I returned from last night’s School Council meeting at my son’s school bouyed by a sense of possibility. This is the first year that I’ve been a member of an S.C. as a parent and, although I promised my wife that I would spend my first year of service simply observing the procedures and protocols—an unobtrusive bystander, if you will—the temptation to jump in was just too great.
So last night, I was actually on the agenda as Stephen, a surprise given the fact that I really wasn’t on a first-name basis with anyone around the table. Folks put two and two together pretty quickly, however, given the fact that, other than the principal, I was the only guy there.
I stuck around after the meeting and was able to chat with a couple of the parents along with the school administration. After nearly half a year on the Council, I finally felt like a participant and not just a bystander!
I’ll write more about what my “presentation” was all about at another time, but I wanted to pose the question that I found myself asking as I drove home last night; it’s a question that has to do with the place we create for parents in our school.
As a teacher, I’ve been the staff rep on quite a few School Councils, and it has often struck me that, even in our newest schools, we don’t really have a designated space for parents to wait, to gather or to keep their stuff! Even though many jurisdictions have legislation requiring regular parent meetings, it is my experience that these are usually held in the staff room or the school library. Although these are usually the most comfortable spots in the school (!), they usually need to be re-purposed for other gatherings: sensitive material temporarily cleared, furniture re-positioned and all evidence of meeting hidden before staff and students arrive for school the next morning.
But, I’m wondering what it would do to the level of engagement if the creation of a specific place for parents and community were part of the architectural thinking of the modern school. What would happen if all new schools were built with a “community room” specifically designed for School Council meetings? What if different groups could book the room for gatherings during the month, both in the evening and during school hours? What if funding were available to develop a resource library, complete with a couple of computers, media resources, brochures from community services and a good quality coffee machine? What if there were comfortable chairs?
We talked last evening about the reality that the handful of parents that regularly attend most School Council meetings are already engaged in their child’s education and in the life of the school. We also talked about ways to bridge the “engagement gap” that exists in most communities. While most of our conversation centered around how we could push information and resources “out to parents”, I’m thinking that there may be value in thinking about the ways in which we can draw the community into the school.
Could a first step be building the expectation and anticipation of parent engagement into the physical structure of the school? Should the School Council have a place at the drawing board when new buildings are planned or existing ones are re-imagined?
I would love to hear about the places that you have created in your own schools. What space has been created for welcoming and engaging your parent community? How has the parent community been drawn into the plans for your school?
Engagement by design…is it worth a look? Looking forward to your stories.
I think this is a wonderful idea Stephen to be open and inclusive and I am happy that you are viewing the school landscape from a parent’s position. Maybe the dog waking me up early has made me cranky but my immediate reaction to your post about creating a space for parents. Yes, a wonderful idea about working with parents but it is not enough to really bring parents into schools. Yes, some parents will take advantage of the space. The simple fact that schools would be considering parents when a school is designed is a positive thing. Schools should be welcoming places for parents.
My experience has seen those rooms/spaces get taken over by resource programs. Lending libraries collecting dust. Money spent to make it look like parents are part of the landscape.
In MHO the real space that needs designing is in the mind of teachers and principals. Unless educators really believe that working with parents is worthwhile from their standpoint creating physical spaces is a facade that only hides – as you put it recently the elephant in the room.
Lorna, I really appreciate your input on this and I love being pushed on my. I understand what you’re saying about the physical space being a facade–potentially a “cage” for the elephant. (Hmmm…I don’t want to extend that metaphor too far.) From a personal perspective it is certainly interesting becoming involve in our SC while I’m still a practicing educator (practice makes…conflicted?) And your comments about the mindshift that teachers and principals need to do certainly resonates. I’ve even noticed that, in many Council meetings in which I’ve participated, there has been a physical divide in that the parents are lined up on one side of the table while the school staff sits on the other. (Not always the case).
