Barriers and Challenges to Urban School Leaders’ Facilitation of Family-School-Community Engagement

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 2:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Opportunities and Tensions in School-Community-Family Partnerships (Table 1)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate urban school leaders’ perceptions regarding barriers and challenges they experienced in their efforts to facilitate family-school-community engagement. Narrative inquiry was used to answer the research questions of this study. Data were collected through 1:1 interviews and analyzed using narrative and thematic analysis. The barriers and challenges identified were: safety concerns and the role of the school leader. The three conclusions of the study are: leaders can be at multiple stages on the continuum, family-school-community engagement is a family-school-community effort, and stakeholder behavior is a concern.The implications are: leaders should lead, facilitate activities in a variety of settings, create and review norms with stakeholders, and use restorative practices with stakeholders.

Author

• Marissa Moore, Saint Louis University