Family-School Values

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Philosophical Critiques of Contemporary Trends in Educational Policy and Practice

Abstract

Joyce Epstein’s scholarship on family-school partnerships has exerted tremendous influence on educational policy and practice. However, the theory supporting her work— “Overlapping Spheres of Influence”—has been critiqued for neglecting conflicts between parents and schools. Seeking to vindicate the basic value of Epstein’s theory, I use two recent texts Family Values (Brighouse and Swift 2014) and Educational Goods (Brighouse et al. 2018) to offer a normative theory of family-school partnerships. I argue that of all the overlapping goods that schools and families are obligated to produce in children the most substantial and important one is the capacity to form healthy personal relationships.

Author

• John Peter Fantuzzo, Valparaiso University