and African American class might give these parents the impression that I might not be able to properly teach these children due to my sociopolitical views or due to the culture gap between my students and I. Many parents do not think that it is important to speek to the teacher possibly because there was never an effort made in the past by a teacher to try to get the parents involved in the education of their child.
By addressing problems associated with collaborating properly with parents is the first step towards a solution. As stated by Johnson in reference to the social systems that we are involved in (school being a rather large social system),"We're involved (in social systems) simply through the fact that we are here. As such, we can only choose how to be involved, whether to just be part of the problem or also to be part of the solution." As teachers we could choose to be part of the solution by attempting to change the system. If there has not been a PTA established in the school, it would be a good idea to try and contact parents in an attempt to get volunteers in order to create a PTA. As teachers, we could send home reports on the students work and tests, whether it be good or bad, in order to get the parents involved in the education process. Send letters home to the parents to get them to attend parent/teacher conferences. Speak with parents who may have financial problems or transportation problems in order to set up convenient time for meetings. When parents who speak another language come in to speak with me, I would try to get a translator or ask parents to bring someone who could translate if I could not provide one.
Try to keep an open about the parents who still do not participate, because these people may have extraneous circumstances that I may not be aware of and that they do not want to share. Some of the most important advice that Lisa Delpit may have stated in her article, "Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" is that we must listen to these parents whose oppinions may differ greatly than mine.
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agree with Mike when he says that getting the parents involved is extremely important. Some of the difficulties he listed include lack of transportation, lack of time due to long hours at work, racial, ethnic and language differences. Others include a cultural gap, and a prior negative experience with a former teacher. I mentioned both the language differences as well as the economic challenges that many families face. Both of us mentioned using an interpretor when necessary.
ReplyDeleteI agree with his use of Johnson that we are part of the social system by the mere fact we are here. We can only choose how to be involved: whether to be part of the solution or part of the problem.
I also like his idea of encouraging the parents to join a PTA or to start one if none is available. Also, parent teacher conferences are a great idea as well as sending work/tests home to give the parents feedback. I would suggest having the parents sign the work as proof that they actually saw it. That's what we do with my daughter's work, tests and report cards.
Both of us agree that encouraging parental involvement is very important. We also need to keep an open mind regarding those parents who either can't or don't want to get involved in their child's education.
We both agree that the parents have great input to give us reguarding their children's education, and thus are a crucial resource we need to take advantage of.
Hey Mike! I have really enjoyed reading through your prompts and I must say that this topic is one that has really demanded my attention over the course of the semester. One of the boys who I have worked with seems to be in a tough place. In my time there, Ned's parents have constantly been pulling him out of class early, if he showed up to class at all. He's a really sweet boy, kind of quiet, but really a great student when given the encouragement. The teacher in my classroom has recently informed me that he is going to be repeating her class next year considering how much he has missed out on. It puts me in a hard spot to think that this child who is full of so much potential was not able to take full advantage of his education. It is obvious when you're with him that he does have a drive to learn, but at the same time he goes through great lengths to hide his excitement. I always leave wondering, why would he try to hide the fact that he enjoys learning? Then I can't help but to think that maybe it just isn't valued in his household, but I hope that's not the case. You hit on a lot of really good points in your prompt involving why a teacher should not be quick to judge and always willing to adapt. I agree that a teacher should keep an open mind and try to accommodate the needs of the parents for the sake of the child because sometimes life does get in the way. Though I do have a question to pose to you. Delpit wrote about parents replying to a school's urging by saying, "But that's the school's job." Even if we understand where they are coming from in saying this, how do we avoid letting children like Ned fall through the cracks based on cultural differences? I'm still working on my post for this one...
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