Making Sense of Transition

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Listening to Voices Across Contexts in Family, School, Community Partnerships (Table 22)

Abstract

This qualitative phenomenological study highlights the sensemaking of 11 mothers identifying as People of Color related to their engagement experiences during the transition from preschool to elementary school. Participants described their idealized schema of engagement, as flexible, learning-oriented, and both accepted and expected, as well as consistent. And yet, they were forced to reconcile their ideal with the reality they experienced. Their sensemaking of this reality was informed by contexts of trust, role, and identity and contributed to the ways they engaged in relationship building, information gathering, advocating, or some combination of all three. These findings have implications for parent engagement policies and practices, as well as for future research.

Author

• Daron E. Cyr, The Hewitt School