Hear Our Voices!

Through authentic dialogues with families, the author illustrates what educators and administrators must understand to effectively establish positive family engagement and family/school partnerships and collaboration.  Within the contexts of child development theories, developmentally appropriate practices, and anti-bias education, readers will learn strategies for communication, engagement, and assessment.

This book is designed for educators, undergraduate and graduate level students, and practitioners.  Readers will read this book because it:

1.       Incorporates the voices of families of color and families with children who have additional needs

2.      Discusses the important role anti-bias education plays in promoting family engagement and successful family/school collaboration

3.      Examines the relationship between family engagement and child development theories. How do these theories impact teacher decisions and pedagogy?

4.      Analyzes the important role utilizing a strengths-based approach when working with families plays on successfully building long-lasting relationships and partnerships. 

5.      Provides practical strategies and activities to help educators and administrators examine and improve their practices for engaging with families

Sample content:

Family Voices:

"I hope that teachers see my children as individuals. I would hope and expect that they get to know my children for who they are, and be able to match them from an academic perspective, from a social perspective and help to coach and guide and lead them exactly for where they are."

"I was just raising my concerns and trying to figure out, "What do you do and what happens when you have kids like this who are having a hard time adjusting to a new environment and to structure, and having many kids around them, and all that kind of stuff. What happens? How do you deal with this?"