Search

The article emphasizes the importance of fostering authentic parent-adolescent engagement in secondary education, highlighting practices that enhance literacy development and student confidence. Topics discussed include the differences between parent engagement and involvement, the role of dialogic approaches in facilitating communication, and the significance of academic socialization, home-based approaches, and school-based strategies in supporting adolescents' educational experiences.

The article examines the theme of boundary crossing in the context of family partnerships and literacy education in the middle years, highlighting how parental engagement influences student success. Topics discussed include the impact of home-school connections, challenges faced by families in engaging with schools, and the evolving relationships between teachers and families as educational dynamics shift.

Socioeconomic attainment gaps in mathematical ability are evident before children begin school, and widen over time. Little is known about why early attainment gaps emerge. Two cross‐sectional correlational studies were conducted in 2018–2019 with socioeconomically diverse preschoolers, to explore four factors that might explain why attainment gaps arise: working memory, inhibitory control, verbal ability, and frequency of home mathematical activities (N = 304, 54% female; 84% White, 10% Asian, 1% black African, 1% Kurdish, 4% mixed ethnicity). Inhibitory control and verbal ability emerged as indirect factors in the relation between socioeconomic status and mathematical ability, but neither working memory nor home activities did. We discuss the implications this has for future research to understand, and work towards narrowing attainment gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with perceptions of 'proper intimacy' disseminated through digital parent-teacher communication in early-childhood education and the implications for parents' reflexive projects of self. The article brings sociological understandings about perceptions of proper parenting and intimacy together with research on digital communications. Qualitative data was collected from an on-line discussion of early-childhood educators on their uses of parent-teacher digital communications. Analysis reveals the dissemination of two ideals of 'proper' intimate relationships. Digital sharing of what goes on at preschool invites parents to have an 'observant intimacy' with their children, based on knowledge-from-a-distance of the child's day. Complementing digital communication with face-to-face communication invites parents into an 'instrumental intimacy' with teachers – an emotional connection for the purpose of the child's education. The article concludes with possible implications the perceptions of 'proper intimacy' disseminated through parent-teacher digital communications may have on contemporary parenting culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to understand the school and life experiences of refugee young women and to explore the ways in which they individually and collectively cultivated their resilience. It identified the challenges and resources they encountered when negotiating different home and school cultures and the impact on their resilience. It used mixed-methods that incorporated visual approaches to elicit culturally relevant accounts of their home and school lives. The findings suggest that the resilience of these young girls involved a particular set of resources and challenges which oppose the often normative and value laden perspectives that arise from Western constructions of resilience. The recommendations propose the need to reinforce culturally appropriate ways of fostering the capacities of the individual, family and school to enhance the resilience of refugee young women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential proximity to schools is a relatively unexplored topic, especially as concerns its link to socially disadvantaged and immigrant-origin students. Such students may be more likely to attend the nearest school to their home, since their (families') knowledge of school system is weak and school selection depends more on convenience than on evaluation of multiple schools' pros and cons. This paper examines if, and to what extent, home-school distance differentiates native and immigrant-origin students' educational experiences. Analyses – carried out in two Northern Italian cities (Milan and Bologna) and referring to students enrolled in the compulsory and comprehensive final year of lower secondary education in the 2014/15 school year – focus on minimum and actual home-school distances, the share of students engaging in 'flight' from the nearest school, and the appeal exerted by schools on culturally advantaged families. Results show that native and immigrant-origin students' school proximity is almost the same. Nonetheless, natives are more likely to attend schools that are farther from home; noteworthy differences are detectable in some disadvantaged areas. Native families, especially in Milan, are more likely to 'flee' towards non-state schools, which display a particularly strong appeal towards native families featuring high parental education status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings from research focusing on family engagement within alternative provision. With the existing literature on alternative provision scant, this article analyses the extensive assemblage of family engagement within settings as practitioners navigate complex family environments often characterised by poverty, crime and substance abuse. While settings create formalised structures of family engagement that prioritise a collaborative approach to children's development—such as family learning days and daily positive phone calls—equally they work to attenuate the isolation and loneliness of families who feel as excluded as their child. Yet as important as structured engagement is, practitioners within alternative provision also engage in the improvised pragmatism of micro‐work—the work that other agencies won't or can't do, such as escorting parents to medical appointments, sourcing furniture to fill empty houses or talking a child out from under their bed. The article argues that family engagement in alternative provision is cyclical, with families informing staff of behavioural incidents or learning opportunities, information that rapidly personalises communicative and pedagogical strategies within schools. In return, teachers update parents at the end of the day, offering ideas for home learning or approaches to managing challenging behaviours. The article concludes by identifying six domains of family engagement—behavioural, emotional, safeguarding, functional, pedagogic and capacity building—that can be used within alternative provision settings to ensure a holistic approach that provides deep support to families to maximise the successful re‐engagement of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles published within the issue is presented on topics including equity as an ethical framework for family engagement, power sharing dynamics in family-school partnerships, and Family as Faculty approach to collaboration.

