Towards Responsive Schools Supporting Better Schooling for Disadvantaged Children

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Aboriginal Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

Aboriginal parent and community participation in the education process has been identified as a priority for educators of Aboriginal children in Western Australia. The priority is one strategy aimed at addressing the inequity of student outcomes for Aboriginal children. This study set out to investigate the opinions of school staff and Aboriginal parents regarding the opportunity for, and value of Aboriginal parental involvement in the education process. Also, similarities and differences of opinion between school staff and parents were identified and discussed. The study employed qualitative methodology and included triangulation for internal validity. Semi-structured interview schedules were used to collect the data from participants who comprised school staff and parents of Aboriginal children from five metropolitan schools. It was found that participants agree that schools are making an effort to encourage Aboriginal parental involvement in the education process but that parental involvement at school is still limited. However, many school staff believed that Aboriginal families do not value or support the education process at home, while Aboriginal parents expressed their value of education and reported involvement to varying degrees, in their children\u27s learning at home. Additionally, it was found that both school staff and parents value parental involvement at school. However, school staff value parental involvement that engages parents as agents of the school, while parents value involvement that allows them to monitor the safety and performance of their children at school. The findings of this study support the view that Aboriginal parents, not only wish to be involved, but are already involved in the education of their children. However, frequently involvement occurs in ways that are not recognised by school staff. Furthermore, Aboriginal parents can be empowered towards greater involvement when school staff acknowledge and accommodate the perspectives of Aboriginal parents. Recommendations are offered to assist schools in this endeavour

Coming together at the table: partnering with urban Alaska Native families for their children's school success

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2019There is abundant research regarding the positive effects of family engagement as a factor in P-12 student success. Partnerships between home and school provide opportunities for students' families and educators to establish common goals and share meaning about the purpose of schooling. Unfortunately, mainstream outreach practices by Western educators have often failed to nurture authentic relationships with Indigenous families. This may be a contributing factor in lower academic success for too many Indigenous students. Historical educational practices in the U.S. for Indigenous students such as mandated attendance at distant boarding schools and English-only policies have adversely affected their languages and cultures worldwide and left a legacy of negative associations around schooling for many Native peoples. Non-Native educators continue to add to this disconnect with teaching pedagogies and curricula that are not responsive to Indigenous lifeways and values. In addition to inappropriate instructional methods and content, outreach strategies of non-Native educators may add to practices that marginalize Indigenous students and their families and discourage collaboration between home and school. This mixed-methods study sought to find family outreach strategies implemented by early childhood educators in the Anchorage School District (ASD) that build and nurture more culturally sustaining and relational approaches to building partnerships with Alaska Native families. Such practices are more likely to lead to student success for Native students. Research methods used were (a) a content analysis of ASD school-home communication fliers, (b) a survey of ASD preschool teachers on their outreach beliefs and practices with Native families, and (c) interviews with families of Alaska Native students

Inclusion and education in the United Kingdom

Paper describes inclusion and education in the United Kingdom

Inclusion and education in European countries

The focus in this report is strategies that address the disadvantages experienced byminority background students in schools within the United Kingdom (UK) and the wider policy context in which these operate. More specifically, the focus is on four groups ofstudents:• Ethnic minority students including refugee and asylum seekers' children;• Gypsy/traveller students;• Students in care (Looked After Children - LAC); and,• Linguistic minorities e.g. Gaelic, Welsh.The devolved nature of government in the UK means that while some broad principlesare common across the four nations that constitute the UK (England, Northern Ireland,Scotland and Wales), the particular emphases adopted and the strategies developed tofoster social inclusion vary from one to another. In addition, there is no integrated policyfor social inclusion but rather separate policy statements for each of the categories ofdisadvantage identified in the study. All four countries within the UK have a combinationof private and state-funded schooling. In much, if not all, of this report the emphasis ison the state-funded sector