I would love to hear more about this “mindset” and how others are approaching it. When it works, why does it work? What are conditions that others have tried to nurture that have helped with this relationship problem.
I’ll try not to let my early morning caffeine funk cause me to race ahead too far here!
Thanks again for jumping in on this. Your experience and insights are extremely helpful!
What a wonderful idea Stephen! As a hands on parent, I have been on parent councils for as long as I can remember. I think I was on the elementary parent council for 20 years! Currently I am on the parent council at my daughters high school. I am also an Educational Resource Facilitator and I work in a Developmentally Delayed contained class. (ERW in your board) Thinking of the interactions between parents and staff at my school given the language barrier, its a lot of “No” “stop” or “you can go there”. To have a place where they could go and feel comfortable and maybe network with other parents on a regular basis would be such a positive thing. We have a family reading club at my school one night a week where parents come with their children and use the library facilities. We also have a grandparents tea once a month, where Grandparents meet in the library with staff members who speak the same languages. But again things must be shuffled to accommodate. Oh.. to have space and unlimited funding!
Whew! That actually got me choked up as I thought about the “What ifs” and the “Wouldn’t that be nice?” Sadly, I have to agree with Lorna and certainly Gena on the funding aspect of a space for parents or a community room. In a city currently under an Accommodation Review (ARC) each and every school is scrutinized for their excess room or lack thereof; boundaries will be drawn to ensure maximum capacity (under the pretense of maximum efficiency) and community populations will be displaced. There is no “room” for parents at this table. We can barely accommodate our children. Yet, funding and space alone wouldn’t be enough to solve the issue…as Lorna said, there would have to be a complete change in attitude towards the inclusivity and partnership of parents in the schools. Thanks, Stephen…it really is a wonderful concept. Maybe someday…
Traci and Gena I appreciate your comments. What I am suggesting doesn’t need a budget line. I want to expand on my earlier thoughts. Gena, I am not disagreeing with your comments about the need for an identified space for parents in schools. I would like to explore with all here what I believe is meant when the term parent council is used in references to groups of parents and school staff. It is a nuance I think bares mentioning. School Councils have been legislated to be community councils with shared partnership in the guiding schools on their path to support student learning. Many many many people refer to School Councils as Parent Councils and I think that misnomer is a reflection of what many people are thinking when they think about parent groups. Parents are often seen in the context of “what can parents do for schools” or seen as the token group who represent all parents so that schools can say ” we asked the parents”. The shift in thinking and designing spaces with parents would see parents and educators talking about School Councils in terms of community driven initiatives. Which brings me to another point and why I think that we don’t need money to build spaces for parents. They already exist and the spaces are outside of the school building in community centres. There are many parents whose personal experience of school is negative and coming to the school for coffee, meeting or other is not something they are likely to do. In conversation with Joe Mazza when talking about this very thing he shared a wonderful story about taking the time to go to the neighbourhood mosque; how all the parents showed up and how they then began to come to the school building ready to be part of the community in the school itself. As said before it is all about how we perceive the notion of working together. Your thoughts?
Thanks to everyone who has responded at this point. I’m walking into this whole School Council thing with my usual sense of idealism, and it is really important for me to hear (!) the voices with many years of collective experience and, from what I gather, more than a few scars.
I’m listening!!!
Agreed, Lorna. As I said, funding and spacing alone is not enough…we need a shift in attitude towards the inclusivity and partnership of parents in the schools. And considering that these “spaces” already do exist outside of school, it would be great if we could make more of an effort to bridge those gaps, as Joe Mazza has done, by personally reaching out to those community spaces, fostering dialogue & relationships, and welcoming them in return, to “our” community spaces…our schools.
So, go out and get to where they are and invite them back to your place?