Research has historically under-emphasized adolescent contributions to family functioning. In this study, we examined how adolescents' day-to-day challenges in school — such as having problems with peers or teachers — may filter into family life, across family-level, mother–adolescent, and interparental relations. This study used daily diary data collected from 130 mother–adolescent dyads from two-caregiver households over a three-week period. Multilevel modeling was used to disentangle within- and between-family effects of adolescents' school day challenges (adolescent reports) for family functioning on the same day (mother reports). Adolescent gender was tested as a moderator of these effects. Findings indicated that adolescents' school day challenges were linked to family functioning. Between-family analyses indicated that adolescents with more school day challenges had poorer family functioning in each of the three domains. Additionally, several within-family associations were statistically significant. On days when adolescents experienced more challenges at school than usual, mothers reported increased conflict with their adolescents, diminished parenting practices, and less positive interactions with their partners. In addition, adolescent gender moderated an effect. On days when boys experienced more challenges at school than usual, mothers reported decreased family cohesion; these results did not hold for girls. Overall, the results highlight the value of considering how adolescents' experiences out of the home may impact family life. Links between adolescent daily experiences and family relations provide important insights into family processes for family researchers and practitioners. Highlights: Adolescent school day challenges are linked to maternal perceptions of family functioning across domains. On average, higher levels of school challenges were associated with poorer family relations, per mother reports. On days when adolescents experienced more challenges than usual, mothers also reported poor family relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the association between parents' perceptions of home-school partnership and parental satisfaction with preschool services using data collected from 532 preschoolers' parents in Guangdong Province, China. We explored the moderating role of parents' childrearing beliefs as an important factor exerting influence on parental satisfaction with preschools. The hierarchical linear regression results revealed that home-school partnership positively predicted parental satisfaction with preschool services in four subscales: Views about administration, Quality of learning environments, Teacher qualifications, and Child-appropriate learning. In particular, parents' progressive childrearing beliefs exerted a positive moderating role on the relationship between high-level home-school partnership and parental satisfaction with administration and environment quality of preschools. Moreover, childrearing beliefs also exerted a positive moderating role on the relationship between low-level home-school partnership and parental satisfaction; parents with authoritarian childrearing beliefs tended to be more satisfied with preschool teacher qualifications. Findings are discussed in light of previous literature and the Chinese sociocultural context, followed by recommendations for improving preschool services. Highlights: Home-school partnership positively predicted parental satisfaction towards preschool services. Parents' progressive childrearing beliefs moderated the relationship between home-school partnership and parental satisfaction towards preschool. Parents' traditional childrearing beliefs moderated the relationship between home-school partnership and parental satisfaction towards teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snapchat, released in 2011, is embedded in the youth culture of advanced capitalist societies. Theorising Snapchat from a socio-material ontology, we explore the application's capacity to evoke the gendered politics of networked affect. Dipping into the conceptual toolbox of Deleuzoguattarian philosophy, we map how affect is distributed through bodies and objects (mobile technologies, the Snapchat application and human bodies) in socio-material assemblages. Conversations with principals and parents support this new material examination of the agency of this technology. Snapchat is inherent in the creative flows of affect that influence bodies, relations, and politics – at home, school, and across the online worlds of youth peer communications. The technology, when enfolded in schooling assemblages, is an agentic object that mobilises moral panics associated with childhood innocence, slut shaming and the commodification of girl' bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In enacting a quasi-ecological approach to observing young children at both home and school, this study explored young participants' drawing transactions in and out of school in diverse communities around the globe. We applied a qualitative, visual, 'Day in the Life' methodology that films one full Day in their Lives. Using examples of children drawing during their Day, we documented how school and home are contexts populated by significant others whose belief systems impact upon the belief systems of the child. We also examined how drawing is used by children, teachers and family members in a collaborative and communicative manner as a powerful meaning-making tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterogeneity of the contemporary Indian middle-class has been discussed widely. However, the effect of its internal differences on the distribution of educational resources needs to be examined systematically. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with parents in 53 middle-class families in Dehradun, India, this paper explores three aspects of the home-school relationship: how socioeconomic transformations shape parents' aspirations for their children's future, educational decisions parents make to realise those aspirations, and mothers' engagement in their children's everyday schooling. The tripartite analysis reveals that despite sharing common educational goals and strategies with the population in general, middle-class families in India use their class privilege to gain valuable educational resources. The paper argues that the discrepancy in the mobilisation of accumulated resources in the heterogeneous middle-class results in disparate educational advantages across families. It critiques the binary construction of social classes when explaining the processes of social reproduction in contemporary Indian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-community partnerships have shown their potential as incubators for innovations and for contributing to comprehensive physical activity (PA) programs. However, implementation frameworks for school-community partnerships that allow local tailoring of PA programs remain scarce. The present paper aims at documenting the composition of a framework for PA programs within schoolcommunity partnerships. The framework addresses socioecological strategies to promote extracurricular PA opportunities for pupils, which are integrated into five complementary components. To implement and reinforce the five components of the framework, involvement of schools, pupils, family, and community is facilitated by sustainable partnerships between these stakeholders. Partnerships are not only recommended on the school and community level, but also on a broader regional level that covers multiple communities. The development of the framework was an effort to integrate school-community partnerships into a flexible implementation framework for PA promotion. Implications of the framework for research agendas, professional education, and policy are formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction, whic discusses, José Sanchez smile as he drove home. After two grueling weeks, he had finished the financial statements.

International organizations, governments, and community leaders encourage universal participation in education, but education is increasingly transnational, encompassing standardization in the structure and content of schooling. Progress in expanding access to schooling has been uneven, and "silent exclusion"--children enrolled, but learning little--is common. This article explores parents' perspectives and roles in their children's participation in education in rural Ghana. Data were collected through focused ethnographic methods. Findings show that participating parents are aware of the importance attributed to formal basic education; however, socioeconomic realities dictate that they engage their children in a form of education that will lead to skills acquisition and contribution to the family economic unit. This demands engaging children in work at an early age, resulting in irregular attendance in basic education. In rural Ghana, parents allow children selective participation in school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of the article is on the different strands that shaped Seamus Heaney's sensibility. The first section examines the role played by the home and local community and the second explores the contribution of school and university. One of the most significant sources of his upbringing was the experience of living in a divided society. His educational journey involved negotiating the complex elements of his cultural identity. The different languages and literary traditions are then addressed. Finally, the nature of the inspiration that was at the heart of his poetry is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools worldwide distribute information to parents about their children's academic performance. Do frictions prevent parents, particularly low-income parents, from accessing this information to make decisions? A field experiment in Malawi shows that, at baseline, parents' beliefs about their children's academic performance are often inaccurate. Providing parents with clear, digestible performance information causes them to update their beliefs and adjust their investments: they increase the school enrollment of their higher-performing children, decrease the enrollment of lower-performing children, and choose educational inputs that are more closely matched to their children's academic level. Heterogeneity analysis suggests information frictions are worse among the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By providing descriptive evidence from an ethnographic study at three Singaporean primary schools, this paper reveals how participants in children's education perceive and account for the relations they shape between home and school. Through analyses of interview data from teachers, parents, and children, the article demonstrates the potential effects of the actions of parents and teachers on the structure of the childhoods of a particular group of nine-year-olds. Findings are that children's lives are mostly centred on their schools, which provide academic and values education. Parents, too, ascribe importance to holistic education; this, their aspirations for the future, and their attention to the individual needs of their children motivated them to agentively support their children's education at home by teaching and organising educational, sporting, and cultural activities. Therefore, home/school relations structured rather curricularised childhoods for most children in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-family-community partnerships are associated with positive educational outcomes for students and families. However, there are limited interventions available to assist school counselors in building effective school-family-community relationships with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents/guardians and their children. This article outlines strategies that school counselors can implement to enhance the partnerships between school communities and LGBT-headed families across the student, school, and community levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home-school relationships and communication play an important role in promoting children's and