Redesigning Educator Preparation for Family and Community Partnerships

• In Event: Educators Working Toward Equitable, Collaborative Engagement With Historically Marginalized Families: Developing Competence, Commitment, and Skill

Abstract

Objectives & Theoretical Perspectives
Family and community engagement is one of the most important predictors of student and life success, yet educator preparation systems often provide limited opportunities for educators to learn and practice family and community engagement during their preparation and throughout their careers (e.g., Mapp et al., 2022; Epstein & Sanders, 2006). Without proper training on effective family engagement strategies and how to implement them, practitioners and schools rely on transactional family engagement practices that do not reflect a true, mutually beneficial partnership. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how a network of collaboratives of educator preparation programs, family leaders, schools, and community organizations (e.g., faith-based institutions, museums, schools, and afterschool programs) joined together to reimagine and positively influence the system of educator preparation for family and community engagement.
Methods & Data Sources
Data for this paper come from first-year final reports submitted by nine collaboratives taking part in the Family Engagement and Educator Preparation Innovation Project (FEEPIP). The goal of FEEPIP is to spark innovation in how educators are prepared to engage families in diverse local contexts. Nine collaboratives were competitively chosen to conduct rapid cycle 6-month action research projects to impact change. The collaboratives span 8 states, public, private, and minority serving institutions, and diverse geographic regions. We adapted the functions of a qualitative meta-analysis (Levitt et al., 2018; Timulk & Creaner, 2013) to understand thematic patterns emerging in the reports. The three questions that guided our analysis were: What areas of impact do collaboratives focus on? What outcomes can we expect? Under what conditions does change occur?
Results
Collaboratives focused their projects in four main areas: (1) coursework, (2) clinical experience, (3) program redesign, and (4) systems change. For example, collaboratives developed family engagement modules to infuse into ongoing courses, developed family-focused mentoring projects, held focus groups with families and communities to guide program restructuring, and developed statewide family engagement surveys to be used by multiple stakeholder groups. In aggregate, outcomes emerged at multiple levels. Education candidates increased their engagement skills with families, improved their capacity to see families from a strengths-based standpoint, increased their confidence to engage with families, and felt more connected to the community. Assignments, projects, and curriculum became more family-centered, and faculty increased their own confidence and knowledge of the family engagement field. Moreover, practicing educators and mentor teachers increased their knowledge and capacity for family engagement and families and communities becoming more engaged in the educator preparation process. Data also suggest that collaboratives were most successful when they occurred in the context of ongoing relationships and partnerships and where organizations instituted more flexible policies.
Significance
This paper highlights promising directions for enhancing how educators can be prepared to develop strong, trusting, mutual respectful relationships with families. Findings of this paper will be discussed in relation to constructing educational possibilities at the nexus of the fields of family and community engagement and educator preparation including tension around “parental rights” and the need to address teaching shortages and diversification of the teaching workforce.

Authors

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

• Reyna P. Hernandez, National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement

• Cidhinnia Torres Campos, Harvard Medical School