A seat at the table…partners in education
What if, eventually instead of making decisions on behalf of students, we gave them (and their families) the tools to be in the drivers seat of their own education and allowed them to choose? This is where the future of education needs to go, but it begins with capacity building. It should signal something to us as educators that perhaps we’ve overcomplicated things when the very people that we’re supposed to be partnering with, can’t even navigate our world. So, how do we meet them where they are instead, and at the same time provide them with a seat at the table when it comes to educational decision-making?
I believe this begins with a values based approach. Parents and, as they mature, students are the experts in what they want. When was the last time we bothered to ask them? Instead of asking parents to first come into schools on our terms and learn our language, we should instead invest time and energy in understanding theirs. What do you want out of your child’s educational experience? What do you even view as the purpose of education? For many families who have not had the space to consider these questions, the capacity building will begin here. People can find their own answers if they’re posed the right questions, but sometimes we all need a guide. Our job in capacity building might be to serve as guides along the way.
The same is true for our students. As young people mature and begin to develop their own self concept, we should be asking them these same questions. What are you trying to accomplish with your life? Based on your passions and strengths, what do you think you are best positioned to do in this world? How would you like to craft the rest of your educational experience to get you there? These are not simple questions to answer and the very process of navigating these reflections requires saavy coaching to help families identify and affirm their own responses. Yet, this is the part most skipped in every typical “family engagement” plan. One of the reasons why I disdain the term “family engagement” as a practitioner, is that oftentimes it simply means us doing something to families, rather than actually doing something with families.
The better approach is asking them what they want, and investing the necessary time and energy in actually helping them define what that looks like for themselves and their students. Then, the icing on the cake is actually delivering on educational content that they articulate. This type of capacity building, engaging parents and students in their own set of thoughtful reflection about what they want from education, giving them the tools to then articulate their desires, requires a commitment to true partnership. We have to first see families as equals in the process, and for many schools and districts that’s simply not the case. Particularly for our families from low-income backgrounds, we assume that they don’t care, when in fact my experience has been that perhaps they simply haven’t been asked.
Imagine a world where we take more seriously the need to engage parents first in early childhood education as partners, so that they’re already oriented towards educational decision-making. Perhaps this starts at day care centers and pre-school programs where we help families create passion discovery plans for their children. These plans could help parents discover along with their growing children, what their child is good at, what they care about, and where they can grow. Embedded in these plans could be exposure trips and projects that allow the parent and child to learn together.
Ultimately this shared approach to learning has to be coupled with developmentally appropriate activities for the child, and that’s where the partnership with learning institutions and schools comes into play. Perhaps schools don’t have the capacity to help parents and students figure out their own plans for education, or perhaps they lack the credibility or relationships to reach families. That’s where community collaboration comes into place with other organizations who have established trust and can bridge the gap. However, schools need to be ready to incorporate the outcomes of this type of educational values discovery into their approach to learning. Then we’ll begin to see a better way to grow students.
Over the past week I have been fortunate enough to see a glimpse of community collaboration in action in my own community. As a district we’ve thoughtfully engaged faith based organizations as partners in helping to meet families needs. When you align on outcomes, it clarifies everyone’s role at the table and suddenly it opens the door for all types of partnerships to flourish. Let’s continue to make sure everyone can come to the table on equal footing. Information is power and when people lack it, they’re ill-equipped to advocate for themselves or others.
Personally, I’ve been involved with one of our partner organizations as a board member and last night we hosted our first class of graduating seniors to complete a full four years of our program. This particular organization, Next Generation Men & Women has been doing the work of helping students find their own path through exposure trips, and it shows in our outcomes. It’s a small sample size, but our students are more likely to graduate ready to pursue and succeed on a path of their choice- the very vision of our district.
It’s refreshing to see such progress, and it’s encouraging to me as a parent to know that there is in fact a seat at the table for everyone, including folks like me.
SDW3