adolescents' development and learning. This study investigated the relations between school-initiated and family-initiated contact regarding school events and concerns regarding adolescents' academic, behavioral, and health issues and adolescents' academic performance and behavioral problems in a Taiwanese context, using a secondary data analysis design. The study included a sample of 13,290 junior high school students in Taiwan, as well as their caregivers and teachers. Unlike the pervasive belief regarding the benefit of parental involvement, this study found that higher levels of overall family-initiated school contact were associated with lower academic performance. The results also suggest that the links between home-school contact and adolescents' academic performance and behavioral problems may be a function of the nature of contact initiated by either the family or the school. Implications for school psychology practice and research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home-school interventions can facilitate positive family-school relationships and improve student outcomes. However, there is little research that attends to parents' treatment integrity, even though home-school interventions are uniquely challenging and parents may experience particular challenges as implementers. This case study documents two parents' implementation of a homework intervention designed within conjoint behavioral consultation. Results indicate that parents struggled to consistently deliver to the homework intervention. Participant adherence (e.g., student bringing home homework) was similar to and necessary for parents' implementation. Exposure data indicate students were engaged with the homework intervention for more time than specified by the intervention protocol. Program differentiation data captured the difference between typical home routines and intervention implementation and were varied across participants. The interpretation of these varied treatment integrity dimensions is described in relation to school psychologists' data-driven decisions about evaluating the homework intervention and providing implementation support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a case study of a middle school girl who presents signs of low self esteem and low achievement in physical education classes. The student's teacher believes that this is a case of "learned hopelessness." The article discusses how home environment makes a difference in levels of academic and physical education achievement in school.

Around the world, people migrate from poorer countries with less educational opportunity to richer ones with greater educational opportunity. In this journey, they bring their family obligation values into societies that value individual achievement. This process can create home–school cultural value conflict—conflict between family and academic obligations—for the children of Latina/o immigrants who attend universities in the United States. We hypothesised that this conflict causes cognitive disruption. One‐hundred sixty‐one Latina/o first‐generation university students (called college students in the United States) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental prompts; thereafter, the students engaged in an attentional control task (i.e., the Stroop test). For Latina/o students living close to home, prompting a home–school cultural value conflict was more deleterious to attentional control than the other conditions. In addition, across all Latina/o students, a comparison of performance before and after President Trump's election and inauguration showed that prompting family obligation (without mention of conflict) led to a significantly greater loss of attentional control after Trump was elected and inaugurated, compared with before Trump. We hypothesise that this effect resulted from Trump's threats and actions to deport undocumented Latina/o immigrants, thus making fear about the fate of family members more salient and cognitively disruptive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Contemporary research suggests there are many missed opportunities for home and school to work together to define and promote effective practices with digital technologies, especially in early years. This study outlines ways in which one Early Years classroom creatively promoted bidirectional connections between children's learning with technologies at home and in school. Nested in a posthumanist perspective on space and classroomness (Burnett, 2014), the study illuminates the complex spatial entanglement among home, school and technologies in the form of enhanced vignettes. As a space‐based interpretive case study that emerged from a larger project, the data collection methods revolved around a set of two visits by each researcher, one year apart, plus analyses of school documentation and online interactions. We integrate diverse data sources to argue that innovative, multimodal practices of teaching, learning and assessment can be designed and implemented imaginatively, deploying a range of digital technologies to connect with children's and parents' home lives. Use of multimedia affordances of technologies, attention to children's physical and material interactions with resources and strategic school policy made it possible for influences to percolate between home and school, to the enhancement of children's learning in the moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers regularly communicate with families, yet few candidates are well-prepared for this professional activity. This gap can hinder family-school partnership and pupils’ success. Given that candidates’ opportunities to learn about family engagement (FE) depends on the decisions and values of individual teacher educators, we illustrate how FE can be integrated into an existing educator preparation programme. Specifically, we describe how to design and use simulated parent-teacher conferences (PTCs) to: foster candidates’ conference communication skills; assess their understanding of content knowledge and their ability to plan instruction. Specifically, we designed two simulation