Module 5: Partnering With Families

The U.S. Census Bureau defines family as a group of two people or more related by birth, marriage, adoption, and residing together (Grant & Ray, 2016). This legal definition is challenged in schools today, where family is more accurately defined as a group of people who are collectively raising a child, including influencing and providing for the child’s needs to the best of the group members’ abilities. One should acknowledge that over time the members of the group, known as family, may change as may the intensity of their involvement.

Family involvement has always had a presence in schools and learning communities, yet families weren’t always seen as partners in their learning communities. Families were often the visitors. When families did attend schools, their involvement was tangential, consisting of dropping in for Back to School night and/or meeting for a parent–teacher conference. Thiers (2016) called these “random acts of parent involvement” (p. 41). Schools today are working to replace the random acts of parent involvement with the highly desired and positively impactful family engagement. Family engagement occurs when there is an on-going, reciprocal, strengths-based partnership between families and schools (Grant & Ray, 2016). These ongoing partnerships are co-constructed, characterized by trust, shared values, bidirectional communication, mutual respect, and attention to each party’s needs (Lopez, Kreider, & Caspe, 2004). As Zacarian and Silverstone (2016) indicated, when families are invited to share something of value, their status (in the school) is transformed into an asset and a source of strength.