10 Big Ideas: Challenges and Barriers
In this part of the book, we explored three families’ and three educators’ experiences engaging with one another. In the first version of each scenario, the educators replicated dated examples of parent involvement, thinking of their educator role as one of expert and their task as information sharing. As we reimagined how this might shift from involvement to partnership, their role shifted to collaborator and learner, applying their skillful listening and prompting to uncover families’ feelings and priorities that might otherwise remain below the surface.
Why do these challenges and barriers to effective partnership between families and professionals exist widely (and, specifically, in Virginia)?
Big Ideas
- Educators, clinicians, and families may not have experienced effective partnerships. Without personally experiencing a phenomenon, people often struggle to conceptualize a different possibility.
- Clinicians, schools, and educators may have negative associations to family members.
- Virginia educators may be unaware that family partnership is included in the Standards for the Professional Practice of All Teachers.
- Virginia educators and clinicians may have received minimal, or no, preparation to effectively engage families. This is particularly true for those who enter the profession via alternate routes to licensure or who unfortunately observed less effective practices during their professional preparation.
- Both parties (educators and families) believe they know what is best or consider their perspective to be right, meaning that the other’s perspective is wrong. This creates an unnecessary adversarial relationship.
When we can articulate the barriers, we can more effectively design a strategic response. In the next chapter, we will widen our lens, zooming out to better understand Virginia’s communities in which we work.