tasks that required candidates’ to analyse and respond to a given student assessment profile and then share their interpretation of the information in ways that developed parent-teacher partnership. Modelled after simulation-based medical education, we describe three steps teacher educators can take to integrate simulated PTCs into their existing curriculum. To illustrate how and why simulations impact professional readiness, we also describe the advantages, sequence and psychological processes of simulation training. A sample of candidate profiles across the two tasks are shared to illustrate what candidates take away from their experiences and the kinds of findings faculty may encounter when integrating simulation pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-quarter of the Head Start population has a mother who participated in the program as a child. This study uses experimental Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) data on 3- and 4-year-olds (N = 2,849) to describe multigenerational Head Start families and their program experiences. In sharp contrast to full-sample HSIS findings, Head Start has large, positive impacts on cognitive and socioemotional development through third grade among the children of former participant mothers, including improved mathematics skills and reductions in withdrawn and aggressive behavior. Evidence suggests that differences in program impacts between single- and multigenerational Head Start families are driven largely by differences in family resources and home learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated adolescent students' academic time management and procrastination from a self-regulated learning perspective. Parental autonomy support and control were examined as predictors of academic time management and procrastination. In addition, we tested self-efficacy for self-regulated learning as a motivational mediator. The factor structure of academic time management and procrastination was first evaluated. Three factors emerged from the exploratory factor analysis: planning time, monitoring time, and procrastination. In the path model, perceived parental autonomy support positively predicted planning time and monitoring time and negatively predicted procrastination. In comparison, perceived parental control positively predicted procrastination only. In the mediation model, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning served as a motivational pathway that linked perceived parental autonomy support and control to students' academic time management and procrastination. It appears that parents play a pivotal role in helping their children feel efficacious enough to manage their time effectively and avoid putting off their academic tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence around adolescent learning and development is clear: School-family partnerships matter. However, traditional methods for engaging families that narrowly define who is involved and what constitutes involvement fall short of promoting optimal outcomes. Meaningful family engagement practices involve reciprocal, two-way interactions between educators and families. In this article, two scenarios illustrate how outreach and engagement efforts intersect with broader school cultures and the expectations of school leaders. The article outlines a three-phased process schoolwide teams can use to deepen understanding and implementation of family engagement practices to support adolescent learning and development. Embedded in the description of each phase are recommended readings, media, activities, and resources middle school teams can use to further professional learning on family engagement practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined the impact of cultural discontinuity on the academic outcomes of Latina/o high school students. Hierarchical multiple regression was utilized to (a) investigate the significant differences between the characteristics and academic outcomes of high school students who do and do not experience cultural discontinuity between their home- and school-based learning and social experiences based on Eurocentric cultural values, and (b) examine the contribution of demographic variables, socio-cultural variables, academic experiences, and cultural discontinuity to students' cumulative grade point average (GPA) and standardized test scores. Data were collected from two high schools in South Central Texas. Findings revealed that cultural discontinuity had an inverse relationship with GPA; therefore, the more cultural discontinuity based on Eurocentric cultural values that a student experienced, the lower was the student's GPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the past 5 years, the island of Jamaica has aimed to address social issues through the development of a National Parenting Program. Schools too have taken on this task and have sought to bridge the gap between home and school by working with parents in meaningful and sustainable ways. This small-scale study highlights how two inner-city schools have worked to do this. The data for this study were collected over 4 years during visits to the school for the teaching practice in the final year for students in their teacher education bachelor's degree programs. Two research questions were used: (a) How has a partnership program between home and school benefited you and your students? And (b) What are the strategies that can be employed by the school to facilitate a smooth, successful reciprocal relationship? From the data collected, three dominant themes emerged from the findings: (a) home- school relations matter, (b) parent empowerment and teacher validation, and (c) understanding diverse cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Pastoral Epistles do not explicitly mention church groups meeting in houses, they are infused with household ethics and preoccupations. The purpose of the essay is to challenge dominant notions of religious instruction and practice being restricted to communal gatherings of the ekkl ē sia. Drawing especially on scholarship on education in the Roman