Centering Connections: Home-School Liaison as Institutional Agents in a Family-School Partnership

• In Event: Building Community: Innovations in Social Media, Networks, and Technology

Abstract

This year’s conference focuses on Accepting Educational Responsibility, and this proposal highlights the experiences and expertise of the participants in their studies. In the following paper, we report on the case study narratives of six home school liaisons who belong to the same communities for whom they interpret, families with refugee backgrounds in two school districts in a Northeastern state. Through the interview data, we examine the role of liaisons as institutional agents who reconceptualize the resource potential of their roles as community insiders to advocate for the families. As such, this report explores the research question, In what ways do institutional agents with refugee backgrounds conceptualize and enact their roles as cultural brokers for families in their same community?

Authors

• Cynthia C. Reyes, The University of Vermont

• Shana Haines, University of Vermont

• Arby Mohamed Ghemari, University of Vermont