Theme(s): Parents, literacy, mathematics

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Getting engaged: possibilities and problems for home-school knowledge exchange

Author(s):

Feiler, A., Greenbough, P., Winter, J., Salway, L., & Scanlan, M. Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol.

Publisher:

Educational Review Vol. 58, (4) 2006 pp.451-469

Introduction

Children in schools come from increasingly diverse families. This study focused on identifying strategies to increase the flow of knowledge between home and school. The researchers investigated how a variety of approaches to communication with parents can encourage fuller family engagement by acknowledging the variety in family practices and languages.

The study found that effective methods for helping parents to understand what took place in school, and teachers to understand more about the diverse cultural heritage of the children in their classes, included:

  • providing parents with videos of numeracy and literacy lessons to help increase their knowledge about what took place at school;
  • making explicit use of pupils’ home language; and
  • encouraging pupils to share knowledge between home and school through the use of disposable camera.

Teachers and leaders reading this digest will be able to consider how they might use a variety of strategies to exchange knowledge between schools and families and consider some of the issues involved in working in this way.

Keywords:

Primary schools, home school links, socio-economic status, diversity, disadvantage, literacy, numeracy

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Contents

What were the benefits of the home school knowledge sharing activities? Page 3

How did the schools share knowledge with parents about the way they

taught literacy and maths?Page 4

How did the schools access and build on children’s home experiences?Page 5

Did the schools encounter any difficulties implementing the strategies?Page 6

How was the study designed?Page 7

What are the implications of this study?Page 8

Where can I find out more?Page 9

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What were the benefits of the home school knowledge sharing activities?

The researchers found that providing parents with videos of lessons was an effective way of sharing what went on in school. Parents felt that:

  • these videos provided a welcome opportunity to observe their child’s response in the classroom:

The video was good because I got to see my son in class which I don’t do, you know, and see what he gets up to in school, because I’m never in there during class time at all. I’ve no idea, how he gets on in class or how he answers questions. (Mother of higher attaining boy);

  • parents had the opportunity to see how the literacy lessons were organised and learn from the videos:

I think the video is good, because it does give people an idea of the way to do things... I personally think people are looking at that and think, oh yes, I could do that, because I think sometimes people do need to be shown how to do things, don’t they. (Mother of middle attaining girl);

  • the use of home languages in the numeracy videos helped to make the content more accessible. In these videos the children were acting out a typical lesson using their home languages, one child took the role of teacher and the others took the roles of pupils. One parent commented:

First of all I did enjoy it, ’cos it was like a whole new different thing what they were doing. And it gave more chance for the children to speak out or have their own self-confidence in front of the video and gave them the chance to explain more things what the teacher’s been saying. (Mother of lower attaining girl, Bangladeshi heritage);

One mother told the researchers that she was teaching her daughter more Bengali so that ‘next time they do a video she’ll be explaining more properly’.

The researchers also found that giving pupils disposable cameras and encouraging them to take pictures of aspects of their home life helped teachers to learn more about their pupils’ families and local area.

(they) gave me an insight into their homes… you have these pictures where they are actually using maths at home, and you can see it. (Teacher).

Many families said that they enjoyed the experience even though it could be quite challenging.

(He) loved taking the pictures and that, also it was more of a... got him to participate within the whole project … because it got him to actually be quite, you know, involved in the whole process. (Father of lower attaining boy.)

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How did the schools share knowledge with parents about the way they taught literacy and maths?

Schools involved in this study provided parents with knowledge about their children’s’ learning by:

  • making videos of the literacy hour and providing copies to each family in the research classes, accompanied by a booklet which described aspects that the teachers wanted to highlight and ideas for helping children at home;
  • making videos of numeracy lessons in which students explained their mathematical knowledge using their home languages and providing screenings of the videos for parents. In these videos groups of pupils worked in small groups demonstrating the different procedures for carrying out calculations;
  • supporting parents from ethnic minorities by making use of their own languages, by inviting them to attend a meeting or join some of their children’s lessons supported by an interpreter; and
  • setting up a stall in a supermarket to showcase the work that the children did in school. The exhibition showed photographs of parents and children making books together and displays of the books alongside explanations of the activities and information for parents. It was estimated that about two thirds of the children’s families attended the supermarket stall over two days, with several families attending more than once and much interest from families of children in other classes.

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How did the schools access and build on children’s home experiences?

The researchers encouraged schools to build on children’s home experiences by asking pupils to use disposable cameras to record activities that they took part in at home.

Each pupil was given a disposable camera and asked, over a holiday period, to photograph:

  • items relating to their class topic - making a model vehicle, living things, plants and growth and the local environment;
  • everyday maths activities they took part in;

in some cases

  • any other activities they engaged in.

Pupils taking photographs that related to numeracy were asked to use a diary to record the details of each image taken.

