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[Author abstract] The purpose of my research study was to describe minority parents' perceptions of how they overcame challenges, sustained involvement, and remained highly involved in their child's education. Participants' perceptions were viewed through the theoretical frameworks of appreciative inquiry, positive psychology (Seligman, 1998) and humanistic psychology (Maslow, 1943). A qualitative descriptive multi-case study research design applied appreciative inquiry theoretical research perspective to describe the minority parent's perceptions of how they overcame challenges, sustained involvement, and remained highly involved in their child's education. An appreciative inquiry theoretical research perspective centers on the positive core of experiences held by participants. The multiple case study design was selected for utilizing more than one case for evidence and data, thus strengthening the study and increasing its external validity (Yin, 2003). Data were collected through focus groups interviews, and document review. Data were analyzed using pattern matching, the constant-comparative method and CATPAC, a text analysis software designed to show relationships among words. The analyzed data revealed six findings: Six salient findings were derived from my data analysis: (1) Native American and African American parents identified involvement strategies to improve their child's education; (2) African American parents believed there were issues related to minority relationships within the school and community; (3) Native American and African American parents set expectations for their children; (4) Native American and African American parents expressed pride in their children's accomplishments; (5) Native American and African American parents linked family values to their role and responsibility as a parent; (6) Native American and African American parents linked teacher care and respect for their child to the child's success. These findings validate that Native American and African American parents desire to be and can be as successful as any other minority or non-minority parents, at being involved in their children's education. This group of highly involved parents offered several effective strategies for sustaining involvement in their child's education. Communication strategies and recognition for what is important in dealing with school personnel has facilitated these parents in their quest to support and help their child through their educational careers. Both Native American and African American parents demonstrated that a belief system centered on the modeling of core and family values, including instilling the value of an education has proven to be effective positive acts for their children and families. A strong, positive, and optimistic belief system as well as a learned ability for effectively interacting with the school system has facilitated these parents in overcoming challenges and obstacles other minority parents often face. I hope that the findings from this study can contribute to furthering an awareness of, and inspiring future research for minority parent involvement in our schools, as well as opening doors to practice and policy changes facilitating the education of children who greatly need to achieve at higher levels in our schools.
Recent research identifies increased parent involvement in education as a promising method to bolster student achievement. Statistics show that while many traditional white, middle class families have found ways to be involved with their children's schooling, our nation now needs to find ways to include more minority parents in their children's education. Most educators and parents would agree that minority parent involvement in education is essential; the mechanics of developing sensitive, realistic, and workable home-school relationships are more elusive. It requires a concerted effort by all involved to understand more about the complex parent-school relationship and to develop specific plans to help families. This comprehensive volume features substantial material from the nation's most renowned research projects on parent involvement--Stanford University's Center for the Study of Families, Children and Youth, the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Research on Elementary and Middle Schools, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, and the National Catholic Education Association. In addition to a section on research, the book includes a section on practice that presents research-tested strategies on working with minority parents (Asian, American Indian, Hispanic, African American, and other minority groups). The book concludes with a section on future challenges that educators must confront and appendices on promising national programs and helpful resource materials.
Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.
Our purpose in writing this book is to give minority parents (African American, Latino) the tools they need to help their children perform much better in school. The content of the book comes from discovering actual parental practices used by minority families whose children excel at school. Our research teams went to public schools in minority neighborhoods in New York City and Long Island to find high-achieving minority children. We then visited their families and interviewed the parents and children separately to uncover what the parents did to warrant such high achievement. It is these minority parents who are the instructors in this book. We have talked with them, wrote down their stories, and extracted the parental practices that we call kernels. Kernels are seeds in the plant world. The kernels on an ear of corn are the seeds needed to grow the next generation of corn. We use this term in the sense that each parental practice that we highlight in this book should be viewed as a seed for a childs academic growth. Our research teams highlight ninety-six kernels and embed many more practices in the text that bolster academic achievement. It is a resource that minority parents can use to give their children the opportunities that result from an emphasis on academics. The book is also designed for educators to use in their everyday interactions with minority and nonminority parents.
One challenge for many urban elementary principals is getting African American parents involved in their children's education. During the International Successful School Leadership Project (ISSP) on principals who improved the academic achievement of children in challenging schools, two predominantly African American urban elementary schools were found that had high minority parent involvement. The purpose of this study was to learn what made their parents differ from the minority parents discussed in the literature. A case study format was chosen with a purposeful selection of 33 interviewees. Forty-six additional transcriptions from previous studies were also utilized as data. Data was collected through interviews, observations and documentation. Constant comparison was used to analyze data. It was learned that safety, teaching efficacy, social and cultural capital impact upon minority parents involvement. This study is significant because it closes a gap in the literature by demonstrating that teaching efficacy does affect minority parent involvement. It also closes a gap in the literature by introducing a parent-centered parent involvement model that is sensitive to the societal demands of minority and low-income parents.
Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.
One of the main interests in this book focuses on how to persuade parents to get engaged in their childs education. Many authors have studied this evidence that shows this to be an excellent opportunity, for a parent to visit the classroom teacher... The more involved parents are the more they help the academic achievements of their child. This book gives the most suggestions of how to get parents interested in spending time in their childs school and classroom. Also it shows results of how to work with parents and to keep their interest in the schools. My interpretation of these methods stated in my book is the best approach to increase parent involvement and be successful. The Parent Community School Connections Committee was an important part of decreasing the educational gap between students.
For over three decades, much of the research literature examining the involvement of ethnic minority parents in their children's school and education has promoted a school-centred approach to parent involvement that has contributed to the reproduction, rather than reduction, of inequalities in schooling for ethnic minority children. Jurgen Habermas' conceptualization of democracy and the theory of communicative action are used to critique efforts to involve ethnic minority parents in their children's schooling. This book describes how the actions of parents are strategically coordinated by many of the teaching staff through their daily practices and adherence to policies; parents and their concerns are systematically absorbed into the norms and structures of schooling. It also suggests that this might be remedied with outbreaks of democracy. The findings have particular implications for administrators, teachers, and support staff as they illustrate the need for school-based educators to combat dominant school-centred practices of parental involvement and challenge the instrumental rationality underpinning the administrative and economic support of parent involvement.
"Professor Winters, while challenging stereotypes about the capacity of the poor to change and grow, certainly does not gloss over the major barriers. . . .Winters' book is a testament to the strength, the willpower, and the indomitable courage of these African-American women, who by participating actively to improve their children's education, stretched themselves to achieve new goals. . . ". -- Jewelle Taylor Gibbs, University of California, Berkeley; Author, Young, Black and Male in America.