Exactly
This sounds like a great idea and a way that more parents could become involved in school life and in feeding through their own values other than committing fully to being involved on a S Council (or as a governor as I think would be the equivalent in the UK). However, one would need to be very sensitive to the dynamics of the communications between parents and staff, between head teacher/principal and parents who are involving themselves in this informal way without too much commitment. It’s easy to make suggestions, ‘talk is cheap’ etc but without the onus to know much about the practical side of running a school and the pressures that would bring, I can imagine the principal & staff being overwhelmed by pressure to act on certain points without the parent ‘body’ appreciating the whole story. So that might generate tensions.
On the other hand, a venue for discussion about the local community, about family life, about babysitting etc should be a boon to all. Its location within a place of common interest should bind the community. My fear then would be that the ‘chattering classes’ would take this over for discussion of topics/activities relevant to them, and those without the luxury of time to sit & talk (who perhaps never come near the school as the kids are dropped off by bus, for example) would still not have their voice heard. What would you do about this ‘widening gap’ between privileged and less so if that were to arise? It seems to me that many initiatives apparently advantageous to school life can end up widening this gap further.
However, as long as parents were aware of this potential problem, perhaps a special effort could be made to seek out the opinions/concerns of those never able to be present for the exchange of views/gossip/craic in order to represent such families. I wouldn’t want to suggest that having a parent space would not be anything other than an improvement in forging a school community, but one has to be so careful to be truly inclusive. . . . .
Such a wonderful conversation going on here–thank you, Stephen, for starting it! Encouraging relationship-building among families and the professional educators who work with their children is such an important first step. Face-to-face interactions need to be a part of that and a wonderful variety of places to interact have been suggested. The conversation also surfaces possible purposes of interactions between parents and educators- school governance, what parents can do for the school, etc. I’d like to add this as a purpose: genuine student learning. Educators and parents need specific ideas, even models, for meaningful, meaty conversations centered on the learning of the individual students that bring us together. What are the parent’s hopes and dreams for the child? What does a mother know that can guide the teacher as he helps the child grow emotionally, socially, or mathematically? How can we partner to help a student pursue her interests? Most of us (parents and educators) didn’t get much if any training about how to helpfully interact with each other, so we don’t have rich stores of ideas to draw on when it comes to this work. An important step toward this sort of purposeful collaboration around student learning is recognizing that all of the adults important to a child are important teachers.
The reminder that it is the child that is the central character in this story is very much appreciated! In particular, I like your point that both parents and educators have something valuable to bring to the table. I remember some very poignant moments as a teacher where a parent would reveal something about their child that was hidden from me in class. At least, I wasn’t able to see it. Just this little piece of information was enough to change my perspective on the child!
I also think that it’s important to draw in parent knowledge of child development in general. Sure, we may not be psychologists; we may not have written books about childhood, but we have experience and knowledge that is important in the conversation. It’s not just a case of what the school can do for the student and the family. It works both ways!
Thanks for your comments and insights here!
Thank you, Stephen.
I’ve always been aware of the different ways parents and teachers view eachother (in my opinion ). I feel teachers view parents as an obstacle, or at least possible land mines. And some parents really are unfairly difficult on teachers. On the other hand, I feel most parents are unsure of their “role” in a school, and don’t know how to engage. At my son’s school every door is locked during the day, and there is no signage informing parents how to gain entry (after 20 minutes of frustration I finally pushed an unmarked white button and the door unlocked — and then I had to find the office). Anyways, I feel that the physical design of a building directly reflects the philosophy of purpose of the organization. And schools? Built like fortresses, or jails.
Neil, this reminds me of the point that Sheila makes above (I’m reading in reverse order) around that balance between safe schools and welcoming schools. It’s even difficult for me to get into some of our schools as a board employee!
Do you think our design policies and visions are intentionally considered, or is it because that’s the way we’ve always done it?
http://superbcoaching.wordpress.com/2007/05/16/how-policies-begin-%E2%80%93-5-apes-story/
I really appreciate that you have “opened up” space for this topic, Stephen! What great questions, thoughts, reflections and honest sharing from you and others already!
