Parent Engagement with Debbie Pushor

Another term you will often hear me use is dwelling in. This is more of a verb than anything else. It describes the act of spending time in communities with families to truly know them, hear their stories, and learn their perspectives. I believe this act to be of immense importance. The process is extremely powerful, and the impact is invaluable in building trust and relationships. When we know families and communities in deep ways, we can bring that knowledge onto the school landscape to shape our policies, practices, and curriculum making in honouring and responsive ways.

As you learn more about parent engagement and the work I do, I’d love to invite you to learn a bit more about me, too! Follow the link below to learn about my background and why my body of work is so important to me. Please take a moment to introduce yourself and to leave a comment! https://www.debbiepushor.ca/bio

Just a reminder about our spring sale on The Chapters of Our Lives family memoir course! This is the perfect project for spring break. It promotes both literacy outcomes and parent engagement through video guides, activities, and more. To learn more and sign up, click below! https://www.debbiepushor.ca/courses/chaptersofourlives

Another term that I often draw upon in conversations surrounding parent engagement is looking inward, looking outward. It’s about whether we see ourselves as agents of change or we slip into blaming or shaming parents and families for things they are, or are not doing, in the lives of their kids that we perceive to make our work harder. This concept encourages us to look inward first, examining our beliefs and assumptions about parents and families and naming our own biases or stereotypes. It’s a useful practice in the space of schools, but also in all aspects of one’s life.

Because together we are a community committed to creating place in schools and homes for parent engagement, I want to provide space for your voice to be heard and your questions to receive response. What questions do you have about parent engagement? What concepts would you like to discuss and learn more about? What wonders or curiosities do you have about how the theory and philosophy of parent engagement translates into practice? Please feel invited to post your questions in the comments below and I’ll look forward to sharing my thoughts and understanding in upcoming content and discussions! Yours, Debbie Pushor.

Another phrase that you may come across in my work is Walk Alongside. Taken up by the Parent Engagement Collaborative IV and me, this became the name of a parent engagement forum we planned and hosted in 2018. This concept is a visual description of how this work strives to position children, parents, and teachers. The philosophy and pedagogy of Walking Alongside create the opportunity for parents to have a meaningful relationship with their child’s learning in a way that b...enefits and supports the parent, teacher, and child themselves. Walking Alongside works to interrupt the taken for grantedness of schooling to create a landscape on which parent knowledge is honoured and used alongside teacher knowledge to shape curriculum, teaching, and learning. When parents, teachers, and students collaborate together in the learning process, it creates continuity of learning between home and school for the child, provides parents with a meaningful place and voice in their child's learning, and supports teachers and enriches their experience.

As we wrote Living as Mapmakers, the Parent Engagement Collaborative II and I began to refer to the work we were doing towards greater and more equitable parent engagement on the school landscape as a "gentle revolution." I'd love to explain why we took up this term, what it means to me, and how it informs what I do in my work. A gentle revolution is a movement that inspires change through love and mutual respect. Parent engagement, as we understand and envision it, will req...uire some dramatic changes in educational systems and in teacher beliefs and practice. We are facilitating and inspiring change with care, concern, and respect. This is a collaboration at all levels to effect the changes we passionately want to see. This is a gentle revolution.

I am delighted to announce that The Chapters of Our Lives will be launching soon! The special family memoir project is for parents, children, and families. Click below to learn more about the experience and, If you’d like to be the first to know when the course goes live, sign up for the pre-launch mailing list here: https://mailchi.mp/834282370c48/chapters-of-our-lives... Stay tuned, coming soon!

In my program of research, I've worked to explore two key questions in regard to parent knowledge. First, what is parent knowledge? Second, how do parents hold and use their parent knowledge? Let’s back up. Everyone holds funds of knowledge and that includes their personal, practical, professional, and craft knowledge, garnered experientially, informally, and formally throughout their lives. Only parents possess parent knowledge, the particular knowledge held and used by so...meone who nurtures children in the complex act of childrearing and in the complex context of a home and family. Parent knowledge reflects the ways in which a parent knows their child in a way that no one else ever will, including their teachers. Every parent has knowledge to contribute to their child’s teaching, learning, and development - relational, intimate, bodied, embodied, intuitive, and shifting knowledge. One of the critical attributes of parent engagement is that it uses parent knowledge, that’s how you know it’s engagement and not parent involvement.

Here's another key concept I'd like to expand upon: A Curriculum of Parents. Exploring and building a curriculum of parents is central in all areas of my work. The term curriculum of parents refers to a body of knowledge that prepares educators to work with families in honouring, inclusive, and equitable ways. ... As of now, teachers are rarely being educated to work with parents and families. The whole narrative that gets written about parents is typically negative. They are often portrayed as something teachers should fear. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that every single teacher works with parents but with no formalized and thoughtful education that asks them to examine their beliefs and assumptions about parents and families or provides them with ideas about how to work with them and engage them in their child’s education. In so many instances, schools remain places for kids and teachers only. A curriculum of parents re-defines what it means to be a teacher and works to (re)present families in schools. It makes visible how parents are as much a part of the school landscape as the kids, teachers, and subject matter. A curriculum of parents, then, works to deconstruct and reconstruct teachers’ notions about a parent’s place in their child’s schooling and education. Learn more about my body of work here: https://www.debbiepushor.ca/research