The Five R's: A Research-Based Framework to Understand Family Engagement in STEM

• In Event: Fly Me to the Moon: Family, School, and Community Partnerships Support STEM Learning

Abstract

Objective
Although the importance of family engagement is clear, how to effectively engage families in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is more elusive. The purpose of this presentation is to explore a framework, called the 5Rs, to build and organize family engagement in STEM across the many contexts in which children and youth learn.

Perspectives
Over fifty years of research from fields including neuroscience, developmental psychology, and education confirm that when families are engaged in learning, children are more likely to succeed both academically and socially in school and beyond (van Voorhis, et al., 2013). Research from organizational management and education reform also shows that family engagement efforts are most effective – and most likely to bring about equitable opportunities for all children – when they are systemic. This means that schools and communities must go beyond isolated acts of engaging families, and instead must planfully weave family engagement practices throughout the entire program, as well as across learning settings such as homes, afterschool programs, museums, and libraries. The 5Rs provides a systemic framework that can help move family engagement in STEM from the periphery of the work of schools and informal learning settings to the core.

Methods and Data Sources
The 5Rs framework was developed from an in-depth review of the literature and semi-structured interviews about family engagement practices with librarians and educators from around the country.

Results
The five family engagement processes that compose the framework include:
• Reach out: Reach out means that STEM educators actively seek to make contact with families, and take steps to be inclusive, especially towards families who might be hardest to reach.
• Raise Up: Raise up is about STEM educators elevating family perspectives to ensure that STEM programs are culturally responsive and relevant to a learner’s community and cultural orientation.
• Reinforce: Reinforce refers to the way that STEM educators, researchers, and policymakers can guide and model the specific actions that families can take to support STEM learning from infancy through young adulthood, including creating STEM-rich home environments, promoting mindsets that promote strong STEM identities, and participating in supportive STEM interactions with students.
• Relate: Relate is the process in which families and children not only are given opportunities to learn STEM together, but also build strong adult-child relationships, with caregivers, teachers, and other educators.
• Reimagine: Reimagine refers to myriad stakeholders in institutions where STEM learning occurs joining together to create multiple pathways by which families can get involved in their children’s STEM learning over time and across settings.

Scientific Significance
This presentation contributes to the knowledge base around family engagement in STEM by providing a framework that can help researchers organize their investigations and can allow practitioners to situate their work in evidence-based practice.
References:
Van Voorhis, F.L., Maier, M. F., Epstein, J. L., Lloyd, C. M. (2013). The impact of family involvement on the education of children ages 3 to 8: a focus on literacy and math achievement outcomes and social-emotional skills. New York: MDRC

Authors

• Margaret Caspe, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement

• Elena Lopez

• Joy Lorenzo Kennedy, New York University