Like Lorna, I am quite stubborn about calling them school councils as well. I worry that “parent” councils does not convey the potential of partnerships with staff at the school and in the community, as well as with the student representation that is mandatory at the high school level.
As for the designated space in the school for parents, I have heard different sides and outcomes. There are some schools who applied for PRO grant money to set up parent resource areas. I have heard that some did not result in much “traffic” and some have been well used–a lot seems to depend on the community of the school, as well as the culture, as others have suggested.
When I was involved at the elementary level, I helped with some events and often found it awkward to find a space where we, as parents, didn’t feel like we were imposing on staff. I have seen many parents feeling quite shy and awkward about where to be and where to help – and always find it interesting how the school space can seem so intimidating to some adults. I recognize there are many factors with that.
I am not sure there has to be a huge space for parent activities, but a community room certainly would speak volumes! There are also other small things that could be done to send a message that parents are welcome in the school setting – physical and human!
The Minstry has encouraged “welcoming schools” as part of their parent engagement policy, but we also have “safe schools” policies to address. It can be difficult to balance! The practices often depend on the school’s vision and leadership.
I think it is very important to start thinking about what our school spaces need to include. I think it is also important, as others have referred to, to think about inclusiveness and how best to invite and integrate parent support and community resources in support of students and school life. Our schools are often our communities.
May add some more later….but all for now!
Sheila, you raise many important points here, and I look forward to others’ responses. But the one that got me thinking the most was the message that we send to parents and the community, in general, when we make these moves. It doesn’t have to be a physical space, but the cues that, as a community, parents are important do speak loudly.
I wonder, besides physical space, what else has worked to send that message?
Stephen- Great post and def thought-provoking. We’ve done a great deal to “meet parents where they are” whether it being like Lorna mentioned at the local Mosque, or on the Web like tonight’s mnthly home and school meeting. Our teachers and parents continue to come up w/ more ideas to provide a transparent approach to our efforts.
In regards to space and creation of a new school space, if a strong partnership truly exists, wouldnt school and community be involved in the better part of the planning process, not just the community room plans?
Thanks again for furthering my thinking on this one…
And thanks for being here. I’m hoping that you will be back!
It seems to me that your story is one of intentionally moving out to build trust. I think that the most powerful sentence in your comment is, “Our teachers and parents continue to come up w/ more ideas to provide a transparent approach to our efforts.
Keywords: teachers, parents, efforts, transparent.
WOW
I LOVED that you had this conversation obviously! It is a conversation that I have had a few times with principals, teachers and my team. I strongly believe that the physical space in schools is a large part of building community and parent as well as student engagement.
Truth be told, I didn’t read ALL the comments here and of course there are going to be different viewpoints about the scenario, but I am always an avid believer of prototyping over come up with excuses not to try.
Even if the physical space doesn’t actually change, the ability to imagine and be creative is gain enough. Opening up the process and conversation can be the perfect opportunity to reveal unspoken issues.
As usual Stephen, we are on the same page
Thanks for entering the conversation Jenn. I think you’re right…even imagining and planning for change opens up spaces for thinking differently.
At our School Council meeting on Monday, two teachers presented a “greening plan” for the school grounds. Even though a number of liability issues have suddenly arisen, the conversation about the possibilities got many thinking about other things that could be looked at in new ways.
Just adding another question I have been mulling over. If we think about the partnerships/representatives around the school council table….where do those voices mingle and participate with each other better–in physical spaces or online spaces? Same or different? I don’t think we have comments from students here yet. I wonder what their responses might be depending on if their school had a “parent space” or more visible parent participation, or not. Like you referred to, Stephen–Think about the morning after a school council meeting: Is there any evidence to students that adults were meeting and discussing their school and education the night before?
