They Should be Involved, But It Doesn’t Happen: Barriers to Family-School Partnerships

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04.The Role and Influence of Teachers: Session II

Abstract

Family involvement has become increasingly recognized as important to academic success (Barnard, 2004; Henderson et al., 2007). However, the cultural gap between the American teaching force and American students is large and expanding. As the cultural gap increases, so do the challenges associated with relationships between families and schools (Harry, et al., 2005).

We studied eighteen classroom teachers and five principals in a large urban school district. The teachers had taken a course together on family engagement. The work of Bourdieu (1986; 1990) and Bourdieuian scholars (Harry, et al., 2005; Lareau, 2003) formed the foundation of the course, which is designed to help teachers to understand the symbolic and cultural capital diverse families. Focus groups data suggest that teachers recognize the differing habitus of diverse families, but school officials do not. This creates school policies that unwittingly maintain officials’ positions of power at the expense of family partnerships.

We investigate the unintended consequences of school policies that fail to recognize the homogeneity of habitus shared by school personnel but not by student families. Participant teachers have had training that could allow them to bridge between the home and school, but they are still limited by school policies. We suggest that the failure to recognize the diversity of families within the field of the school greatly impacts family engagement. Further, this manifests as multiple restrictions on both family engagement and resistance from parents to engage.

Authors

• Stephanie C. Sanders-Smith, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Olivia R Soutullo, University of Florida

• Tina M Smith-Bonahue, University of Florida