Leading an examination of beliefs and assumptions about parents

Abstract

A body of literature on parent engagement has emerged over the past five decades (Mapp, K. 2013. Partners in Education: A Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships. Washington, DC: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory). Regardless of this extensive research evidence and its promise for improved student outcomes, there are only ‘random acts of parent engagement’ (Weiss, H. B., Lopez, E. L. and Rosenberg, H. 2010. Beyond Random Acts: Family, School, and Community Engagement as an Integral Part of Education Reform. Boston, MA: Harvard Family Research Project) occurring in schools across the globe. Why has the systematic engagement of parents not become integral to all schools? We believe an underemphasised and critical piece in the work to engage parents is leadership to facilitate school staffs’ deep and honest examination of their beliefs about parents, and the place and voice of parents in teaching and learning.