world, it is argued that a much more flexible use of household space framed the life of early church communities involving a merging of aspects of home and school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the theoretical frameworks used to frame research on family-school partnerships over a five-year period. Although many researchers have described their theoretical approaches, little has been written about the diversity of frameworks used and how they are applied. Coders analyzed 215 journal articles published from 2007 to 2011 on family-school partnerships to determine the theoretical or conceptual frameworks used. Of the 153 articles that were empirical, nearly half (46.40%) did not specify a family-school partnership framework. Of the 82 articles that did describe or apply such a framework, four theories were used most often: Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory; social capital theory from the perspectives of Bourdieu, Coleman, and Lareau; Epstein's overlapping spheres of influence; and Moll and colleagues' funds of knowledge. Authors also employed two conceptual frameworks most often: Epstein's types of family involvement, and Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's model of the parent involvement process. Given the lack of theoretical and conceptual foundations for much of the work done over the time period studied, the field would benefit from more focused articulation of theoretical foundations in research and better preparation of doctoral students in applying theory to research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mind the Gap is a family learning project aiming to facilitate intergenerational engagement with learning in schools through the vehicle of a stop-motion animation project.1 Implicit in the animation process is reflective and strategic thinking that helps to make the process of learning explicit (Learning to Learn: Wall et al.). The animation project takes place in school and targets Year 4 children (aged 8 and 9 years old) and their dads/male guardians. The project is accompanied by staff development in school to promote the same Learning to Learn approaches across curriculum and home/school boundaries. A team of researchers at Durham University is engaged in two projects: first, developing better understanding of the intervention elements and, second, evaluating the impact. This article will focus on data arising from the former and will explore the space for family learning created in the project. We propose that the context of an inherently challenging animation project, which includes schools, parents and children working together in new ways to learn new skills associated with information technology and creative story making, increases the likelihood of dialogue about learning. It opens up the possibility of new relationships between home and school as well as increases the potential for learning-based conversations that could be lifelong and lifewide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on two programs that were created to enhance parent involvement practices in literacy. The goal of both programs was to create for parents enjoyable and rich experiences around literacy in the home, while demonstrating for parents how teachers approach reading instruction in the classroom. Programs to increase and support parental involvement in children's literacy development must recognize the realities of family life and how parents' perceptions and beliefs may affect their participation. When parents witness their children's improvement, and see themselves as part of this improvement, they will be more motivated to pursue literacy development activities with their children at home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This ethnographic inquiry examines the cultural congruence between home and school in rural Ghana, exploring the cultural norms of child-rearing practices within families and the institution of schooling. The data illustrate both the agreement between home and school in regard to discipline practices and instruction in morality, while simultaneously highlighting a power differential between home and school. The authors highlight the power dynamics between home and school, and discuss the burden children bear in managing the home–school relationship in rural Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined the mediating effect of school connectedness on the relationship between inter-parental conflict and adolescent delinquency, and impulsivity's moderation of the conditional effect of school connectedness. In total, 1407 Chinese students (mean age = 12.74 years, SD = 0.57) from 4 middle schools completed anonymous questionnaires regarding inter-parental conflict, impulsivity, school connectedness, and delinquency. Path analysis revealed school connectedness was a mediator in the relationship between inter-parental conflict and adolescent delinquency. Furthermore, impulsivity moderated the indirect effect of school connectedness in the relationship between inter-parental conflict and adolescent delinquency. A simple slope plot, together with a proportion affected (PA) index, indicated that impulsivity functioned more as a plasticity, rather than a vulnerability, factor in school connectedness. When school connectedness was low, high impulsivity was associated with more delinquent behaviors; however, when it was high, high impulsivity was associated with fewer delinquent behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Chile, most dropouts are from the lowest income levels. The phenomenon can be explained as the result of various factors. The current document presents qualitative research aimed at determining if the family setting has more influence than the economic factor in motivating dropouts from ages 14 to 17, enrolled in schools in two communes in the region of Araucanía in Chile. The outstanding causes that influence dropping out include those related to the family setting, such as family problems and the economic precariousness of the home. One of the most decisive causes is related to the lack of support from the adults