A Fall Filled With Parent Engagement: What I’m Up To
In the world of education, the “new year” is in September. I am so pleased to welcome a new year alongside so many inspiring colleagues, students, educators, and parents that I have the pleasure of working and connecting with each day. I have a ton of exciting items to share with you that have just occurred or are scheduled to take place over the next couple of weeks.
What has happened already:
September 6: EERA
From September 6-10, I was engaged with the European Educational Research Association (EERA) conference, held virtually this year. I had the privilege of presenting with Esther Maeers, a doctoral student at the University of Regina, and my research assistant. We presented a paper entitled, Systematic Parent Engagement: Impacts on Students, Families, and Communities. It’s very exciting to talk parent engagement with researchers from many other countries in the world. Please feel invited to be in touch to learn more about this presentation.
September 8: ECUR 485 Parent Engagement in the Early Years
I’m delighted to share that my new parent engagement course, Parent Engagement in the Early Years, kicked off on Wednesday, September 8. There are currently 31 incredible people registered.
The course was developed for students who are practicing educators, enrolled in an Early Childhood Education Certificate program at the University of Saskatchewan. Throughout the course, we will interrogate our images of child, parent, and teacher, in order to make conscious our beliefs and assumptions and work from a strengths-based perspective in which we view all as capable learners and teachers. We will also develop practices that facilitate reciprocal interactions between children, parents, and teachers, both on and off the school landscape, and within community contexts.
Feel free to sign up to the mailing list here if you’d like a copy of the syllabus.
September 13 - 16: BERA
From September 13 to 16, I took part in another international conference, the British Educational Research Association (BERA) conference which was also held virtually. I was honoured to present twice at this conference with my research assistant, Esther Maeers. Our one paper presentation focused on Systematic Parent Engagement: Community Leaders in which we explored the roles and impact of the parent connector and parent pathfinder from our parent engagement prototype. In our second paper presentation, also featuring our current research on systematic parent engagement, we focused on Teacher Education and Development Strategies to instill an integral philosophy and pedagogy of parent engagement in the beliefs and practices of new teachers entering the field, as well as those teachers currently inservice. Happy to provide further information on these presentations if you are interested!
What’s coming up:
September 27: UK School Leaders Conference
On Monday, September 17 from 7:00-9:15 pm UK time, I will be presenting at the United Kingdom School Leaders Conference, Leadership for Parental Engagement: International Perspectives on What We’ve Learned. I will be one of two keynote speakers at this event, alongside Dr. William Jeynes, Professor of Education at California State University, Long Beach. The conference will be chaired by Dr. Janet Goodall, an associate professor in the School of Education at Swansea University in Wales, UK. Another rich opportunity for an international conversation about parent engagement with leaders from other countries!
October 1: Presentation
On Friday, October 1, I will be presenting to Pre-K teachers in the Northwest School Division (NWSD) in Saskatchewan on Parent Engagement - what it is, why it is important, and strategies to engage parents and families. I am excited to join teachers in St. Wahlberg for the day.
October 8: Presentations
The following week, on October 8, I will be presenting two sessions, Engaging Parents: Integral to School Success, for the Chinook Teachers Associations Conference. In these sessions, I will invite participants to explore parent engagement as a philosophy and pedagogy – the why of it – and discuss which activities have high impact for students, families, and teachers – the what of it. We will examine successful practices from the early years through high school. My two virtual sessions will be held at 11 am and 1 pm, SK time.