OR #1: Platform 9 and 3/4: Schools and the Lack of Communication to the Outside
When reading the article “Involving Parents and the Community” by Samway & McKeon (2007), a lot of the information presented was not a surprise to me. I don’t know if that is because I have teachers in my family that have experienced and expressed difficulties with involving ELL parents/guardians, or if perhaps because I have already read about and discussed the matter earlier in my classes. The portions that did stick out to me however, were those that offered solutions to a prominent problem in education’s communication with parents/guardians and the community. For example, the first section of the article argues that Menacker, Hurwitz, and Weldon’s (1988) four categories of parent involvement (listed on pp.163-164) do not include two roles that parents/guardians can assume- the roles of Expert and Collaborator. Instead, we (educators and administrators) are often under the assumption that we must be the connecting piece, the central station for all exchanges of infor...