"We Make the Road by Walking": Understanding and Cultivating Relationships Through the Use of Portraiture in Examining Parent-Teacher Relationships

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Probing the Paradox: Illuminating the Ecology of Education Through Portraiture

Abstract

To address the legacy of the 1968 exit of higher education researchers from the public domain of teachers unions, AERA has made a resounding call to engage in deliberate reconnection between researchers and organizational leaders in education. The inclusion of organizational leaders and practitioners in AERA spaces is an important step in the right direction, but mere inclusion is not enough. In many ways, this mimics researchers’ desire to gain access to sites when conducting research (Glesne, 1999). As important as access is, qualitative researchers know that “access” is only the beginning of a longer and complex relationship between the researcher, the community, and participants. This presentation explores the contours of relationship-building that occurs between researchers and participants as well as within the field of study through the use of portraiture.

Portraiture recognizes the relational aspects of research in the field. In this presentation, I will focus on the relational elements of portraiture in two ways. First, in portraiture, researchers and their interlocuters are seen as equal participants in the production of knowledge (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997). In the study, I explore narratives of teachers who engage students’ families and view the partnerships with parents and caregivers as central to their work as educators. To understand the complex motivations for family engagement and the myriad interactions these teachers hold with parents and caregivers, it is essential that I recognize the centrality of relationships and craft a relational approach to the research process.

I will also explore the role of portraiture as a methodology that effectively illuminates the complex and evolving relationships that teachers in my study build with students’ parents and caregivers. Too often, educators and researchers move quickly to pathologizing the parent-teacher relationship. While challenges certainly exist in parent-teacher communication and partnership, we must also explore goodness in education and its humanizing role (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997). I will discuss the ways portraiture demands us to explore deeply and understand goodness in the examination of parent-teacher relationships (Author, in press). This can be an invaluable methodological framework for understanding how relationships in the field are cultivated, built, and fostered, particularly within cultural environments where racism, bias, and trauma influence how individuals view and perceive each other.

To blend the methodological discussion of portraiture with the substantive nature of this study, I will also discuss the ways the search for goodness and the centrality of relationships guide the empirical findings. The use of portraiture challenges some of the deficit orientations educators hold towards families. This study concludes that teachers can and should: work with (not in spite of) families, expect challenges (not simplicity), build (don’t assume) trust, and reject “one-size-fits-all” approaches to engaging families (Author, manuscript under review).

In an era where researchers seek reconnection with school and community practitioners and organizational leaders, it is essential to interrogate the use of methodologies like portraiture which move us beyond mere issues of inclusion and access and towards the (re)creation of just and equitable relationships between researchers and the communities they serve.

Author

• Soo Hong, Wellesley College