Family Involvement with Low- Income, Culturally Diverse Families: Practice and Policy Implications of Recent Findings Christine McWayne, Ph.D., New York University Presentation at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference November 19, 2009
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Understanding Variations of Family Involvement with Low-Income, Culturally Diverse Families: Practice and Policy Implications of Recent Findings Christine.
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Understanding Variations of Family Involvement with Low-
Income, Culturally Diverse Families:
Practice and Policy Implications of Recent Findings
Christine McWayne, Ph.D., New York University
Presentation at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference
November 19, 2009
Problems with the operationalization of FI in the majority of studies
Unidimensional definitions of FI fragmented measures , unrepresentative of multiple FI behaviors
Disconnected from developmental issues and, thus, poor for informing developmentally appropriate family involvement
Unidirectional; no account of transactional nature of family-school collaboration
Unrepresentative: existing measures tend to be created with mainstream populations, highlighting need more culturally relevant measures of FI
The Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ; Fantuzzo, Tighe, & Childs, 2000) Based on Epstein’s 6 types Careful co-construction in partnership
Research Committee of various stakeholders Focus groups of larger group of stakeholders Field tested with multiple groups of parents Data collected from more than 600 parents Subjected to rigorous multivariate analysis Result = a 42-item questionnaire
Three Reliable Dimensions of FIQ
Mapping onto Epstein’s Model
HBI: Parenting & Learning at Home
SBI: Volunteering & Decision-Making
HSC: Communicating
Home-Based Involvement (α=.85)
School-Based Involvement (α=.85)
Home-School Conferencing (α=.81)
FIQ (Fantuzzo et al., 2000)
Home-Based Involvement
Spending time at home on reading, numbers, and creative activities.
Bringing home learning materials (e.g., videos).
Limiting my child’s TV and video watching.
Keeping a regular morning and bedtime schedule for my child.
Talking about parents’ own experiences in school.
Taking child to places in the community (e.g., zoo, museum, public library).
School-Based Involvement
Volunteering in the classroom.
Going on class trips.
Participating in fundraising activities at my child’s center
Meeting with other parents to plan events.
Attending workshops for parents.
FIQ (Fantuzzo et al., 2000)
Home-School Conferencing
Talking with child’s teacher about child’s learning difficulties and accomplishments.
The teacher and I write notes to each other about my child or center activities
Scheduling meetings with administrators to talk about problems or to gain information
Discussing with child’s teacher ways to promote learning at home.
“I feel that teachers and administrators welcome and encourage parents to be involved at school.”
FIQ (Fantuzzo et al., 2000)
Findings Across Different Groups
FIQ & Child Outcomes
Findings with low-income, African American families (Fantuzzo, McWayne, Perry, & Childs, 2004)
How does looking at the family unit change what we know about FI?
Parent sex emerged as a moderate to strong predictor of involvement
Satisfaction still emerged as a strong predictor of the school-related activities
Marital status became important for home-based activities (consistent with other literature)
Language no longer important for SBI, but remained important for HSC for Polish-speaking families (more recent immigrants)
Maternal education no longer a significant predictor
IMPLICATIONS
Satisfaction appears to be very important – consider ways to build trust (i.e., through mutual respect and cooperative problem-solving)
Consider ways to more meaningfully engage fathers at school (Hauser-Cram’s assertions re: problem-focused coping)
Consider how to support involvement at home by understanding already existing (largely, invisible) practices adapt culture-specific methods to the classroom higher congruence btw home and school (Moll’s Funds of Knowledge approach & Weisner’s eco-cultural understanding of daily routines)
PDs to develop cultural awareness and sensitivity among teachers and staff (go out into the community!)
Co-construct family involvement programming with members of the parent community
Hire knowledgeable, bilingual and male involvement staff
By understanding distinct family roles, i.e., how individuals within a family affect one another’s FI, programs can develop specific intervention components to address all family members’ participation in their children's education