Implementing Successful Parent-Teacher Partnerships in School

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This literacy review aims to discuss why it is important for teachers to maintain responsive and reciprocal relationships with the parents and whānau of their students. The three articles that will be reviewed and synthesised are Collaborating with Parents/Caregivers and Whānau (Fraser, 2005), Successful Home-School Partnerships: Report to the Ministry of Education (Bull, Brooking & Campbell, 2008) and Strengthening Responsive and Reciprocal Relationships in a Whānau Tangata Centre: An action research project (Clarkin-Phillips & Carr, 2009). The review will focus specifically on the discussions about parent-teacher partnerships within said articles. The key findings within the literature will be examined and related to contemporary theorists. This review will also discuss why we need these partnerships, the child’s perspective on these relationships, the impact of the parent’s perspective on development and specific issues that may be encountered.

Rationale for Building Effective Relationships:

Fraser (2005) and Clarkin-Phillips & Carr (2009) discuss the many benefits of teacher-parent relationships for students, stating they include gains in health, well-being, educational achievement and increased long-term economic well-being and enthusiasm for learning.

Fraser (2005) explains that modern society allows families to potentially become isolated, due to the recent urbanization of Western society, leading to collaboration between parents, whānau and teachers being more important than ever before. This means that teachers need to relate to Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, as it is a reliable resource for teachers to see perspective of how children operate within a system and understand the influences on both th...

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... us to synthesize information and key findings and create our own understanding and implementation of home-school partnerships.

Works Cited

Bull, A., Brooking, K., and Campbell, R. (2008). Successful home-school partnerships: Report to the Ministry of Education. New Zealand: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

Clarkin-Phillips, J., & Carr, M. (2009). Strengthening responsive and reciprocal relationships in a whānau Tangata centre: An action research project. Wellington: Teaching & Learning Research Initiative.

Fraser, D. (2005) Collaborating with parents/caregivers and whānau. In D. Fraser, R. Moltzen and K. Ryba (Eds.), Learners with special needs in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Melbourne, VA: Cengage Learning.

Grant, K., & Ray, J. (2010) Home, school and community collaboration. Culturally responsive family involvement. California: Sage

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