The Personal Is Educational: A Developmental Constructivist Perspective for Professional Development in High-Poverty Schools

• In Event: 72.048 - Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 72.048-7 - Teachers as Community Members: Engagement Practices in and out of Schools

Abstract

Fostering partnerships for meaningful engagement between diverse families and schools requires that teachers have a particular set of inter- and intra-personal skills and dispositions consistent with promoting equity and culturally responsive practice. We examine a model for professional development that acknowledges teachers’ skills as well as their inter- and intra-personal development by combining elements of Epstein’s (2001) model for family engagement with Kegan’s (1982) Developmental Constructivist Perspective. Analysis of data collected from focus groups of teachers working in highly diverse elementary schools suggested that teacher-centric practices, unlikely to effectively engage diverse families, were the most common family-engagement strategies. Teachers reporting family-centered engagement strategies demonstrated more sophisticated inter- and intra-personal cognitive development.
 

Authors

• Tina Smith-Bonahue, University of Florida

• Olivia Soutullo, University of Florida

• Stephanie C. Sanders-Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign