Parents’ Perspectives on ‘Good’ versus ‘Bad’ home-school communication practices

• In Event: Home-school engagement and partnerships

Abstract

Communication is vital to developing and maintaining trust between K-12 schools and families. Bi-directional communication involves both participants feeling empowered to initiate and/or respond within communicative acts. This means that both teachers and families feel empowered to begin conversations or honestly answer questions. This qualitative study examined six parents’ perceptions of good and bad home-school communication practices. Findings showed good characteristics included easily accessed information, consistent use of user-friendly platforms, and direct communication. Poor communication strategies included overwhelming amounts of information, lack of support in messaging, inconsistent methods of delivery, and neglecting important information. Schools need to understand families’ communication preferences in order to create partnerships that feel meaningful and to avoid training families to tune out from their messages.

Author

• Laura Teichert, Western Michigan University