Crandi

Culturally Responsive Family Engagement Parentpowered

Leo Migdal
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culturally responsive family engagement parentpowered

To cultivate equity in early childhood education, programs need their families! Explore four strategies for developing partnerships that uplift all children and caregivers (and why ParentPowered is a great ally in this quest). Looking for ways to cultivate successful SEL for newcomers? ParentPowered Trauma-Informed has your back! Learn how to effectively engage newcomer families to build critical life skills and how ParentPowered can help. Did you know that community school partnerships create positive outcomes for newcomer families (and many more)?

ParentPowered explores five real examples of successful family-school-community collaborations to uplift students from all backgrounds. By creating ways for families to feel welcome and included, educators can strengthen the relationship between home and school. For decades, research has affirmed that engaging families is one of the five keys to transforming schools and districts from good to great schools. Strengthening partnerships is an essential component to effective teaching, propelling student growth, and school improvement. In turn, families need staff to create spaces for them to learn about the inner workings of the school, as well as have opportunities to share their experiences, insights, and questions. Parents and caregivers want to be involved and to find easy pathways to feeling connected to their child’s school.

As I explore in my book, On the Same Team: Bringing Educators and Underrepresented Families Together, forming a diverse team of families and educators dedicated to creating more inclusive and culturally responsive approaches is... Here are five overarching ways that you and your school can strengthen your partnerships with families. We educators often say we “communicate regularly” with families. But are we communicating on their terms or ours? In our language or theirs? Is communication a one-way street, or are we fostering ongoing two-way communication?

To be culturally responsive in building bridges to families, we have learned that some ways of communicating are better than others. We educators are often eager for families to learn about the education system. We offer them “orientations,” “handbooks,” and “newsletters.” But do we work equally hard to learn about them? Here are a few key ways that we can show through both our words and actions that we truly value diversity and respect our students’ lives beyond the walls of the classroom. Culturally responsive family engagement redirects attention from what families lack to what families inherently bring to their child’s education. This means appreciating the diverse identities, lived experiences, and strengths of your students’ families, particularly those with marginalized or non-dominantidentities.

A non-dominant social group is one that historically had and/or currently has less power, resources, or influence compared to others. view families as assets and focus on the contributions they make to their child’s education honor families as the experts on their child and commit to learning from them reflect on your beliefs about families and how implicit bias may influence your beliefs check your blindspots and interrupt deficit thinking about families ParentPowered Family Engagement Programs help districts, community organizations, and schools strengthen partnerships with families and caregivers birth–grade 12 to improve student engagement, attendance, academics, and mental health.

With ParentPowered Family Engagement Programs you can effortlessly provide families tips, activities, encouragement, and resources each week that make learning part of every day. When you do, amazing things happen. Improve student attendance and engagement Boost academic outcomes and accelerate learning Build a positive school culture and climate *Today’s post is excerpted and adapted from The Handbook of Racial Equity in Early Childhood Education, by Jen Neitzel, Ph.D., & Ebonyse Mead, Ed.D., with invited contributors

When early childhood educators use culturally responsive practices, they help to build authentic and meaningful partnerships with culturally and linguistically diverse families. According to Grant and Ray in the book Home, School, and Community Collaboration (2013), culturally responsive family engagement includes practices that respect and acknowledge the cultural uniqueness, life experiences, and viewpoints of families, while... As early childhood classrooms become more culturally di­verse, creating a culture of inclusion and belonging is crucial. The following strategies are offered to help early childhood programs engage all families, particularly those from culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds. Conduct a cultural audit of your classroom. Grant and Ray (2013) suggest conduct­ing a classroom cultural audit that involves reviewing classroom displays to ensure that there is diversity throughout the classroom environment (e.g., age, gender, abil­ity, race, ethnic, religion, social class).

The goal is to make all children and families feel both included and welcomed. Understand families within the context of their culture. Culture influences who we are as racial beings, dictates our parenting practices, impacts the way we respond to others, and shapes our way of life. For Black families it is important for teach­ers and other school personnel to understand that Black cultural values are deeply rooted in West African traditions and beliefs (Baugh & Rajaei, 2022). Cultural values, such as extended family networks, communalism, and spirituality, impact the way of life for many Black families. These cultural values contribute to resiliency in the Black family.

When teachers and other staff understand families within the context of their culture, they are more likely to create and design family engagement efforts that are culturally responsive. This week, we are focusing on family engagement, which is key to student success from Pre-K through 12th grade. Family engagement is not a one-size-fits-all concept; it looks different across cultures, traditions, and lived experiences. Recognizing these differences is the foundation for building authentic home-school partnerships. Thanks for reading Ask the Educators Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

At every grade level, families play a vital role in their children’s learning. By maintaining open communication with schools, sharing insights about their children, and participating in school activities, parents help students feel supported, valued, and motivated. The impact is powerful; improved behavior, stronger social-emotional skills, and greater academic resilience. Most importantly, students gain confidence, knowing that home and school are working together. Of course, parents engage with their child’s teachers and the school in diverse ways and for varied reasons. Many are eager to participate, while others may face barriers such as demanding work schedules, language differences, or past experiences that have created mistrust.

Regardless of the circumstances, one thing remains true: every family wants the best for their child. The challenge for schools is to embrace these differences and build partnerships that are inclusive and culturally responsive. Asian families often see parental engagement as a duty, as they strongly value academic success. They may actively support their children at home and attend parent-teacher conferences, but may be hesitate to question teachers out of respect, or refrain from frequent communication due to language or cultural barriers.

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