Parent Engagement: A Familycentric Worldview

On the landscape of schools and in the world of education, generally, you’ve likely come across the term “parent engagement” or some iteration of it, at least. I’m Debbie Pushor, PhD, and I am a professor, researcher, consultant, and teacher educator. My main focus is parent engagement.

To fully explain what parent engagement means to me and my body of work, I would like to first share a brief anecdote. 

I am a mother to three adult sons, Cohen, Quinn, and Teague. While I was an educator long before I became a mother, the added lens of parenthood profoundly shapes my work and drives my mission. 

Spending over 15 years on the school landscape prior to bringing my oldest son to his first day of Kindergarten, I had formed an understanding of the educational experience from the perspective of a public school teacher, consultant, principal, and central services administrator.

Until that day, Cohen ready for his first day of school, his twin brothers Quinn and Teague in their stroller next to him, opening days had always been joyous, momentous occasions for me. For the first time, positioned as a parent, I felt complete uncertainty about where I fit on the school landscape. The experience was unsettling and awakening. I gained a new perspective, seeing schooling through the eyes of a parent.

Now, 25 years later, I work as a Professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. My teaching and research have brought into being a “curriculum of parents” which invites everyone to look at school landscapes through both lenses, through that of a parent as well as that of an educator. 

I refer to my work in the field of parent engagement as a “gentle revolution” from which I aim to make a tangible change to schools - “gentle” because I believe it is important to do this work with love and respect for both educators and parents, a “revolution” because it will take concerted and purposeful effort to interrupt the historical and taken-for-granted ways in which schools currently operate.

It’s no small feat; I’m asking you to live in the world differently, after all. The shift is not only critical, it is long overdue. 

Parent engagement has the intent of creating meaningful and authentic place and voice for parents in their children’s teaching, learning, and development. It centers parents in their children’s learning, at home and at school. Historically, parents have been marginalized in relation to their children’s schooling, with the work of schools seen to be the domain of professional educators. Often unprepared for their work with parents, some teachers find parent relationships to be one of the most difficult parts of their job. 

Enhancing parent and teacher beliefs and practices of “walking alongside” enables everyone to feel heard, valued, and engaged in a profoundly transformative education process.

Put simply, parent engagement enables parents, teachers, and students to embark in teaching and learning together, drawing upon parent knowledge, things only a parent can know about their child, to provide the best learning experience possible.