Teachers and Parents as Partners: Creating Meaningful Connections through Collaboration

• In Event: Centering Family Voice: Partnership Interventions with Marginalized Families

Abstract

Latinx students represent approximately 25% -- the second largest group -- of the U.S. school population (Bauman, 2017). Many familial and personal assets among Latinx students can enhance their learning and well-being, yet they experience large disparities in educational opportunities and outcomes. Although Latinx culture values warm, close, supportive family relationships (familismo) and home education that compliments formal learning in school (educación), Latinx parents often report feeling unwelcome, misunderstood, and frustrated when interacting with schools (Hill & Torres, 2010).

Family-school partnerships provide a context for culturally-congruent interventions by which meaningful educational outcomes for Latinx students may be realized (Author, 2012). Teachers and Parents as Partners (TAPP; Author, 2014; previously known as Conjoint Behavioral Consultation; CBC; Author, 2008) is a family-school partnership intervention that focuses on promoting children’s social-behavioral skills and mental health. It is an individualized and responsive intervention uniquely positioned to bridge systems and create continuities for students who are exposed to challenges or adversities that interfere with learning. TAPP provides a context for removing structural barriers to interacting and communicating, an interpersonal climate that prioritizes positive interactions and understanding, and a mechanism for shifting mindsets about how parents and teachers engage as partners. Previous research has revealed that the parent-teacher relationship is an active ingredient (i.e., mediator) of TAPP’s effects on students’ adaptive behaviors and social skills (Author, 2102; 2017a,b). To date, TAPP has not been examined as an intervention to support families of Latinx children or enhance partnerships between Latinx parents and teachers.

The purpose of the present mixed methods study was to identify the effects of TAPP on Latinx parents and their children’s teachers. We used an explanatory sequential design (Creswell & Guetterman, 2019) to discern the effects of and experiences with TAPP among Latinx families and teachers. To identify treatment effects, we used a randomized control trial (155 parents nested within 131 teachers) and ANCOVA (accounting for nesting) as the analytic approach. To support interpretation and seek clarification from parents’ and teachers’ personal points of view, we conducted qualitative data collection in the form of focus groups post-intervention and analyses of TAPP meeting recordings. Focus groups were comprised of 13 parents (7 Spanish-speaking) and 17 teachers. Audio recordings of parent-teacher consultation (TAPP) meetings allowed us to explore the interpersonal and relational changes that occurred across the intervention.

Quantitative and qualitative outcomes are in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. We found positive effects of TAPP on parent-teacher relationships, interaction quality, problem solving competence, and teacher strategy use. Themes derived from parent and teacher focus groups corroborate these findings and align around topics of connections, voice and understanding, self-efficacy, and cultural fit. A rich discourse within the parent-teacher meetings allowed us to glean exemplars of each theme, thereby illuminating the emergence of relationship dynamics within TAPP. A consistent finding across surveys, focus groups, and meeting sessions was the emergence of Latinx families feeling relevant and empowered, and having voice in their child’s education. Future partnership research with Latinx families will be discussed.

Authors

• Susan M. Sheridan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  Presenting Author

• Lorey A Wheeler, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Elizabeth S. Brower, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Sunhyoung Lee, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Matthew Gormley, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Amanda Witte, University of Nebraska - Lincoln