Real Talk: Designing Practice-Based Teacher Education for Family Communication

Abstract

Communication between families and schools is foundational for students’ academic success, community support for schools, and teachers’ experience. Yet, few preservice teacher education programs teach novices how to engage in equitable and effective collaborations with families. This manuscript reports on a pilot study in which preservice teachers traveled to a local community school and role-played academic conversations with adults whose children were enrolled in the school. The analysis of the transcripts of the role plays, a debrief panel by family participants, and written reflections of eight participating preservice teachers and six family participants used codes derived from the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships. The findings show that both groups of participants found opportunities for thoughtful engagement. In the role plays, preservice teachers were most likely to demonstrate cognition by thinking flexibly about how to accommodate family and student needs. Family participants were most likely to demonstrate confidence by displaying their expertise and coaching the teachers. Activities like this may be useful sites for teachers and community members to practice effective collaboration skills. More broadly, the results may point toward an underutilized capacity within preservice teacher education to support family- and community-oriented schooling.

Keywords

• family–school communication
• preservice teacher education
• family-centric schooling
• practice-based teacher education