Once the films had been developed children were asked to make use of the photos, for example by:

  • working with their parents to select their favourite photos for an album or classroom display;
  • discussing their content in class or small groups; and
  • writing captions for their photos to explain how they linked to their learning at school. For example a photo of a pair of trainers could represent a savings calculation, a change calculation or possibly a percentage discount.

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Did the schools encounter any difficulties implementing the strategies?

The schools found that there was much to be gained from the activities described but the approaches also carried a degree of risk for both the teachers and the children.

This study highlighted a number of issues that teachers and schools would need to consider if they decide to try similar activities, including:

  • the cost associated with using disposable cameras and distributing videos;
  • the resources needed to communicate with families and support the parents in helping their own children and also provide experiences that extended the parents’ own learning The researchers suggested that this could place great demands on schools’ resources if they seek to respond as a resource for parents as well as children;
  • the time needed to ‘man’ a stall at a supermarket during a school day or at weekends or to assimilate and use knowledge pupils brought from home;
  • the need for home visiting and flexible timings of meetings to, for example, show a class video;
  • how to support parents who have little knowledge of what to expect in an English classroom - a lesson can be surprising to the point where parents overlook the learning going on;
  • how to support children who have learned numeracy through the medium of English to explain things in their home language;
  • the extent to which children should be seen to be struggling and/or making mistakes by an audience that extends beyond their families. One school opted to show a child experiencing difficulties as it also showed the extent to which the school offered support;
  • the extent to which pupils want to expose their private home life to the scrutiny of those at school. People may have different levels of comfort about bringing aspects of home into school and this must be respected.

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How was the study designed?

The researchers set out to investigate the benefits of strategies targeted at improving exchange of knowledge between home and school. They worked with parents and teachers at four primary schools in Cardiff and four in Bristol to identify:

  • what information and knowledge parents wanted from school;
  • what information and knowledge parents wanted to give the school; and
  • ways in which this knowledge could be exchanged.

The researchers then worked collaboratively with these schools, over a period of two years, to develop the home school knowledge exchange activities building on existing home school links. The project had two strands:

  • supporting literacy learning at Key Stage 1 (starting in Year 1 age 5-6 yrs); and
  • supporting numeracy learning at Key Stage 2 (starting in Year 4 age 8- 9 yrs)

The researchers monitored the effect of the home-school knowledge exchange strategies they introduced by regularly interviewing six ‘target families’ from each class.

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What are the implications of this study?

In completing this digest the authors began to ask the follow questions about implications for school leaders:

  • the study showed the difficulties of accessing the whole parental group and parents may well not know what kind of activities, especially the more unusual ones, may be helpful to them and their children. How could you help the families know what you are prepared to make available to them? Could you offer parents a choice in the way that they receive information? For example ask if they want a translation or if they would prefer the information e-mailed or texted to their mobile phones. Could you recruit people to talk to others in their own language or hold discussion groups with interpreters present?
  • the videos of literacy and numeracy lessons in this study were very effective in sharing information about what children were learning and how they were learning. This resulted in parents feeling better able to ask questions about their own child’s lessons. How could you use this strategy in school? Could your school afford the number of DVDs required or set aside meeting time to make screenings available at a time convenient to parents?

In completing this digest the authors began to ask the following questions about implications for practitioners:

  • the study showed the importance of finding out from parents the kind of activities and support they think would be most helpful to them. Is this something you could try, for example via a questionnaire and/or talking to parents in the playground?
  • some of the children in the study were concerned about bringing their photos to school because they were fearful of receiving a negative evaluation from their teachers and/or peers. Could you share ideas with colleagues for overcoming this? For example, you might decide to encourage the children by suggesting that they will be making an album with captions as a Christmas present for someone in the family.
  • some teachers are skilful at integrating knowledge from home into their work but the amount and detail of the information brought in can present a challenge to most teachers in the time available to use it. How can more time be made available for teachers to assimilate the implications of what children bring to school and decide how to use it? Can teachers’ PPA time be extended when they engage in these activities? How can teacher assistants be best used to increase the time available?

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Where can I find out more?

For the home site of the Home School Knowledge Exchange Project see:

For the government site detailing expectations about parental involvement offering case studies of ways that schools have improved communication between home and school see:

For information on Parents as Partners in Learning see Learning and Teaching Scotland’s site:

See the NERF site ( for a short synopsis of the article Desforges, C. and Abouchaar, A. (2003) The impact of parental involvement, parental support and family education on pupils achievement and adjustment London: DfES RR 433 Available online at:

For further information about literacy and numeracy activities developed during the Home School Knowledge Exchange Project see:

  • Feiler, A. et al. (2007) Improving Primary Literacy: Linking Home and School. Abingdon:RoutledgeFalmer.
  • Hughes, M. et al. (2008) Improving Primary Mathematics: Linking Home and School. Abingdon: RoutledgeFalmer.

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