Thinking out loud
It’s not a designated space, per se, but a lot us parents have become friends with each other through volunteering together and we tend to congregate in the cafeteria during parent pickup in our elementary school. Our administrators, parents, and students are used to parents & other adult volunteers being in and out of school halls & classrooms throughout the day. It’s not really a distraction for the students because they’re so adjusted to it. Our principal likes the involvement. We know our limitations, though, and would never overstep our self-imposed boundaries. It really makes for a healthier school environment and our school is one of the most popular and successful schools in our area. I always tell people our public elementary school in Virginia Beach is one big family! It would not be a stretch if a group of parents got together at our school to just “hang out” together.
We HAVE discussed a time for parents to get together informally at the school during school hours. There really isn’t anywhere for a designated space in our building, though. Maybe a meeting place could the teachers’ lounge if we were in and out before lunchtime! LOL We could host a “coffee hour” or something.
It is nice to hear success stories Jennifer. It sounds like everyone involved has figured out a way to work together while respecting each other’s role.
I agree Jennifer, this is a great story. A couple of questions. I would love to know more about the “self-imposed” boundaries. What do they entail? How did you establish them?
Second, I would also love to know more about the conditions that you recognize that are present that, in essence, “allow” this type of rapport to happen. Is it something that has always been there? Is it due to an openness on the part of administrator?
Lots to explore here. I hope you come back and tell us more!
We have a Parent Resource Center open along with a PRC coordinator whose sole job is to bring parents “into” the school for education, volunteering, etc. She offers classes on different subjects, computers, and much more. It is required by the school district as part of Title 1. (I’m in the US). Do parents visit the PRC? No. Does she get more parents into the school besides the ones that already participate? No.
I don’t know what the answer is. To be honest, I think it depends on the school and the parents attitudes, mindset and willingness to be an active participant and WANT to improve their schools. How to change that? No clue but nothing much we’ve tried as a PTO has shown much improvement in parent participation in the past 2 years I’ve been active.
Elizabeth, thanks for your input and your experience. Sounds like you’re at a bit of a stalemate here. I would love to know more about the role of the PRC. Do all schools have a full-time coordinator. Do PRC coordinators connect with each other? What is your sense of why there is a unwillingness to become involved?
I appreciate you checking in here…would love to know more about this.
In our school we can get volunteers when we have things going on but we cant get people to show up for PTO we’ve even bribed them offering food and prizes.
We are a Health and Wellness Magnet school and this year our most exciting addition to our has been a Family Fitness Room! We had an unused classroom and put in workout equipement and Wii Dance games and opened it to our families and staff before and after school. We are hoping that we really draw families in to take advantage of it cause we are super excited about it!
Sorry I am the queen of typos! I left out a word here and there… hope it made sense.
The general theme seems to be around parental engagement, and being a parent since 1973, and still raising my youngest child in 2012, schools are not welcoming places for parents. More so today, than in the 1970s, and the reason is that parents are seen as deficits, needy people, lacking good sense, and as such are treated as if they are children themselves.
Until it is acknowledge by those who work within the education system, funding initiatives such as the one Elizabeth mentions; ” We have a Parent Resource Center open along with a PRC coordinator whose sole job is to bring parents “into” the school for education, volunteering, etc. She offers classes on different subjects, computers, and much more. It is required by the school district as part of Title 1. (I’m in the US). Do parents visit the PRC? No. Does she get more parents into the school besides the ones that already participate? No.”
Parents don’t come for good reason, because it is another lesson on all the perceived deficits of parents as told by the educators and others within the education system, and another attempt to change the values of parents that are more in keeping with the goals of the schools. Concerns of parents, are directly related to the achievement, hopes, aspirations for their children that often run counter to the goals of the schools.
Inclusiveness is mentioned often in the posts as being important. If so, why don’t schools work with what they have in parents, their skills, abilities, strengths and weaknesses, instead of fixing the deficits in parents?
The lost parent potential is so great when schools look at parents through the window of social-economic indicators, ignoring the talents of parents. The hidden artists, the natural jack of all trades, the home-spun baker and sewer, the natural bean counters, and other hidden talents that cannot be found reading the social-economic indicator stats.