who are responsible for young people's education: en emerging topic detected by several protagonists in the educational sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middle school students with emotional and behavioral disorders are at risk for myriad negative outcomes. Transitioning between schools may increase risk for students being reintegrated into their neighborhood school. The current study seeks to inform supports for students and their families during these transitions. Students With Involved Families and Teachers (SWIFT) is an initiative being conducted in a small urban area in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Parent, student, and school-based supports were provided across a yearlong transition for students receiving special education services in a behavioral day-treatment program. A case example is used to describe the essential features of SWIFT, illustrate the experience of a student and his family, and outline lessons learned for successful home-school collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the participation of families in the school, inquiring about the specific problems that they can present the foreign families, acting as border elements to effective communication between school, teachers and family. The objectives that responds the article are: 1) analyze the way in which foreign and native families participate in schools, as well as, 2) the activities organized since the centres with the intention of promoting participation. An ethnographic methodological approach, the collection of data has been done in two geographical contexts, Seville and Jaén, in which a case study has been developed in a school of each of the above cities. In the light of the data obtained, stresses that the participation of families in schools not depends directly on the foreignness of the same, but the family interest in education and school and practices and actions implemented since the schools to provide equal access to participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the notion of border will be examined in a cultural life course perspective. I will investigate borders as psycho-cultural constructions created to enable and control meaning-making in the intersection between subjects engagements and concerns and collectively constructed and guiding meanings. An empirical analysis of one boy's life course in and between home, school and a Leisure Time Activity Center in the years 1st to 3rd grade demonstrates a systemic construction of borders involving him, his teachers and his parents and renders the boy to choose between becoming an engaged pupil or a dedicated son. As such, the analysis can illuminate processes of school - home interactions that work opposite of what is intended and become detrimental to children's life. In a cultural life course perspective borders show how life is maintained as meaningful and not only guide the present living but also serve as directional guides into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article questions the dominant understanding that immigrant and refugee parents in parent–teacher conferences are silent because they come from a culture where one does not question the authority of the teacher. Instead, it is argued that theybecomesilent through certain interactional processes. Building on material from an explorative case study of the home–school relations of Somali diaspora families in Danish public schools, the article argues that while these parents have many opinions about their children’s education that they wish to convey, there are institutional and interactional processes in the parent–teacher conference that systematically silence their voices. The understanding of culture as a stable structure that persons are situated within in a top-down manner is thus challenged, arguing that dynamic here-and-now interactions unfolding in a specific practice result in personsbecoming, rather thanbeing, silent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The objective of this study was to identify profiles of high school students, based on variables related to academic performance, socioeconomic status, cultural capital and family organization. A total of 21,724 high school students, from the five municipalities of the state of Baja California, took part. A K-means cluster analysis was performed to identify the profiles. The analyses identified two clearly-defined clusters: Cluster 1 grouped together students with high academic performance and who achieved higher scores for socioeconomic status, cultural capital and family involvement, whereas Cluster 2 brought together students with low academic achievement, and who also obtained lower scores for socioeconomic status and cultural capital, and had less family involvement. It is concluded that the family variables analyzed form student profiles that can be related to academic achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although since the 1993 Education Act in Mexico established parental participation in schools through the newly created school participation councils (CEPs), these have rarely been more than a dead letter. Most of the studies on the subject have attempted to explain why this is so in the general terms. However these have lacked close ethnographic study of school processes that include the CEPSs. This article draws on three years of field research in a rural school zone in Jalisco. Not satisfied with culturally essentialist notions of parental apathy of disinterest the authors examine the reason why this couture of silence occurs. Through a journey of understanding of school-community relations of several primary and one secondary school that included classroom observation of teaching, ethnographic interviews and conversations with parents we reached the conclusion that the relationship between school and community is "a divorce of convenience". Each party finds it more convenient to keep it from the other rather than collaborating to improve the education of the students. The details of this phenomenon are discussed in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]