This work focuses on parents and teachers as adult learners, who should be growing and learning with the children in their care.

This book focuses on parents and teachers as adult learners, who should be growing and learning along with the children in their care. It lays out a theory of what parents and teachers need to care for children and themselves and then it shows how the author has assisted parents and teachers to put these theories into practice. McDermott relies on stories and listening to the voices of parents, teachers and children to make her case. She weaves together the latest theories and research with these stories. She uses narratives of actual school meetings, workshops, parent planning and discussion groups, testimonies, newsletters, and research of others in the field, to demonstrate applications of theory and research. She fills a gap by focusing on parents from all socioeconomic backgrounds. Key Features: o Focuses on parents and teachers as adult learners o Focuses on the dynamic process of parenting and teaching o Provides a theory to practice model to support parents, families and teachers o Provides a tool or guide for thinking through problems and finding solutions that take into consideration the needs of all involved.

Empowering Family-Teacher Partnerships: Building Connections Within Diverse Communities prepares students to work collaboratively with families and community professionals in support of children's early education and development. Students are invited to develop a personal philosophy of family involvement to guide their work with families and to join a community of learners in relying upon their collective insights and problem-solving skills to address family involvement challenges. The author takes a student-centered approach to delivering substantive information and framing activities, providing: (a) comprehensive coverage of the diversity of family lives represented in classrooms and strategies for working with those families; (b) challenges to family involvement and strategies for addressing them; (c) strategies for communicating effectively with and empowering families, and (d) reflections, activities, tip boxes, and field assignments designed to facilitate students' skills in building positive family-school-community partnerships.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.

`A unique guide for students, practitioners, parents, and administrators of young children who want to understand specific strategies to maximise parent involvement and collaboration' - Education Libraries 'This is an excellent book that draws extensively on the work of a children's centre that has been running for over 25 years' - SENCO Update Involving Parents in their Children's Learning is the story of the pioneering work of the Pen Green Centre for children and families. Showing how early years practitioners can collaborate effectively with parents, the book includes case studies of parents and children who have attended the centre, studies which chart developments in learning for both children and parents. The book will inspire early years practitioners and offer them practical advice on ways of developing effective work with parents. Drawing on their work at the renowned Pen Green Centre, the authors show how to: o support parents as their child's first educator o provide practical and psychological support to parents o involve fathers and male carers o share important child development concepts o support and extend children's learning o reach out to hard-to-reach parents. This New Edition follows up on the stories of people featured in the first edition, showing how they have progressed over the last few years. It also includes new chapters covering the headteacher's role in developing parental involvement programmes, how the Pen Green model has been applied in primary schools, and the use of parental diaries. The book is essential reading for students on early years courses (BA, FdA, B.Ed), as well as practising early years professionals and senior management teams in primary schools.

Learn how to create culturally responsive, socially just school–family partnerships that positively impact student learning outcomes. Responding to the current rise in White supremacy in America, a surge in hate crimes against BIPOC students and families, and the gaping digital divide exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, this book addresses the need for educators and schools to develop competency in working with diverse families and their communities. Chapters address misconceptions of school personnel that often result in microaggressions and miscommunications that impede fully including families in the education of their children. Exploring a wide range of sociocultural issues present in today’s schools, readers will learn how to better work with military families during deployment, students with disabilities, families with various living arrangements, immigrant families, and religiously diverse students. The text features engaging, real-life scenarios and research-based practices designed to improve the academic success of all K–12 learners. Book Features: Innovative models for creating culturally responsive family and community engagement initiatives that focus on student success. Reflective questions to facilitate discussions in various professional development venues, including schools, university programs for teachers and administrators, and community organizations.Concrete examples of successful partnerships involving public schools, a higher education institution, and a public city library.An extensive list of resources for building better educational programs and communities. Contributors: Bryan D. Bowens, Eugene E. García, Maria A. Pacino, Kathryn Scorgie, Susan R. Warren, Catherine White, Jerome Zamora

Principles and possibilities to inform and inspire caring in your leadership practices! Do you feel like something is missing in today’s schools? Do you feel student success is too focused on academic accountability, test scores, and college readiness? Recalibrate your leadership with the help of this book to promote the practice of caring which, with academic rigor, is essential to effective schooling. Caring School Leadership is a research-based collection of ideas, principles, and values illustrated with numerous examples and stories that will inform, inspire, and guide you. Evaluate your current leadership practice and evolve to lead in the way to which you aspire. In addition to insights and lessons about caring from educators and human service professions like nursing and ministry, readers will be introduced to themes of · Caring in interpersonal relationships with students · Cultivating schools as caring environments · Fostering caring in families and communities