In June of 1999, I was roped in by the nursery school teacher to decorate the gym with paper banners for the nursery school graduation. Somehow over the last 2 years, she discovered my hidden talents, and one of them was drawing dinosaurs. The nursery school teacher said to me, whatever schools that my youngest child attends will be so lucky because you are one creative person that can do so much, with so little.
After a little convincing on her part, I was drawing dinosaurs on the banners.
Since 1999, the schools that my youngest child has attended, the only thing that has been sought, is my pocketbook, many attempts at changing my values, parenting skills, and constant undercurrent messages that my skills and talents were not needed.
Great idea Stephen, but remember parents ideas about welcoming places and the school ideas about welcoming places come from two different perspectives and are worlds apart. To bridge them, parents should not be seen as being deficient and having deficits, but rather each one offering talents, experience and multiple perspectives of experience.
Nancy, thanks for weighing in on this. I agree that there does seem to be a “working model” out there in many places that parents need to be taught, educated, and serviced around modern schooling. I’m actually working on a piece now for the CEA blog on this very thing. Much of the parent engagement material that I read from minstries of ed do have a rather patronizing undertone to them in terms approach to outreach. Its the push and pull thing again: there are some resources that schools can “push” out to parents, to be sure. But there are also resources that can be pulled into the school community through that very same community.
Would love to hear others on this.
Stephen – Nancy has described a pretty realistic picture about parent’s involvement in schools and educators’ attitudes towards parents. In our twitter network (yours and mine) we have the benefit of hearing some pretty amazing things about some principals and some teachers and some schools and their approaches to working with parents. There just aren’t enough good stories. Although there is some funding provided for parent involvement initiatives it is not enough. As I said before no amount of money can manufacture goodwill and good working relationships. Wouldn’t you think that things would change over the past 40 years? It doesn’t. Now, throw into the mix government initiatives to reduce spending and impact on teachers/schools and there will be/ is already a HUGE conflict which will yet again create barriers to effective school, family and community partnerships. It’s Friday right?
Great conversation in here since my last post. This time I am going to post from a parents point of view. Going back to when my kids were in elementary school, I think we went through about 5 sets of administration in the school. Each Principal had a different vision. Some were extremely open to parent involvement, others not so much. I found that the more open the Principal was to this, the more open the staff became and in turn the tighter the school community. Family bbq’s, Family field trips to sporting events, community events, extra curricular activities for families etc etc….the school became one big happy family. When the administration changed so did the focus and the overall morale of the school. Not to say that the goals of the new administration were not good, they were just different. Many parents were not open to this, and a gradual breakdown of the “family” occurred. Its really hard to generalize when discussing these matters because even though schools are in the same board and adhere to the same rules and regulations, the school climates can be as different as night and day.
Wow, this conversation is amazing–so many important points have been raised about schools’ love-hate relationship with parent involvement. What would happen if more educators and parents heard more of the “good stories” Lorna and others have heard and shared? What would happen if more educators and parents had an opportunity to honestly evaluate and consciously revise their stance toward the other?
Also, I feel compelled to tell you one direction my passion for parent engagement in student learning has taken. One of my projects is with a team that has built a virtual meeting place for parents and educators (ParentSquare). Several schools are using and loving it; we’re spreading; and I am happy to talk with any of you about it. Face-to-face communication is irreplaceable-other avenues also make sense in today’s world.
But, as others have pointed out, how we use any planned meeting space-physical or virtual, on campus or off- is what makes a difference. We can explicitly name the hoped-for effects, anticipate unintended consequences (like reinforcing a deficit-oriented view of parents), and take thoughtful steps toward the right direction. Genuine, informed home-school partnerships have such potential to impact how and what kids learn. As we know, they’re learning all the time–the question is whether they’re learning what we wish they were learning